What 'Show Us Your Bra' Really Reveals - A blog by Megan Strand

Megan Strand, owner of InCouraged Communications, is a project manager, creative marketer and proponent of authentic communication… passionate about spotlighting, connecting and supporting businesses and non-profit organizations that are doing well by doi
Oct 26, 2010 6:54 PM ET
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What 'Show Us Your Bra' Really Reveals

In the land of business start-ups, a common success story looks like this:  entrepreneur comes up with amazing new idea.  Entrepreneur cobbles a start-up business around said idea.  Idea spreads like wildfire.  Entrepreneur sells business to huge, well-established company.

What might this model look like from the non-profit perspective?

A small non-profit organization called The Breast Form Fund may be able to give us some insight.

The Situation
When you own a lingerie store, you see all types of women, including women living with breast cancer and trying to maintain their sense of beauty and self-assurance after surgery.  In Judith Fine’s experience, prostheses and post-mastectomy bras do wonders for these women.

For many years, Judith and her store, Gazebo, relied on a fund from the American Cancer Society to help un- and under-insured women obtain these products.  When the fund went away, Judith made a decision to replace as much of the funding as she could.  A percentage of Gazebo’s sales went into a new fund that spun off into a separate non-profit organization, The Breast Form Fund. Judith stepped in as the Executive Director.

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