Susan G. Komen for the Cure

A favorite of Red Room authors Ben Fong-Torres, Susan DiPlacido, Char Solomon, Deborah Turrell Atkinson, Camille Marchetta, John Ramsey Miller, Ellen Sussman, Victoria Zackheim, and Meg Clayton.Komen

Name of founder: Nancy Brinker

Year founded: 1982

Mission: Susan G. Komen for the Cure is the world's largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all, and, in the words of its mission statement, "energize science... in order to end breast cancer forever."

Accomplishments:

  • Invested nearly $1 billion in research, education, and health services, making it the largest nonprofit funding source for breast health and breast cancer in the world.
  • Investments have included $180 million in more than one thousand research grants, using a peer-review process that is recognized by the National Cancer Institute
  • Susan G. Komen National Race for the Cure, held in Washington, D.C., has grown from seven thousand participants in 1996 to more than forty-five thousand in 2007.

Profile: Through its grassroots advocacy program, Komen Champions for the Cure, the organization uses the power of activism to achieve important legislative objectives at federal, state, and local levels. It works to cultivate and maintain strong relationships with decision-makers and community leaders, encouraging their active engagement in the breast cancer movement. Komen Champions are active in more than fifteen thousand communities across the United States.

Since 1990, the Funds raised from the Komen National Race for the Cure are granted to local and national programs that support Komen for the Cure's promise to save lives and end breast cancer forever. Its current needs assessment has identified the seven-county Washington, D.C., area as having the highest breast cancer mortality rate in the country, so its 2007-2008 National Race for the Cure Grant Program has focused on nominees proposing activities in the D.C. area.

To volunteer, make a donation, or become otherwise involved, please visit the Donation and Affiliates pages on Komen for the Cure's website.

–Huntington W. Sharp, Editor, Homepage & Special Projects, Red Room

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