Those who frequent cosmetics counters are well-aquainted with the retailing concept called "gift with
purchase."
In the world of fundraising for breast cancer treatment, education and research, that idea has been taken a step further: Consumers shopping for everything from makeup to vacuum cleaners to groceries can "give with purchase."
Both Ambassador Nancy Brinker, the longtime Palm Beacher who founded the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation in 1982, and cosmetics executive Evelyn Lauder, who lives on the island during the winter months and founded the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in 1992, can be credited with revolutionizing the way money is raised for the breast cancer cause.
Komen has raised $1.2 billion dollars over two-and-a-half decades, and the BCRF has raised more than $220 million in just under 15 years.
The two organizations share the ability to convince corporations to lend their names to the campaigns they support.
"Nancy went to companies early on to get them to sponsor the first Race for the Cure in 1982," said Susan Carter Johns, executive adviser at Susan G. Komen for the Cure's Dallas headquarters.
"Companies then did not want to associate themselves with anything negative," she said. "But Nancy was able to get American Airlines' chairman Bob Crandall to finally change his mind and sign on."
Brinker got the idea for enlisting corporate involvement from observing how American Express contributed to the 1981 restoration of the Statue of Liberty by donating a percentage of credit-card purchases to the cause.
"We needed to get companies involved in what we were doing," Brinker said.
Brinker initially approached the intimate-apparel industry to attach breast health information to their brassiere tags.
"All of them threw me out," she said. "They all said they'd never do such a thing.
"I just kept at it," Brinker said. "They finally came around, once the stigma surrounding the subject of breast cancer was gone, later in the '80s."
Komen has about 200 corporate partners, Johns said.
Partners give money directly to the foundation and serve as sponsors for the hundreds of Races for the Cure held across the country each year. They also produce special products, usually released during October, known as Breast Cancer Awareness Month since President Ronald Reagan declared it so 23 years ago.
Brinker, however, is cautious about which companies Komen aligns with.
"We have to know that the company is committed to the mission," she said. "It's not just about fund-raising. It's about an integrated approach on the part of these companies to fully educate and deliver the message of early detection to their employees and their customers who purchase their products developed to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure."
Johns reported that the Komen foundation raises about $250 million a year, with cause-related marketing and sponsorship programs contributing about $58 million to the foundation's bottom line.
"The products contribute about 23 percent to the total each year," she said. "It's now expected by consumers that companies they do business with share their passions and concerns for specific causes."
Lauder's mother-in-law, the late Estée Lauder, invented the gift-with-purchase idea in the 1970s. She adopted product-based support for breast cancer programs in 1990, when she commissioned pink-ribbon compacts that benefited the effort to build a breast center at Memorial-Sloan-Kettering hospital in Manhattan.
"That was the first time we created something specifically for the cause," said Lauder, who has since enlisted hundreds of companies to design and designate "pink" products to benefit the BCRF.
"The whole thing has taken off," Lauder said.
"Most of the things that benefit the BCRF, people are going to buy anyway, so why shouldn't they get a great item as well. If you go to Publix and buy a head of (Andy Boy) lettuce, you know you're contributing to the cause, as the Andy Boy people are guaranteeing us $100,000 this year alone."
BCRF has raised $39.6 million this year, Lauder said.
"About 40 percent of the total amount raised is through the sales of pink products by a variety of companies," Robbie Finke Franklin, the foundation's marketing director, said from the foundation's Manhattan headquarters.
"When I came to BCRF in 2004, the foundation had a few corporate partners and they did not track the revenues of pink products prior to 2005, but I can tell you that revenue from pink-product sales has steadily increased over the past four years, and the consumer response has been equally positive."
"It's a very significant, very American way to raise funds," Lauder said. "And our corporate partners like working with us, because as a foundation we have only 8 percent overhead, which they can respect."
Information about products sold to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure is available at www.komen.org. The Breast Cancer Research Foundation has published a 69-page 'Shop Pink' catalog featuring items created to support its programs. Go to www.bcrfcure.org for complete details.
Saks slates shopping weekends
For the past 10 years, Saks Fifth Avenue has raised funds and awareness for breast cancer through its Key to the Cure benefit shopping weekends in October.
The retailer partners with the California-based Entertainment Industry Foundation Women's Cancer Research Fund. Mercedes-Benz is a major sponsor.
As in past years, the store has created a T-shirt to benefit its Key to the Cure program. This year's model, designed by Karl Lagerfeld and worn by actress Gwyneth Paltrow in marketing materials, is $40, with $35 going to the effort.
From Oct. 16 through Oct. 19, all Saks Fifth Avenue stores across the country, including the island branch, 172 Worth Ave., will be open for the Key to the Cure shopping weekend. Two percent of all local sales proceeds will be donated to the Palm Beach County affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation.
From 2 to 5 p.m., Oct. 18, Saks will host a champagne reception to mark the 10th anniversary of the Key to the Cure program.
For details, call Kathy Roland, at 833-2551.
