A Tale of Two Cancer Fundraising Organizations

You may or may not know that I am attending college classes (virtually; I wouldn't be able to do this in person) to obtain my teaching degree.  For this summer semester, one of my classes is English Composition I.  Our essay this week was "compare and contrast".  I chose to compare and contrast Komen and METAvivor.  I just got feedback on it from my instructor.  100/100 and he loved it.  What do you think?



A Tale of Two Cancer Fundraising Organizations

Did you know that the Susan G. Komen (Komen) organization is not the only breast cancer fundraising organization out there?  METAvivor is an organization that donates a bigger percentage of its donations to breast cancer research than Komen does.  When we look at the founding of each organization (when it was founded, who founded it, and why it was founded), each organization’s public image, and information about how each organization treats research dollars, we will see that METAvivor is the better organization to donate to for research for metastatic breast cancer.

The Susan G. Komen organization was founded in 1982 by Nancy Brinker, Susan’s sister.  Just before Susan died in 1980 from breast cancer, Nancy promised her sister that “she would to everything in her power to end breast cancer forever”.  (2021)  All the world knows of the Komen organization.  Komen organizes walks and other events yearly to raise money for breast cancer.  According to their website, they are “the world’s largest nonprofit source of funding for the fight against breast cancer.” (2021)  The Komen organization has a positive public image with the majority of people, in part due to their advertising.  In the breast cancer community, however, their public image is not so positive.  A portion of the breast cancer community believes that the Komen organization spends money on “worthless” awareness campaigns when that money could be spent on life saving research.   “Worthless” because after forty years, we are all aware, some of us painfully.  According to their website, only five percent of monies donated to them go to research.    Fourteen percent of monies donated go to administrative fees, including employee salaries.

METAvivor was founded in 2009 by Dian “CJ” Corneiliussen, Karen Presswood, Rhonda Rhodes, and Avis Halberstadt.  These ladies met in a peer support group in 2007, and started METAvivor “with the purpose of funding stage IV metastatic breast cancer research grants”.  (2019)  METAvivor is not as well known as Komen.  METAvivor has volunteers who organize fundraisers for breast cancer research.  It is more of a “grass roots” organization.  METAvivor has an incredibly high public image in the metastatic cancer community.  Most of its volunteers actually have metastatic breast cancer.  One hundred percent of donations to METAvivor go to research grants.  Oncologists and researchers around the country compete for these research grants.  METAvivor has only one paid employee, and every month, she looks for a grant to pay her salary.  The rest of METAvivor’s staff are all volunteer.

The Susan G. Komen foundation has been in existence for over forty years.  The death rate for breast cancer patients, though, has not decreased significantly in that time.  Monies donated to Komen mostly go to awareness campaigns.  This was wonderful in the beginning years of the organization, and it worked.  People became aware of this horrid disease, and the awareness campaign was successful in having women have their yearly mammograms.  The awareness campaign has done its job.  It is time to put those “awareness” dollars to research.  METAvivor is an organization that is doing just that.  All of the monies donated to METAvivor go to research – research that is saving lives.  The awareness campaigns have “jumped the shark”; it is time to move on to quality research.

 

References:

“Breast Cancer Foundation.” Susan G. Komen®, 1 July 2021, www.komen.org/.

“FY2019-2020 Annual Report.” Komen.org, Susan G. Komen Foundation.

“Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness, Research and Support.” METAvivor, www.metavivor.org/.

“METAvivor 2019 Metastatic Breast Cancer Research Competition Is Open.” METAvivor, 19 Feb. 2019, www.metavivor.org/blog/metavivor-2019-metastatic-breast-cancer-research-competition-is-open/.


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