Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Honored as Most Valued Non-Profit Brand, Top Ranked for Trust, Charity People Are Most Likely to Donate To

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Top rankings for brand value, trust, and the charity people are most likely to donate to, affirm the strength of the 28-year promise of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®: the world’s largest breast cancer organization: to save lives and end breast cancer forever.

The 2010 rankings of non-profit organizations from global market research firm Harris Interactive last week ranked Komen for the Cure as the number one most valuable non-profit brand and the charity people are most likely to donate to. Komen also ranked second among the most trusted non-profit organizations in America (behind St. Jude Research Hospital). The rankings examined 1,151 organizations.

“We are enormously humbled to be recognized in this way by the public that we serve,” said Komen founder and CEO, Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker. “This validation redoubles our resolve to our promise to end breast cancer through science, education, advocacy and relevant support programs all around the world.”

Harris Interactive Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, Justin Greeves, said of the top-performing non-profits: “They are working to solve many of society's most complex and relevant problems in efficient, new, and innovative ways and have achieved personal relevance in many of our lives - that is why they are at the top."

Brinker founded Komen in 1982 after promising her sister, Susan G. Komen, that she would do everything she could to end breast cancer. Susan G. Komen died of breast cancer in 1980 at the age of 36, after a three-year battle with the disease.

Since then, through its signature Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure® series and corporate business partnerships, Komen has built a grassroots organization supported by and serving millions of women and men on five continents. Komen’s nearly $1.5 billion investment in research and community program funding to date has led to five year survival rates of 98 percent for breast cancers that haven’t spread from the breast, along with breakthrough treatments that are helping people live longer with the disease.

Komen makes it a priority through its global network to ensure that women and men are educated about this disease, they have access to treatment, and that they and their families are supported through a diagnosis. Through Komen’s 125 global Affiliates, the organization has provided more than $500 million in research and $900 million since inception to education, screening and treatment programs in thousands of communities. In 2009 alone, Komen funded nearly 500,000 breast screenings and reached 4 million women with breast health education messaging, while investing $60 million into breast cancer research worldwide.

The organization also partners with governments and advocacy groups in 50 countries to raise breast health awareness and provide treatment and support, particularly in countries where medical resources and knowledge about the disease are scarce. Komen has funded almost $40 million in international research and outreach since inception.

“Our work is enormously gratifying, but it is far from over when more than 1.3 million and men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and almost 500,000 will die - just this year,” Brinker said.

As a Global Goodwill Ambassador to the U.N.’s World Health Organization and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Brinker has called on U.S. and global health leaders to make cancer control a global health priority.

This year, Komen will invest another $50-$60 million into research, with about $20 million targeted to cancer vaccines and other cancer prevention strategies. Brinker also has launched a campaign to explore more cost-effective screening for women’s cancers, and is an outspoken advocate for screening and access to treatment for cancer patients in the United States.

“Our ongoing mission is to attack breast cancer on all fronts - in science, prevention, education and advocacy for people with the disease, and to do so on a global scale,” Brinker said. “We’ve made tremendous progress to this point, but there is so much more to do. With the ongoing support of our friends, volunteers, partners and advocates, we will continue to hold ourselves to very high standards so that we can continue to earn the public’s trust in our mission to end suffering from this disease, forever.”

About Susan G. Komen for the Cure®

Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure and launched the global breast cancer movement. Today, Komen for the Cure is the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures. Thanks to events like the Komen Race for the Cure®, we have invested nearly $1.5 billion to fulfill our promise, becoming the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world. For more information about Susan G. Komen for the Cure, breast health or breast cancer, visit komen.org or call 1-877 GO KOMEN.