The Avon Breast Cancer Crusade seeks to improve breast cancer outcomes and reduce disparities in survival rates at the community and national level. Our strategic grant making reflects: a holistic and place-based approach in high-need areas throughout the United States; a commitment to enabling access to medical advances and support services for breast cancer patients, particularly those from vulnerable populations; and a commitment to investing in research on the prevention, diagnostics, and treatment of breast cancer.

The Avon Breast Cancer Crusade focuses on care and seeks to help across the continuum of breast cancer – not only helping those who are at risk or diagnosed with the disease today, but also research into finding better treatments for tomorrow.

San Francisco 2016 Beneficiaries

• Shanti Project received a grant of $50,000 to support their Women’s Cancer Program, which provides low-income women in San Francisco with intensive care navigation services and patient advocacy.
• The Charlotte Maxwell Clinic received a grant of $75,000 to provide underserved women in Oakland with integrative medicine including acupuncture and yoga, along with practical support, like emergency funds for unpaid bills and food pantry services.
• Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County received a grant of $75,000 to provide comprehensive navigation services for breast cancer patients who live in rural areas of Mendocino County. The grant will help facilitate communication with providers and ensure patients have transportation and lodging for appointments that are often far away from home.
• Women’s Cancer Resource Center received a grant of $100,000 to expand their Community Health Advocate-led High-Intensity Breast Cancer Navigation program. The program provides cancer navigation services and educates women at high risk for breast cancer in hard to reach populations.
• Alameda Health System and Alameda Health System Foundation received a grant of $125,000 to continue to build their patient navigator program, which helps women access critically-needed breast cancer screening, diagnostic, and treatment services. This program will ensure that women get the care they need, when they need it.
• Project Open Hand received a research grant of $200,000 to help prepare and serve more than 15,000 medically-tailored meals and give grocery bags of food to more than 7,000 breast cancer patients in San Francisco and Alameda counties. The grant will also fund education on having healthy diet during cancer treatment.
• Stanford University School of Medicine received a grant of $300,000 to support the development of new therapies with potential to cure metastatic breast cancer. The study will examine how metastatic breast cancer cells treated with new drugs suppress the expression of cancer-related genes.
• Samaritan House of San Mateo, home of the Avon Center of Excellence, received a grant of $376,580 on behalf of Avon’s Breast Health Outreach Programs in the Western U.S. Eight community-based programs in Alaska, Arizona, California, Montana, Utah and Washington will benefit from this grant. The money will help women and communities learn about the importance of screening, access to mammography care and any needed follow up care and treatment.
• San Francisco General Hospital Foundation received a grant of $750,000 on behalf of the Avon Center of Excellence located at Zuckerberg San Francisco General to improve access to mammography services, care delivered through the mammography van, and access to patient navigation. Additionally, the grant will support two research projects. One will look at the ways to increase adherence to care recommendations for underserved BRCA mutation carriers and the second looks to improve the implementation of survivorship plans using patient navigation. The grant also supports access to genetic counseling and testing services, clinical trials, and cultural appropriate navigation support.