Thanks to more than 150,000 Avon Walk participants, more than $740 million has been raised and donated to breast cancer programs around the world since 2003, supporting research to find a cure or prevention, as well as programs that enable all patients to access quality care. Support for the medically underserved is a key priority — including low-income, elderly and minority individuals, and those who are under-insured.
An average 80% of net funds raised by an Avon Walk stays in the area where the event takes place. The remaining 20% helps ensure that care programs in all 50 states, as well as national research programs, have adequate funding to make the most progress possible in the fight against breast cancer. Click on an Avon Walk city to see recent grant recipients.
All money raised by the Avon Walk is managed by the Avon Foundation for Women, a 501(C)(3) public charity that funds a comprehensive network of programs and services dedicated to serving breast cancer patients and their families through five areas of the breast cancer cause: awareness and education, screening and diagnosis, access to treatment, support services and scientific research.
The Foundation is proud to support leading national organizations with grants awarded during the 2011 Avon Walk Closing Ceremonies:
The Avon Foundation Breast Health Outreach Program received $5.85 million to continue supporting 120 community-based groups across the country — programs which navigated more than 125,000 people into mammography screening and clinical breast exams in 2011 and reached a half million people with critical education and information.
CancerCare received $1 million to continue providing direct financial assistance to low-income breast cancer patients, reaching women and men in 85% of all U.S. counties and all 50 states.
Safety Net Hospitals and Support Programs: In 2011, $10.8 million was provided to 75 safety net hospitals and support programs in and beyond Avon Walk cities. Funds support upgrading equipment in breast health centers, "patient navigator" staff, nutrition programs and meals, and other support services. Navigators help women and men secure appointments and financial resources for care if low-income or uninsured. For those diagnosed with cancer, navigators help patients navigate the complex medical maze — from pathology, to surgery, to oncology, and radiation therapy — and ultimately help patients achieve survival by receiving timely and quality care.
The Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation received $500,000 to support the Love/Avon Army of Women. The Army of Women is changing the way that breast cancer research is conducted – significantly reducing the time it takes to recruit research study volunteers and encouraging researchers to study the changes happening in healthy women before breast cancer develops to learn how to prevent it.
Accelerating Research Progress: $13.7 million provided to support breast cancer research across the country in 2011, with a focus on understanding the causes of breast cancer and developing new ways to prevent the disease. Funds support 43 projects at universities across the country in addition to research conducted at eight Avon Centers of Excellence for Comprehensive Breast Cancer Care and Research. Funded research projects include:
To learn more about Avon-funded research in breast cancer, visit our grants database. You can search by geographical location, institution, scientist name, or keyword.
The Sister's Network received a $50,000 grant, to fund the attendance of breast cancer survivors at the 13th Annual National African American Breast Cancer Conference.
Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation received a $125,000 grant, which will pay for survivors and advocates to attend the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium this December and disseminate information about new research results throughout the country.
University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center received two grants. The first grant, for $125,000, will support a program bringing genetic counseling, testing and risk reduction to Harris County's Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital for the first time. The second grant, for $150,000, will enable Associate Professor Dr. Isabelle Bedrosian to conduct research to develop new tests to predict which women are at an increased risk of developing breast cancer.
The Breast Health Collaborative of Texas received a grant for $150,000 to identify gaps in care and improve care coordination for low-income and uninsured women throughout metropolitan Houston.
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston received a grant for $200,000 for community education, outreach and patient navigation.
The Rose received a grant of $200,000 to support navigation services and mobile mammography equipment for the tens of thousands of women they help annually.
Baylor College of Medicine received a grant of $250,000 to continue to fight health disparities for the economically disadvantaged and minority women in Houston and Harris County by expanding access to breast care services through their Pink 4 Life Program at Baylor and Ben Taub General Hospital.
Texas Tech University Health Science Center received a grant of $300,000 to support a research project examining the causes of breast cancer and ways to prevent the disease.
Johns Hopkins University received a grant of $1,275,000 to assist in the support of the more than 14,000 women who will receive services this year at the Johns Hopkins Avon Breast Center of Excellence.
Georgetown University Medical Center, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center received a grant of $500,000, to support Avon’s signature program in the District, the Capital Breast Care Center.
Foundation for the National Institutes of Health received a grant of $710,000 to support a “think tank” and research project to define if viruses play a role in breast cancer development. The grant will also support the Second Collaborative Summit on Breast Cancer Research to encourage collaboration among key stakeholders in the breast cancer research field.
National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund received a grant of $525,000 to support “Project LEAD,” a program that trains breast cancer survivors to serve as advisors and advocates for breast cancer research; through Avon support the program has already trained more than 1,900 advocates.
Food and Friends received a grant of $275,000 to support its Avon Pink Ribbon Delivery Program, which provides breast cancer patients and their families with specialized nutrition support and delivered meals.
Howard University Cancer Center received a grant of $250,000 to assist in the purchase dedicated ultrasound equipment.
University of Maryland Baltimore received a grant of $240,000 to support the Baltimore City Breast Cancer Patient Navigator Program.
The Conquer Cancer Foundation received a grant of $250,000, which will support the ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium and their IDEA Award Program, which brings doctors from outside the U.S. to ASCO, the largest cancer conference.
Virginia Tech Foundation received a $150,000 grant, which will continue to support researchers investigating environmental risk factors of breast cancer development.
The District of Columbia Cancer Consortium received a $75,000 grant to support the development of a Breast Cancer Surveillance System to analyze and understand the number of cancer diagnoses in the District and the barriers for women to get screened.
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center of Boston, home of the Avon Foundation Comprehensive Breast Evaluation Center, an Avon Foundation Breast Care Center of Excellence, received $1.5 million. The grant will support HER2 positive breast cancer research, as well as programs that help low income women receive care at the Avon Center at Mass General and community clinics in Chelsea, Geiger Gibson and Mattapan. The funds also will support the Massachusetts General Hospital-Avon International Breast Cancer Program, which focuses on increasing survivorship rates and extending access to quality breast health care to women across the globe.
Brigham & Women's Hospital of Boston received $300,000 to support research to understand how normal changes to the breast during pregnancy can be used to predict future breast cancer risk in healthy women.
University of Massachusetts Amherst received $300,000 to develop a test to identify premalignant breast lesions that have a high risk of progressing to breast cancer and differentiate them from those unlikely to advance.
Silent Spring Institute of Newton, MA, received $175,000 to support a research fellowship looking at the potential role of the environment in breast cancer development.
Community Servings of Jamaica Plain, MA, received $100,000 to support the Avon Door-to-Door Delivery Program, which brings thousands of meals to breast cancer patients and their families.
The Avon Foundation also awarded four regional grants to further strengthen the Avon Safety Net program, which consists of more than 100 hospitals across the country that ensure women and men, who might otherwise fall through the cracks of the healthcare system, have access to high quality breast cancer services. The Safety Net grants include:
Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization received $200,000 to support the YourShoes 24/7 Breast Cancer Support Center, which provides the only round-the-clock volunteer-staffed breast cancer call center in the country.
Mercy Hospital received $200,000 to fund its patient navigator staff and a new digital mammography machine for its 56th Street location.
Sinai Health System received $200,000 to support its patient navigator staff at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Stroger Hospital received $250,000 for its Breast Cancer High Risk Screening Program, which will provide more than 400 underserved women with risk assessment services, genetic counseling and testing.
The Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force received $250,000 for its efforts to reduce the disparity in breast cancer mortality between Chicago’s black and white residents. The Task Force was established in 2008 with a $1 million award raised at the Avon Walk.
University of Chicago received $150,000 to support research to determine the role that viruses and inflammation may play in the development of breast cancer.
Indiana University received $300,000 to support research to determine if telomere dysfunction can help determine breast cancer risk and identify women and men who should be screened more frequently.
The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University, home of the Avon Foundation Breast Care Center of Excellence and the Avon Breast Cancer Research Laboratories, received $750,000 to provide access to breast care for low income women at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the Erie Family Health Center and support five new research projects to identify and better understand new therapies to fight breast cancer.
Helping Her Live program, a neighborhood-wide effort in North Lawndale and Humboldt Park, received $1.25 million to conduct comprehensive “community navigation” outreach to black, Latina and other low-income women in these neighborhoods. The program will educate more than 25,000 women and men and link thousands of women to screening, diagnostic and treatment services at Mount Sinai Hospital and other Avon Safety Net Hospitals in Chicago.
University of Colorado received $550,000 to support patient access to care programs, the Comadre Program and Project Survivorship Outreach to Latinas. In addition, the grant will support six research projects that aim to understand why breast cancer sometimes recurs and also to develop new treatments for the disease.
Denver Health & Hospital Corp. received $250,000 to support its patient navigator program and the purchase of a dedicated breast ultrasound unit.
The Children’s Treehouse Foundation of Denver received $90,000 to provide education and assistance to families with children when a parent is facing breast cancer.
Three grants were also awarded to three organizations as part of the Avon Foundation’s national grants program, the Avon Breast Health Outreach Program (BHOP), a network of 125 organizations that provide outreach and breast health education to the public. The beneficiaries will use the grants to educate Colorado’s communities about breast cancer and the importance of early detection, and will link nearly 3,500 people to screening and educate thousands more through health fairs and grassroots efforts throughout Colorado. The grants include:
The Avon Comprehensive Breast Center at San Francisco General Hospital, one of the Avon Foundation’s eight flagship programs nationwide, received $750,000 to support its mobile mammography program, as well as a high-risk genetic clinic, community outreach programs and three breast cancer research projects. The Avon Comprehensive Breast Center has performed more than 55,000 mammograms and more than 3,500 breast health procedures since opening with Avon Foundation support in 2004. This grant brings Avon Foundation support for the Center to more than $21 million over the past 10 years.
Project Open Hand received $200,000 to support the Homebound Critically Ill Program that specifically provides meals, grocery services and education programs for breast cancer patients and their families.
The Marin County Department of Health & Human Services of San Rafael received $150,000 to support a research project that is developing a saliva-based test to assess breast cancer risk.
Zero Breast Cancer of San Rafael received $125,000 to support community research to better understand the genetic and environmental factors that may be involved in breast cancer risk.
The Avon Foundation also awarded five grants to further strengthen the Avon Safety Net program, which consists of more than 100 hospitals across the country that ensure women and men who might otherwise fall through the cracks of the healthcare system have access to high quality breast cancer services. The Safety Net grants include:
Following are the grants the Avon Foundation for Women awarded at the 2011 Avon Walk Santa Barbara Closing Ceremony:
The Avon Breast Cancer Center at the UCLA-Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and Olive View Medical Center received $750,000 to continue Avon Foundation support for the Avon Cares for Life Program, which includes on-site patient navigation, survivorship programs and a high risk clinic, as well as support for their clinical trials program.
The Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation received $500,000 to support the Love/Avon Army of Women. The Army of Women is changing the way that breast cancer research is conducted – significantly reducing the time it takes to recruit research study volunteers and encouraging researchers to study the changes happening in healthy women before breast cancer develops to learn how to prevent it.
The UCLA Foundation received $180,000 to support Avon Foundation Breast Imaging Fellowships at the Iris Cantor Breast Imaging Center and the UCLA Santa Monica Women’s Imaging Center.
Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope received $150,000 to support their Health of Women research study, which is using information collected online to improve our understanding of breast cancer incidence, cause and survival.
Project Angel Food received $125,000 to support meal delivery and nutritional counseling services for people fighting breast cancer and their families throughout Los Angeles County.
Five additional grants awarded at Closing Ceremony will strengthen the Avon Safety Net Hospital program, a network of more than 100 hospitals and community clinics across the country supported by the Avon Foundation to ensure that women and men without insurance or resources have access to high quality breast health services. The Safety Net grants include:
Following are the grants the Avon Foundation for Women awarded at the 2011 Avon Walk New York Closing Ceremony:
The Avon Foundation Breast Health Outreach Program received $5.85 million to continue supporting 120 community-based groups across the country — programs which navigated more than 125,000 people into mammography screening and clinical breast exams in 2011 and reached a half million people with critical education and information.
CancerCare received $1 million to continue providing direct financial assistance to low-income breast cancer patients, reaching women and men in 85% of all U.S. counties and all 50 states.
The Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Center at New York Presbyterian-Columbia University Medical Center received $750,000 to continue funding care for thousands of underserved women in its state-of-the art mammography center and support breast cancer research, clinical trials and imaging fellowships. This new grant brings total Avon Foundation support for the Columbia-Presbyterian Avon Breast Center to more than 22 million dollars over the last 11 years.
New York University Cancer Institute received two grants totaling $680,000 which will be used to support the NYU Cancer Center and Bellevue Collaborative, an extensive patient navigation program at Bellevue Hospital, and the Avon Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Consortium, a program at NYU School of Medicine working to find out what causes inflammatory breast cancer and developing new treatments for this aggressive tumor.
God's Love We Deliver received $175,000 to provide nutrition education and meals to breast cancer patients and their families.
Five of the grants awarded at Closing Ceremony will strengthen the Avon Safety Net Hospital program, a network of more than 100 hospitals and community clinics across the country supported by the Avon Foundation to ensure that women and men without insurance or resources have access to high quality breast health services. The Safety Net grants include:
Following are the grants the Avon Foundation for Women awarded at the 2011 Avon Walk Charlotte Closing Ceremony:
Carolinas Medical Center, the Avon Walk Charlotte Medical Sponsor, received $220,000 to support the Mecklenburg County Breast Care Management program that provides outreach and patient navigation services to medically underserved women in Charlotte. The staff coordinates screening and care through four facilities: the Carolinas Hospital, the Blumenthal Cancer Center, and the Myers Park and Health Department Clinics.
Clemson University received $150,000 to support a research project seeking to develop new ways to improve breast reconstructive surgery using a patients own cells, with a novel application of drugs to reduce tumor recurrence or metastases.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill received $150,000 to support a research project that hopes to identify biomarkers that will help doctors understand who is at highest risk for breast cancer recurrence.
The Medical University of South Carolina received $110,000 to support a patient navigation program that improves access to screening, diagnostics and treatment for underserved populations in South Carolina.
Randolph Hospital received $100,000 to continue support of a patient navigation program that will better reach the medically underserved in rural Randolph County.
Presbyterian Hospital received $100,000 to support its community outreach and patient navigation program to improve access to screening, diagnostics and treatment to underserved populations in Charlotte, Mecklenburg County and eleven surrounding counties.
North Carolina Baptist Hospital received $100,000 to support their community outreach and patient navigation services program called the Survivors in Service Navigation Network.
