Vancouver-based M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust recently donated $151,500 to help breast cancer organization Pink Lemonade Project fund a new position.
The new director of programs will oversee the project’s nine current programs, including the recently formed Metastatic Breast Cancer Dinner Series and Treatment Access Program, which provides financial assistance to those undergoing treatment.
Pauline Fong, program director for Murdock Trust, noted that this is its first donation to Pink Lemonade.
“As a project-focused funder, we look to those on the front lines of the communities we serve to help guide our grant-making investments, to help us understand the unique needs of a community and what solution makes the most sense,” Fong said. “Organizations like Pink Lemonade Project epitomize this approach.”
The Pink Lemonade Project provides support and resources to assist breast cancer patients and their families in Oregon and six counties in Southwest Washington. The nonprofit expanded its services by offering the dinner series and financial aid program after assisting 1,754 people in 2020, a 55 percent increase from 2019.
“We’ve been seeking out grants to help with hiring high-level staff,” Pink Lemonade Project CEO Susan Stearns said. “Murdock is the first donation to fund the program.”
The nonprofit sent an initial letter of inquiry to Murdock on Sept. 13. With a three-year staffing grant approved by Murdock’s board of trustees, Pink Lemonade publicly announced it on Tuesday.
Murdock Trust provides grants to nonprofit groups in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and Montana.
“This is significant in that now we are able to do more than ever before in our history,” Stearns said. “We’re really looking forward to working with them.”
