By Karuna Jaggar, Executive Director

Even though it’s been raining here in California—or snowing where you are—across the country people are beginning to register for breast cancer walks or runs in anticipation of sunnier days. Every spring, breast cancer industry giants like Komen kick off their annual fundraising walks and runs
 
Before you lace up your sneakers or pull out your checkbook, be sure to exercise your mind by asking these 4 questions.
 
Komen says they’re making changes this year, but the truth is they’re just painting a new color over their worn out pink. Komen’s two iconic marketing tools, the pink ribbon and Race for the Cure®, are getting a makeover. The event will now be called the “More than Pink Walk” and instead of pink shirts, participants can choose from a rainbow of colors! 
 
The color pink itself was never the problem. Komen’s new rainbow of color solves nothing if their walk expenses exceed their program spending, if they continue to promote misleading statistics that falsely reassure people, and if they continue to include simple narratives that exclude anyone who isn’t a cheerful “survivor. These events have long been multi-million dollar marketing bonanzas that too often benefit corporate reputations more than women living with and dying from breast cancer.
 
 
As part of our Think Before You Pink® campaign, we created a set of questions to help you decide whether your participation in or donation to a breast cancer walk will have the impact you want:
  1. How much of the money raised from the walk will go to breast cancer programs?
  2. What breast cancer programs or research will the walk fund?
  3. Do the walk’s sponsors increase women’s risk of breast cancer?
  4. Does the walk present a one-sided picture of breast cancer that leaves some women out?
Learn more about why it’s important to ask these questions and read about alternatives to breast cancer walks. Print and share our questions to help spread the word!
 
Want to make sure money raised for breast cancer goes to meaningful change?  Ask your friends and family to donate to your “Don’t Pink For Me” fundraising page. Spread the word about Breast Cancer Action’s work to address and end the breast cancer epidemic and help fund our people-powered activism.