As we celebrate our 15th anniversary as a small nonprofit in Southeastern CT, we thought it was time for a refresh with a new logo and an updated website. But the new Terri Brodeur Foundation is still committed to giving 100 percent of fundraising dollars to breast cancer
research. New us. Same Promise.
We are still the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation, and our new website is still at www.TBBCF.org, but we now go by TBBVF. Finding a cure for breast cancer is still our mission. Our website has a fresh, modern look and is easier to navigate to and important information, like how to donate, and the names and bios of past researchers who have received grants. There’s information about the foundation’s signature fundraiser, the annual walking marathon from Old Saybrook to Waterford, which is now called the TBBCF Walk for a Cure. And the new logo is a more streamlined ribbon with an updated, but still pink, color pallet.
Why did we do this?
Part of the reason for the update is to reach a wider audience and raise more money for research. The goal is to increase donations from about $300,000 a year to $500,000 and even $1 million. That would allow the foundation to award five to 10 research grants annually.
“Every year we have applications from really good researchers. We need to raise more money to award more grants to those researchers,” said Sandy Maniscalco ok , who founded the organization with her friend Norma Logan, who died from breast cancer in 2006.
“The new website makes it very easy to find the TBBCF Fellows and the projects that have been funded by our walkers,” said John LaMattina, a founding member of the foundation and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board, which each year evaluates applications for the $100,000 grants. And each year, LaMattina says, the research proposals are so impressive the board could easily approve more grants, if there was more money.
And, last year, because of Covid-19 restrictions, the 2020 marathon walk was virtual, but still a huge success. Participants chose the time and date to complete their fundraising project and walked, biked and swam many miles and raised more than $266,496. There were no opening
and closing ceremonies. But despite that, 303 walkers from 18 states participated, and the foundation was able to award four research grants.
“Through the virtual walk we were able to reach a lot of people,” said Patti Burmahl, president of the board of directors. The foundation wanted to keep the momentum going and get people from across the country excited about the foundation’s commitment to breast cancer research, she added.
“We saw it as a unique opportunity,” she said.
For the past 18 months. a committee from the foundation has been working with the marketing company, Brandit Marketing Solutions. An anonymous sponsor, who wanted to help the foundation grow, donated the funds for the project.
The foundation has thrived in southeastern Connecticut, with loyal patrons walking year after year in the marathon. And because of that success, the Terri Brodeur Foundation name and the money it raises to further breast cancer research, is reaching a wider audience.
The new acronym, the new website and the updated logo are ways to reach that broader audience and get more people involved – young and old, near and far, faithful donors and first-time participants.
We’ve done well for a small non-profit in southeastern Connecticut, said Maniscalco. The new endeavor will enable the foundation to expand its reach and raise more money for research.
The foundation was established 15 years ago in Southeastern Connecticut with the aim of donating 100 percent of fundraising dollars to breast cancer research. And nothing about that commitment has changed. More than $5 million has been raised to date, and every penny has gone into grants for physicians, clinicians and researchers studying breast cancer.