OUR MISSION

To eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease by advancing research, education, screening, and treatment

How We Started

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation was founded on a promise made between two sisters – Susan Goodman Komen and Nancy Goodman Brinker. Suzy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1978, a time when little was known about the disease and it was rarely discussed in public. Before she died at the age of 36, Suzy asked her sister to do everything possible to bring an end to breast cancer. Nancy kept her promise by establishing the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in 1982.

More than 20 years later, the Komen Foundation is a global leader in the fight against breast cancer and is the world’s largest private funder of breast cancer research and community outreach programs. Working through a network of Affiliates and events like the Komen Race for the Cure®, the Komen Foundation is fighting to eradicate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease by funding research, education, screening and treatment projects in communities around the world. Together with its Affiliate Network, corporate partners and generous donors, the Komen Foundation has raised nearly $630 million for the fight against breast cancer.

OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES WERE BORN
FROM A SIMPLE PROMISE MADE
BETWEEN TWO SISTERS...

• We believe in the power of the individual – recognizing the extreme value of one and the dynamic force of many.
  
• We honor volunteerism and foster the spirit to serve by the lives that we touch.
  
• We nurture an environment where people are valued and treated with dignity, respect and fairness.
  
• We are committed to being a positive agent of change – demonstrating compassion and integrity in all that we do.
  
• We believe that distinguished financial performance is a must, not as an end in itself, but as a means to accomplish our broader mission.

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