Last year was an incredible 3-Day season for me. I completed my first full year as 3-Day Program Manager and had a chance to interact directly with many participants on the events and build some personal relationships.

Last night, I had the privilege of attending the first-ever Komen Impact Forum, held at Komen’s headquarters in Dallas with more than 120 3-Day participants. We’ll be holding Impact Forums in nine other cities during the next month. I know not everyone will be able to attend, so I wanted to share some of the most important discussions we had yesterday.

It’s clear to me that the 3-Day family is strong. You are the most passionate, dedicated and loyal group of individuals in the Susan G. Komen community. Year round, you are fundraising, training, advocating and educating—doing incredible work for Komen and our shared mission to end breast cancer forever.

You have remained steadfast in your support, even as fundraising has been getting harder and you’ve been left unarmed to answer questions you may have been getting from your donors about Komen.

Komen’s leadership team is committed to providing the transparency you’ve told us is lacking. We want to provide you with better insight into how Komen is working toward our mission and what our plans are for the future.

Here are the first steps we’re taking toward that goal:

• We’re developing some easy reference tools you can use for fundraising, to show your donors and supporters how their dollars go to work, and to answer the hard questions they have about Komen. These pieces will be posted at The3Day.org/Komen in late January. There are already many great informational links on that page, and we will continue to add to them as the year continues and we hear more from you about what you need.
• We’re forming an advisory council of 3-Day participants from each region of the country, a team with varying perspectives and participation experience. We want to give the 3-Day community a voice to help us at Komen do a better job of supporting you.
• We’re reaching out, via email and in person, to connect directly with more 3-Day participants. We also want to give you regular updates on research programs as well as personal stories from the researchers your dollars are supporting. There is a face and story behind every part of the Komen community and we want you to connect with it!

Those of you who have been with the 3-Day since 2003 have seen the series grow and change—expanding and then contracting, both in participation and fundraising. We know you’re concerned. We’ve heard your worries. We, too, want to reverse the trend and see the 3-Day begin to grow again. Our big goal is to double the size of the program. This would put us on track toward a bright and powerful future.

This isn’t going to happen through advertising. Major media buys just don’t make sense in this climate and with the people we’re trying to reach. We looked very closely and strategically at the best way to bring participants to the 3-Day and while TV and radio ads have worked in the past—maybe some of you first heard about the 3-Day on TV—they simply aren’t working anymore.

Instead, we’re investing in you, our 3-Day family. We’re turning our focus toward the future and an awesome milestone we’re on the verge of celebrating: Our 150^th walk! We’re kicking off the 2016 season with our 150^th 3-Day in Michigan, and continuing the party across seven cities for thousands of past 3-Day participants. To commemorate this anniversary, we’re finding new ways to make it easier to reconnect with our community and also share it with others. Stay tuned—in the first week of February we’ll be announcing two unique programs, here on the blog and also on the 3-Day website.

We all want the same thing—more people, more money raised, and more impact, so that one day no one else has to die from breast cancer. We at Komen are prepared to dig deep to support you. The 3-Day is on its way to raising 1 billion dollars—and we believe we can reach that mark by 2020. We will never give up!

It was great to connect with so many 3-Day participants in Dallas last night, and I look forward to talking with many more of you across the country in the weeks and months to come. It’s inspiring, humbling and heartwarming to be able to talk to you in person. I’m looking forward to seeing you soon, whether it’s at an Impact Forum, at some other gathering, or on a 3-Day event later this year.

– Chrissy Mathews, 3-Day Program Manager

RSVP for a Komen Impact Forum near you:

Wednesday, January 20, Troy, MI
Thursday, January 21, St. Paul, MN
Tuesday, January 26, Bellevue, WA
Thursday, January 28, San Diego, CA
Tuesday, February 2, Dunwoody, GA
Wednesday, February 3, Tampa, FL
Tuesday, February 9, Philadelphia, PA
Thursday, February 11, Arlington, VA
Tuesday, February 16, Phoenix, AZ