Bright Pink Celebrates Inaugural Venture Impact & Announces Second Cohort of Mission Partners
June 9, 2023
In 2021, we shared that Bright Pink was transitioning to a Venture Philanthropy Model, focusing our efforts and expertise on partnering with innovative Mission Partners to accelerate, deepen and expand the impact of cutting edge, life-saving breast and ovarian health innovations. Together, we worked to co-design and catalyze health interventions, granting $450,000 in capital investment across the four organizations and providing over $150,000 of value in deep capacity-building resources, including strategic workshops, program and evaluation design and connections with key partners. We are incredibly proud to share the accomplishments of our inaugural cohort from just one year of Mission Partnership:
● With Bright Pink, TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance has developed For the Love of My Gurls, a multi-pronged, culturally relevant communication campaign that has helped to reach more than 100,000 young Black women where they live, work, play, pray and slay, educating them about #BlackBreastHealth, empowering them to gather their family health history and check in regularly with their breasts.
● With Bright Pink, Nueva Vida has developed De Madres a Hijas, an intergenerational educational program whereby Latina breast cancer survivors and their daughters, who are at increased risk for breast cancer, together learn more about hereditary breast and ovarian cancer and develop a personalized plan of action. Interviewing several mother/daughter dyads, Nueva Vida has built this innovative program from the ground up through in-depth analysis of what works best.
● With Bright Pink, Susan G Komen Stand for H.E.R. - A Health Equity Revolution has expanded its Worship in Pink program in Houston, combating disparities in genetic counseling, testing and preventive care by training volunteer Ambassadors in the church to provide education on family health history and risk, as well as using the church as a touchpoint to provide free education, genetic counseling and testing through trusted medical partners to more than 100 individuals. As a result of the engagement, 82% or participants felt more confident in seeking genetic services and 94% of participants plan to discuss their family’s health history with their family.
● With Bright Pink, FORCE has expanded its PALs program to focus on removing barriers to care through changing state-based legislation. In the past year, FORCE has built, recruited and engaged a diverse network of over 80 volunteer community advocates to drive legislative change on the state level, increasing coverage, breaking down barriers to care, and increasing access to life-saving preventive care. FORCE and the PALs have made numerous legislative leaps forward, including enacting legislation for breast cancer screening and diagnostics exams with no cost-sharing for high-risk individuals in both Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Building on the success of this inaugural cohort, we began sourcing new Mission Partners in October 2022, using our deep network and newfound experience in Venture Philanthropy to guide us in our search. Using strict criteria to evaluate strategic fit, leadership strength, commitment to data-driven decision-making, and focus on equity, we completed a second round of due diligence, narrowing down from over 30 organizations.
We are excited to announce our second cohort of five Mission Partners, celebrate the $525,000 financial investment and additional capacity-building investment, and the initiatives we will be working to deepen and expand between June 2023-June 2024:
● Expanding For The Love of My Gurls to HBCUs and Young Black Moms with TOUCH, The Black Breast Cancer Alliance: Bright Pink will support TOUCH as they expand For the Love of My Gurls, tapping into their strong networks with a specific focus on reaching HBCUs and young, Black mothers to educate, equip and empower 500,000 young Black women to be proactive with their breast health.
● Standardizing Mother/Daughter Educational Intervention with Mission Partner Nueva Vida: Bright Pink will support Nueva Vida as they continue to standardize De Madres a Hijas and position it for nationwide replicability, pioneering this intergenerational intervention that centers on community-based, mother-daughter programming to best meet the needs of an underserved Latina population.
● Driving State Legislative Change in Breast Health Through Community Advocates with Mission Partner FORCE: Bright Pink will support FORCE as it continues to steward and expand the PALs program, enabling a diverse cohort of community advocates to push for state legislative and policy change, and will aid in completing a financial impact study to quantify the fiscal impact of improved coverage and access to preventive services.
● Growing The Reach of Breast Health Education Through Partnerships with Mission Partner Know Your Lemons: Know Your Lemons is a leading breast cancer organization that has reached over 1 billion people through their online campaign, in-person classes, and Webby-Award winning app which promotes early diagnosis. Bright Pink will support Know Your Lemons as they develop and launch a partnership program that will make their life-saving tools available to 300,000 more young women annually through sharing of resources with peer organizations and companies.
● Enrolling Young Women in Pivotal UCSF Study of Personalized Breast Cancer Prevention with Mission Partner the WISDOM Study: The WISDOM Study is a nationwide initiative led by Dr. Laura Esserman of UCSF that aims to personalize each woman’s breast screening and prevention schedule based on our ability to understand and determine her personal breast cancer risk. In the last seven years, WISDOM has enrolled more than 50,000 diverse women, 40 years and older, in their study. This Fall, WISDOM will be opening up the study to women age 30-39 and will partner with Bright Pink to develop, test and implement a breast screening communication campaign that will empower a diverse cohort of young women to join WISDOM, learn their breast cancer risk, and contribute to better personalized breast healthcare.
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.