Bright Pink Venture Philanthropy Fund Proudly Announces Inaugural Investments
June 14, 2022
Last year, we shared that Bright Pink would be making a strategic shift in its work – 1) transitioning from operating our own programs to partnering with innovative mission partners to accelerate, deepen, and expand the impact of the most cutting edge life-saving breast and ovarian health interventions in the space and 2) seeking a new home for our suite of life-saving breast and ovarian health programmatic assets.
After a comprehensive national search, we were proud to have selected an extraordinary new partner, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School’s teaching hospital, as the organization to acquire, steward, and expand the impact of Bright Pink moving forward.
And this January we officially began our work as a Venture Philanthropy Fund. In our new role as grantmakers and investors, we are building on our proven success and deep expertise to find and fund the next generation of ground-breaking breast and ovarian health initiatives. As we work to move the needle on young women's breast and ovarian health outcomes, we have continued to deepen our focus on health equity and finding solutions that remove barriers to care and help save lives.
After conducting rigorous due diligence, we are proud to announce that Bright Pink has selected our inaugural cohort of Mission Partners and has partnered with each of them to co-design and catalyze the most innovative breast and ovarian health interventions that exist today. In addition to our capital investment of $500,000, we will be providing deep capacity-building resources such as leadership coaching, program and evaluation design, digital marketing support and more to maximize the organizations’ reach and impact.
TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance – TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance has a mission to drive the collaborative efforts of patients, survivors, advocates, advocacy organizations, health care professionals, researchers, and pharmaceutical companies to work towards the common goal of eradicating Black Breast Cancer. With Bright Pink’s support, the organization will launch a multi-pronged national "awareness to action" campaign that will educate, equip, and empower 250,000 young Black women to be proactive with their breast health.
Nueva Vida - Nueva Vida is a community organization that fills the gap for culturally sensitive cancer support services for the Latino community in the Washington-Baltimore Metro area. With the invaluable bonds of trust with their clients as the foundation and Bright Pink’s support, Nueva Vida will develop De Madres a Hijas, a first of its kind, community-based, bilingual education initiative where 1st generation Latina mothers and their 2nd generation daughters will learn together about family health history, risk, and genetic counseling and testing.
FORCE: Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered - As the preeminent voice for the hereditary cancer community serving more than one million people nationwide, FORCE has a long history of mobilizing volunteers, providers, and community partners to change national legislation. Bright Pink will support FORCE as they expand their efforts to fight for legislative change at the state level through an initiative that equips a diverse cohort of volunteer advocates to increase coverage and break down barriers to care, increasing access to life-saving preventative services for women at high risk for breast and ovarian cancer.
Susan G. Komen Stand for H.E.R.- A Health Equity Revolution - Komen, the world’s leading breast cancer organization, recently launched Stand for H.E.R. – a Health Equity Revolution, a bold nationwide program to decrease the gap in breast cancer mortality between Black and white women, beginning in the 10 U.S. metropolitan areas where the gaps are the greatest. The program focuses on addressing the underlying causes of inequities Black women face across the breast cancer care continuum with concrete actions – including increasing access to quality genetic counseling and testing. Bright Pink is supporting Komen’s long-standing Worship in Pink program as it expands to extend its reach in Houston, one of the 10 cities with the greatest disparities. The expanded Worship in Pink faith-based initiative will combat disparities in genetic counseling, testing, and preventive care by training trusted volunteer Ambassadors in the church to provide education on family health history and risk, providing free genetic counseling and testing through a trusted medical partner, and connecting families to patient navigation and financial support.
Each of these organizations was selected because of their fit with our strategic priorities, strength of their leadership teams, rigor around data and measurement, high-impact program model, and focus on equity.
“We are thrilled to unleash both the financial and capacity-building capital of Bright Pink to educate, equip, and empower thousands of young women nationwide to be proactive with their breast and ovarian health. Our newest Mission Partners represent the best and brightest lights in providing systems-level solutions to save more women’s lives from breast and ovarian cancer,” said Janet Foutty, Executive Chair of the Board, Deloitte US and Chair of The Bright Pink Board of Directors.
The urgency to re-think how we are addressing the dire disparities that exist within the breast and ovarian health landscape has never been greater, and we believe wholeheartedly that now is the time to go “all in” with this new, collaborative approach. “Utilizing our 15 years of experience in reaching young women and inspiring them to move beyond awareness and take action, we are thrilled to do all we can to support these exciting projects,” said Lindsay Avner Kaplan, Founder & CEO of Bright Pink. “We are proud to hold space for these organizations to get to know one another and support our shared objective of educating, equipping, and empowering women by eliminating barriers to quality, preventive breast and ovarian health care.”
Bright Pink will partner with each of the inaugural Mission Partners from June 2022-June 2023 and will concurrently continue to evaluate potential projects for future investment.
Bright Pink is continuing to actively fundraise from both institutional and individual donors to support this aggressive approach to identify, invest in, and scale innovative solutions disrupting the status quo to reduce disparities and move the needle on young women's breast and ovarian health outcomes. All money raised will be invested in cohorts of Mission Partners working to bring equitable change on a systemic level.
You can make your tax-deductible donation to Bright Pink online, through a donor advised fund, or through a check to: Bright Pink, 2045 W Grand Ave Ste B #54599, Chicago, Illinois 60612-1577.