Tag Archives: Chrissy

An Update from Chrissy Mathews at Komen

Both at the Komen Impact Forums and here on the blog, I promised regular updates on the 3-Day program and our work at Komen. Here’s what’s new:

IMPACT FORUMS

We finished up our first ever Komen 3-Day Impact Forums in February. Over the course of four weeks we visited our seven 3-Day cities as well as three former cities (Washington, D.C., Tampa and Phoenix). The forums were hosted by me, other leaders within Komen and our local Affiliates when available. Overall, feedback was very positive. The consistent requests we heard from you across all cities were:

  • More time for Q&A with Komen
  • More information to help your fundraising efforts
  • Regular updates and stories on those served by Komen’s mission

As a result, some of the efforts you will see coming to your inbox over the next few months are:

  • More infographics—These will be focused on local fundraising impact and insights to aid your fundraising efforts. We want to give you hard data on what your donations can fund, for example: $2,300 can provide…, etc.
  • Komen’s annual report—Komen’s fiscal year ends March 31. We are currently finishing up our annual report which we will share with you along with a few quick takeaways to help you better understand where your dollars are going and what progress we have made.
  • Fundraising App—we have started developing a fundraising app for the 3-Day. This app will sync in real time with your 3-Day Participant Center making it easier to fundraise, recruit team members, send thank you notes, update your personal or team page, HALLELUJAH! You’ll be able to easily use your mobile phone to send emails, texts and more to boost your fundraising or build your team.
  • Regular mission updates and insights—We are working closely with our Mission team at the Komen national office to gather regular updates on mission projects (e.g., “the boob spa,” targeted therapies and metastatic research projects as we mentioned at the Impact Forums). These will also include personal commentary and stories from some of our researchers, grantees and staff. Our goal is to make this a monthly communication. More to come…

ADVISORY COUNCIL

Great news! We have formed our first ever Komen 3-Day Participant Advisory Council. The purpose of this group is to provide a collective “voice” of our 3-Day community to provide feedback and insights as we develop plans to enhance on-event experience, participant support, etc. An invitation to apply for the council was sent to everyone who attended an Impact Forum. From there, we reviewed all applications and chose 1–2 people from each 3-Day city. We purposely looked for participants with varying experiences with the 3-Day (walker, crew, new, veteran, big teams, individual participant, etc.) to ensure we had as many perspectives at the table as possible. This council will be hugely instrumental for us to ensure we are addressing your needs, prioritizing appropriately, making the right changes and communicating as effectively as possible for you. Council members will also be a great resource for you to share your insights and needs, knowing those will be brought to the strategy discussions each month.

So, without further ado, I’d like to introduce our 2016 Participant Advisory Council Members:

  • Anthony Anderson, Arizona 3-Day Crew, 10-year participantAnthonyA
  • Gary Bertolini, Michigan 3-Day Crew, Team Ropa Sucia, 8-year participantGary Bertolini
  • Maureen Budach, Twin Cities 3-Day Walker, Team Mickey’s Hope, 10+-year participant
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  • Kerry Calaiaro, Philadelphia 3-Day Walker, Team Best Bosom Buddies, 1-year participantKerry Calaiaro
  • Sylvia Campbell, Tampa Bay 3-Day Walker, Team 211, 10-year participantSylvia Campbell
  • Dottie Cornelius, Seattle 3-Day Walker, Team Island Girls, 7-year participantDottie Cornelius
  • Beth Heyer, Atlanta 3-Day Walker, Team Tits & Giggles, 1-year participant
    BethHeyer
  • Melissa Loder, Dallas/Fort Worth 3-Day Walker/Crew, Team Independent, 10+-year participantMelissa Loder
  • Marianne Masterson, San Diego 3-Day Walker, Team STRIDE, 7-year participantMarianne Masterson
  • Charles McCollum, Atlanta 3-Day Crew, Team Badges for Boobies, 5-year participantCharles McCollum
  • Tina McDonough, Seattle 3-Day Walker, Team Valley Girls & Guys, 15-year participantTina McDonough
  • Beth Northman, Michigan 3-Day Walker, Team BC Babes, 10+-year participantBeth Northman
  • Rainy Reinbold, San Diego 3-Day Crew, 10+-year participantLaurie Reinbold
  • Thomas Riggs, Dallas/Fort Worth 3-Day Walker, Team Presbytittyans, 3-year participantThomas Riggs
  • Kim Williams, Twin Cities 3-Day Crew, Team Kindred Spirits, 8-year participantKim Williams
  • Carol Zimmer, Philadelphia 3-Day Walker, Team Girls Gone Walking, 9-year participantCarolZimmer

 

As an example of one the things the council will be involved in: Last week we had the opportunity to visit Seattle to reevaluate routes for this year’s walk. Tina and Dottie were kind enough to join us and share key insights and feedback for each section of the routes on Days 1, 2 and 3. Their insights from a participant perspective were exactly what we needed. We are all very excited about changes to come— we will keep you all informed!

2016 REGISTRATION RESULTS TO DATE

As you know, we launched with two targeted growth strategies for the 3-Day this year: our Reunion for former participants and the Bring Your Besties travel program for new walkers. Both provide a free plane ticket for eligible registrants, as long as the participants meet their $2,300 fundraising requirement.

  • Overall, we have slightly more participants registered than we did at this time last year. However, we are not done. We need to register another 3,000 people between now and May in order to improve on 2015.
    • The Bring your Besties travel offer closes on March 24, so please keep asking your friends and family to register. We want to introduce as many new walkers to the 3-Day as we can. So far, we are bringing more new walkers to the 3-Day than we have in more than three years, so let’s keep going!
  • We still have work to do. I encourage you to continue recruiting and building your teams. If you’ve recruited 1 person that’s AWESOME… now try to get 3-4 people. J My team is growing… Komen staff at the national office and affiliate offices are growing teams too!

At the Impact Forum (and here on the blog), I made the commitment to add a 3-Day city in 2017 if we significantly raise participation in all 3-Day cities. As we stand today, we still have a lot of work to do these next two months, bringing in even more walkers, if we want to add a city next year.

I will have another update for you in the upcoming weeks. Thank you for all you are doing. Together we are making great progress! Let’s keep it up!

Sincerely,

Chrissy

Open Letter to the 3-Day Community

Hello 3-Day family and supporters!

My name is Chrissy Mathews and I am the Susan G. Komen 3-Day® Program Manager for Susan G. Komen®. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many of you at a Komen 3-Day or via email already this season. I very much look forward to meeting the rest of you soon!

Hi! I'm Chrissy.

Hi! I’m Chrissy.

I had the honor of starting this new role last summer. I spent my first week of work at the Twin Cities 3-Day and since then I have been coming home with everything pink, from my nails to my shoelaces. Not only that, but I became overwhelmed and in love with the 3-Day® walks and community.

As I’ve gone through our first two walks of the 2015 3-Day Series, there are a couple questions that have come up, more than once, about the 3-Day. If you have met me, you know I am all about open communication, so I am writing this letter to address these questions, and you have my commitment to continue to provide updates via the blog throughout the upcoming year.

One of the main questions I heard in both Michigan and the Twin Cities was, “Will the 3-Day continue in all seven cities for 2016?” Yes! The 3-Day will be taking place in 2016 in all seven cities and registration is already open! We encourage everyone to continue to form and build your teams for the 2016 series, so please tell your friends and family to register today!

The other question I have heard from many of you is, “How can we get more walkers?” I’d like you to know that we are putting our efforts and expertise behind new research to refine our 3-Day growth strategy. This research is already underway – stay tuned for updates!

If nothing else, I would like you to know that Susan G. Komen is fully committed to the 3-Day program and recognizes the impact that our 3-Day family brings to our vision of our promise of a world without breast cancer. Our goal is to work hard to ensure you all are better supported, better informed and set up for success.

In the 3-Day mission statement we say “we walk because we must.” I have to admit that at one point that seemed like a cliché line to me. But the more I’ve gotten to know you and understand what this 3-Day family is in this fight against breast cancer, the more I preach, yell, and celebrate that phrase! You are the grassroots warriors for Komen, our mission and in the fight against breast cancer. It wasn’t that long ago when we were not at a 99% five-year survival rate for breast cancer….

We walk because together we are driving the mission.

We walk because more than 40,000 men and women continue to die each year from breast cancer.

We walk because we are not just hopeful, we are optimistic — we WILL find the cures!

We walk… Simply because… We can’t not walk.

Thank you for being you. I have an open door and am happy to address any questions or needs you may have. Please come talk to me on your 3-Day event, or leave your comments on my post below.

Sincerely,
Chrissy

Susan G. Komen 3-Day Program Manager