Dear Hupy and Abraham:
Your partnership has enabled our all-volunteer organization to provide more than $5.1 million to the Medical College of Wisconsin to invest in early-stage research to defeat breast cancer and prostate cancer.
WBCS's support provides a distinct advantage to local researchers seeking federal funding. A scientist recently noted that with paylines hovering around 6 percent, obtaining a National Institutes of Health grant now is as difficult as gaining admission into Harvard. This alarming trend underscores the need for philanthropic organizations like WBCS to step up to fill the gap and invest significantly more in the research needed to end breast cancer and prostate cancer.
Our first donation of $42,000 in 1998 was the catalyst for establishing a formal grants program for seminal breast cancer and prostate cancer research at the Medical College of Wisconsin. WBCS support was a game changer and refocused the direction of this research in Southeast Wisconsin.
Thanks to the support of donors and corporate sponsors and the efforts of our all-volunteer organization, in just 16 short years WBCS has:
- Become the second largest annual philanthropic donor to the MCW Cancer Center.
- Fulfilled close to our $1 million endowment pledge for the WBCS Breast Cancer Research Professorship. This will leverage recruitment of a nationally recognized researcher to join the outstanding cancer researchers and clinicians at the Froedtert and the MCW Cancer Center.
- Established the WBCS Laboratory for Breast Cancer Research.
- Facilitated an additional $12 million in extra-mural support to WBCS researchers by enabling them to gather data to apply for larger grants. Several promising new grants are in process.
One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and one in six men with prostate cancer this year. With your partnership, we can quicken the pace of research and accelerate the promise of survival to patients fighting these diseases.
Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to partnering with you again in 2014.
Jan Lennon
Development Co-Chair
