Huellas: Making Strides for Breast Cancer Awareness

Abstract

Amount raised: Annual, approximately 1.5 million Mexican pesos (MP) in sponsors and roughly the same in entrance fees. In the last 11 years, Huellas has raised over 15 million pesos. Background and context: For the past 11 years, Fundación Cima has organized an annual run/walk to raise awareness and fundraise for breast cancer. Huellas was the first coed breast cancer run walk in Mexico when it was first launched in 2008. It started out with 2750 participants and a cost of 1,246,000 MP. Through the years, Huellas has raised over 15 million pesos to support educational programs in six states of Mexico. 61 private companies and institutions from many sectors have sponsored Huellas. Aim: The more participants we have, the more interesting it is for the companies to sponsor it. Thanks to a 10 year success streak, we have set us the objective of reaching the 5000 participants in the 2018 edition to be held on May 13. This years' funds will be destined to 3 different branches of the educational program: training workshops in two states and the launching of the “Cimabus”, a transportation service provided by Fundación CIMA for women living in rural areas to get to their diagnostic exams or to their treatment appointments. The Cimabus will be working 5 days a week, 8 hours and will be placed in the state where the workshops are taking place. Strategy/Tactics: Fundación CIMA has managed to negotiate with media outlets a very interesting brand placement for our sponsors in all the printed publicity for Huellas so that their image is exposed as socially responsible companies at no expense to the company itself. This makes the sponsorship agreements a lot easier for our organization. To ensure the 5000 participants at the event we have developed strategies such as offering generous prizes for the winners, free samples of food and beauty products and our signature prize, a car. Huellas has become a powerful and emotional grass root movement to raise awareness, celebrate life, honor and remember patients and loved ones and call attention to patients´ needs. Program process: Huellas is not an isolated event that happens annually, it is a 12 month program. The process of planning, organizing, selling and most importantly, reporting to our donors, both individual and corporate ones, about the results of the run/walk and the results of the educational program implemented goes on throughout the year. Work for the following year, starts right after the run ends. Costs and returns: Investment: 2,061,354.77 MP Returns: Registrations 1,800,000.00 MP Sponsorships 1,115,000.00 MP This represents a ROI of 41.4% What was learned: Huellas started as a dream of bringing families together to raise awareness on breast cancer, while fundraising to support educational and early detection programs. We now need transform our Huellas community into a grass root movement that will come together to fight for access to quality care for every woman diagnosed while raising funds.