Susan G. Komen for the Cure, formerly known as The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, often referred to as simply Komen, is the most widely known, largest and best-funded breast cancer organization in the United States.
Since its inception in 1982, Komen has invested nearly $2 billion for breast cancer research, education, advocacy, health services and social support programs in the U.S., and through partnerships in more than 50 countries. Today, Komen has more than 100,000 volunteers working in a network of 124 affiliates worldwide. As of March 2011, Komen is listed on Charity Navigator with the site's highest rating of four stars. According to the Harris Interactive 2010 EquiTrend annual brand equity poll, Komen is one of the most trusted nonprofit organizations in America. However, the organization has been criticized for its use of donor funds, as well as its choice of sponsor affiliations and its role in commercial cause marketing.
History
Susan Goodman, later Susan Goodman Komen, was born in 1943 in Peoria, Illinois. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 33. She died of the disease at age 36 in 1980. Komen's younger sister, Nancy Goodman Brinker, who believed that Susan's outcome might have been better if patients knew more about cancer and its treatment, promised her sister that she would do everything she could to end breast cancer.[13][14] To fulfill that promise, Brinker founded the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in Komen's memory in 1982.
In 2008, the 25th anniversary of the organization, the name was changed to Susan G. Komen for the Cure and trademarked a new logo in support of its promise "to end breast cancer forever." The new logo is a pink ribbon that resembles a runner in motion and is meant to reflect the importance of Komen's signature Race for the Cure event, which is currently the world's largest fund raising event for breast cancer education and research. The logo symbolically associates the organization with the values of the pink ribbon culture: fear of breast cancer, hope, and the charitable goodness of people and businesses who publicly support the breast cancer movement.
In December 2009 Brinker was appointed CEO of the organization.
Philosophy
Komen advocates for breast self-awareness as a primary method for fighting breast cancer. Komen supports universal screening mammography and breast self-examinations, as well as ever-increasing levels of government spending on diagnosing and treating breast cancer.[21] They promote early detection as the primary tool for preventing breast cancer deaths.
Their response to scientific evidence that the indiscriminate nature of screening mammography for all middle-aged and older women, regardless of each woman's individual risk of developing breast cancer, results in overtreatment of some women whose cancer would regress on its own or would grow so slowly that it would never harm them—for every one woman whose life is saved by screening mammography, between two and ten women will receive completely unnecessary and toxic treatment for a harmless growth, 250 to 500 women will be wrongly told that they might have breast cancer (false positives), and 125 to 250 will have biopsies performed—is to "keep hammering away at our basic message, which is, early detection saves lives".
By contrast, organizations like the National Breast Cancer Coalition follow a medical consumerism model, in which individual women are educated by their physicians about their options and encouraged to make individualized, evidence-based decisions about their health care.[21] Other organizations advocate more research into the environmental causes of breast cancer and cancer prevention.
Activities
Use of funds
In the 2009-2010 fiscal year, ending March 31, 2010, Komen reported approximately US $400 million in earnings. Of this, $365 million (91.3 percent) came from contributions from the public, including donations, sponsorships, race entry fees, and contributed goods and services. Approximately $35 million (8.8 percent) came from interest and dividends and gains on investments.
That same fiscal year, Komen reported approximately US $360 million in expenses. $283.2 million of this went towards program services: $75.4 million (20.9 percent of total expenditure) went to research, $140.8 million (39.1 percent) went to public health education, $46.9 million (13 percent) went to health screening services, and $20.1 million (5.6 percent) went to treatment services. The other $76.8 million went to supporting services, including $36.1 million (10 percent of total expenditure) toward fund-raising costs and $40.6 million (11.3 percent) toward general and administrative costs.
The Komen CEO salary in 2010 was $459,406 a year. Komen paid founder and CEO Nancy Brinker $417,712 in 2011.
Grants and awards
Since its foundation in 1982, Komen has provided funding for basic, clinical, and translational breast cancer research and for innovative projects in the areas of breast health education and breast cancer screening and treatment. The organization has awarded more than 1,000 breast cancer research grants totaling more than $180 million.[28] Komen adheres to a peer-review process that is recognized by the US National Cancer Institute.
As of 2007, research grants are available for basic, clinical, and translational research; postdoctoral fellowships; and breast cancer disparities research.[29]
Komen awards three-year postdoctoral fellowships to individuals working under the guidance of experienced cancer researchers in order to recruit and retain young scientists in the field of breast cancer research. In addition to funding research, Komen and its affiliates fund non-duplicative, community-based breast health education and breast cancer screening and treatment projects for the medically under-served.
Since 1992, Komen has also annually awarded work in the field of cancer research with the Komen Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction.
In recent years, Komen has cut by nearly half the proportion of fund-raising dollars it spends on research grants, according to a 2012 Reuters analysis. In 2011, the foundation spent $63 million (15 percent) of its donations on research.
Global activities
According to the United Nations World Health Organization, around 500,000 people worldwide die from breast cancer every year.[32] Komen for the Cure states that its aim is to "reduce the burden of breast cancer on a global level". Believing that no single approach to breast health will prove effective around the world, Komen works with local communities and organizations to develop programs for particular groups or cultures.
In 2006, Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced their involvement with the US-Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research, a Middle East Partnership Initiative program that unites leading breast cancer advocates in the U.S. and the Middle East with the goal increasing early detection of breast cancer and reduce mortality through improved awareness, increased clinical resources, and research.
Today, Susan G. Komen for the Cure is active in over 50 countries with its largest affiliates in Italy and Germany.
On October 28, 2010, Jerusalem, Israel held its first Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Over 5,000 Christian, Muslim and Jewish people walked and ran to show solidarity in what was described as a historic event. The main goal of the race was to raise awareness of breast cancer and establish the organization as a permanent fixture in Israel. Prior to the Race the Old City walls of Jerusalem were illuminated pink by Komen founder Nancy G. Brinker, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and the Prime Minister's wife Sara Netanyahu.
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