The organization began as a promise between Nancy G. Brinker and her sister Susan G. Komen, who died from breast cancer at age 36.  Today, this promise has grown to engage more than 100,000 breast cancer survivors and activists around the world.  By the end of 2007, Komen will have invested nearly $1 billion in breast cancer research and community outreach programs, becoming the world’s leading source of funds fighting breast cancer.

For the past 25 years, Komen for the Cure has played a critical role in every major advance in the breast cancer movement. Because of the organization’s efforts to establish the importance of early detection in finding and treating breast cancer, nearly 75 percent of women over the age of 40 now receive regular screening mammograms, compared to just 30 percent in 1982. Before the organization was founded, the five-year survival rate for breast cancer, when diagnosed before it spreads beyond the breast, was just 74 percent. Today, it is 98 percent.

Komen is perhaps most widely known for its signature event, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure® – arguably the most successful fundraising and education event for breast cancer ever created. Brinker created the Race series as a way to educate the public about breast cancer while raising funds to discover and deliver the cures. The first Race took place in 1983 in Dallas with 800 participants, many of whom wore pink to symbolize the breast cancer movement for the first time. Today, more than one million people annually participate in more than 100 Race events, raising funds to help meet local breast health needs and educating their communities about breast health and breast cancer.

Leveraging the ability of Race events to engage one person and one community at a time, Komen pioneered its grassroots model with the creation of Affiliates. Today, 125 Komen Affiliates around the world serve more than 18,000 communities. Recognizing the limitations of Komen’s reach alone, Brinker pioneered the concept of cause-related marketing. Today, more than 130 corporate partners work with Komen to deliver life-saving messages to millions of consumers where they live, work and play.

In January of this year, Komen Greater Evansville granted $499,350 to 11 local institutions located in our 28 county service area which encompasses Southern Indiana, Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky bringing the total local dollars funded in the past years to over $3.5 million.  Funds raised locally also allow Komen Greater Evansville to present public breast health symposiums and education programs, participate in health fairs, and offer our nationally recognized Pink Sunday Outreach program to local churches.  Each year Komen Greater Evansville presents community programs such as the Lynn Lecture Series featuring internationally recognized experts in the field of spirituality and health to the Tri-State.  The remaining net income (a minimum of 25 percent) supports the Komen Foundation Award and Research Grant Program, which funds groundbreaking breast cancer research, meritorious awards and educational and scientific programs around the world.  Since our inception, Komen Greater Evansville has contributed over $1.3 million to this fund.