If you want to donate money to help in the fight against breast cancer, Breast Cancer Action recommends that you ask the following questions:

1.  How much money from each product sold actually goes toward breast cancer?

2.  What percentage of the purchase price does this represent?

3.  What is the maximum amount that will be donated?

4.  How much money was spent marketing the product?

5.  To what breast cancer organization does the money go, and what types of programs does it support?

o If research, what kind? Is it the same type of studies we’ve been doing for decades that already gets enormous financial support, or is it innovative research into the causes of breast cancer that always struggles for funds?

o If services, is it reaching the people who need it most? Campaigns that are not locally focused may siphon funds away from the community and give them to larger programs that are already well funded.

o If advocacy and education, do the programs make steps towards ending the epidemic? Programs supporting “breast health awareness” ignore that we are already well aware that cancer is a problem and it’s time to move from awareness to action.

6.  What is the company doing to assure that its products are not contributing to the breast cancer epidemic?

o Buy yogurt, milk, ice cream, and other dairy from manufacturers who do not use recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) in their products. BCA provides a list of dairy products that are free of rBGH .