hyperlinks, for your convenience

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/R68JNX6

Here's the survey as a hyper link. Please take it!

Also, check out the progress of our new site... not many images yet, but you can still notice the new interface

current website: www.saveourwomenshirts.com

new website: www.saveourwomenshirts.com/shop/

Enjoy!

Interesting Stats

Susan G. Komen for the Cure - the world's largest grassroots breast cancer organization in the WORLD had over 3 million unique website visitors in 2009. This number represents more than 9,000 unique visitors per day. Additionally, there were more than 18.8 million pages viewed on komen.org and more than 291,000 people visited the site, viewing a monthly average of more than 1.6 million pages. Komen.org also provided information and support to visitors from more than 100 countries throughout 7 continents.

As for social media, Komen had nearly 200,000 Facebook fans and nearly 12,000 Twitter followers.

Since Komen is the largest and most renowned breast cancer organization, I am going to use these statistics to help me uncover the market potential for people interested in breast cancer prevention. Furthermore, I will find out potentially how many active people (gym members) are interested in fighting this cause and how many of them I can reach and eventually convert to an event participant. Wish me luck!

Survey

Please take this quick survey to help me with data collection.

Thanks!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/R68JNX6

Event Status

Unfortunately, we got an official rejection from the Och Fitness Center. We won't be able to hold an event there this year. However, we are really moving along with our event at Real Ryder Revolution. We have registration forms available and are finalizing our website so that people can sign up and donate directly online. As soon as that's finished, I will post the link for all to see. In the meantime, it will look something like this: http://saveourwomenshirts.com/shop/

Non-Profit Status

Save Our Women Fit is officially filed as a non-profit organization. We are just waiting on our pending 501(c)(3). We are also the owners of www.saveourwomenfit.com and www.saveourwomenfit.org. Thanks to Bob Pilcowitz and his staff for helping us out with this.

Problems with Och Event

I am not here to complain. I am here to reflect. The Ross School of Business prides itself on "leading in thought and action." One would think that administration would jump with enthusiasm at the idea of one of their own students (me) wanting to implement a charity event at the School's private fitness center. The event would be great for the school's reputation, for society, for community bonding, and not to mention, for showing off our fancy new gym.

Och Fitness manager Christian Wilds approached me with this idea to throw a charity event when he found out about my experience with philanthropy, event planning, and marketing. We had many ideas in place, all of which seemed promising. One idea we did not consider was the event that administration would decide not to pass our proposal.

In my bi-monthly meeting with Prof Nordheilm, I learned that this unexpected setback is actually a learning experience. I now realize how important it is to answer objections ahead of time, in whatever initiative I am proposing. However, this momentary upset does not mean I am prepared to throw in the towel. I am the kind of person who puts ideas into action, as Ross suggests and I am not about to walk away just yet.

Christian and I have already spoken with many students who have shown interest in our idea and I am prepared to speak with faculty about publishing any kind of article about our ambition and enthusiasm. Even if Save Our Women Fit is unsuccessful in tackling the Och Fitness Center this year, I am confident that we will have atleast began the process of starting a charity event at Ross - one which may have to take place next school year.

Non-Profit Organization

We are officially on our way to becoming a non-profit organization. Having two separate entities (Save Our Women and Save Our Women Fit) will allow the first to operate two different companies for different reasons. Below is a description of each:

Save Our Women (For Profit Entity)

This is our current apparel business (incorporated in 2006 as an LLC), which can continue to operate as a for-profit entity (although no salaries have ever been distributed from the proceeds of sales). We will continue to make and sell apparel with a portion of the proceeds benefitting organizations like Susan G. Komen for the Cure. While Save Our Women is not registered as a non-profit, we have always donated 100% of the net proceeds.

Save Our Women Fit (Non-Profit Entity)

This is our “spin off” business, which would better serve the public if registered as a non-profit entity. Save Our Women Fit is a program that can take place in any fitness facility from a national gym, to a neighborhood yoga center, to a cutting edge cycling studio. We can tailor our program to fit any type of exercise facility. In general, each program will involve forming teams, raising a minimum participation fee, and engaging in a day of friendly competition where participants will exercise with their friends while fundraising for a great cause.

Our inspiration for Save Our Women Fit comes from the fact that monetary contributions can only go so far. In addition to raising money for breast cancer, we are interested in changing the way people think about and take care of their bodies to reduces their risks for cancer. We want to actually bring people into the gym and encourage physical activity. According to a study by Susan G. Komen for the Cure, after menopause, being overweight increases the risk of breast cancer by 30-60%. While being overweight has not been proven to increase the likelihood of breast cancer before menopause, the study also found women to be at an increased risk for postmenopausal breast cancer if they had gained 20 or more pounds after age 18. These alarming statistics have encouraged us to look beyond the apparel business and directly impact people by reducing their risks before they occur.

Based on the number of gym members in the U.S.A. and the percentage of Americans who make donations to cancer organizations, we have already found promising figures to support our idea.

The charity purpose of this organization will be to encourage breast cancer prevention through exercise and physical activity in addition to fundraising.

Catch Up

Please excuse my lack of posts. I have been away on spring break. Now that I am back, I will share some updates with Save Our Women Fit.

First, we have run into a problem with the Och Fitness Center. It seems that politics and University legalities are putting a significant halt on our event progress. One major issue we have run into is the fact that Save Our Women is not registered as a non-profit organization. Upon incorporation in 2006, Save Our Women was set up as an LLC which acted as a non-profit. To uphold our reputation, we have partnered with non-profit organizations like Susan G. Komen for the Cure and FORCE: Facing Our Risks of Cancer Empowered. These partnerships have provided us with the same reputation as any non-profit organization. However, moving forward, we feel that since we have always acted as a non-profit, and wish not to rely on partners for credibility, Save Our Women should have its own non-profit identity. So before we can move forward with a charity event at the Och Fitness Center, we must secure non-profit status. I am currently e-mailing with my lawyer to figure out how quickly this change can happen.

The second update is regarding Real Ryder Revolution. Today, I had my second meeting with the company owner and we secured a date for our event (May 16th, 2010) at their West Bloomfield location. The next steps are going to be to start advertising, accepting donations, registering team members, and seeking donations (food, prizes, entertainment, etc). Time is obviously of the essence, which is why we need to move quickly. So far, I am completely pleased with the enthusiasm of the Real Ryder crew and think this event will be a huge success.

Third, and more directly correlated to the marketing component of my independent study, I am struggling to find statistics that relate directly to breast cancer. I have found information on people who have made monetary contributions to cancer causes, but have been unsuccessful finding specific breast cancer statistics (specifically, how many people had a donation to a breast cancer organization last year). I have reached out to the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, but so far all of the numbers I have found are in dollars, as opposed to in number of people. This should be tricky, but I'm still working on a way around this dilemma.

More soon.