Interview with Molly MacDonald

Photography courtesy of Pink Fund

Molly MacDonald, cofounder and CEO of Pink Fund, explains how her organization provides crucial funds for breast cancer patients and the incredible effect such support can have on them.

Tell us how your organization came to be: Pink Fund was born as a result of my early-stage breast cancer diagnosis in 2005. I was left with an insurance responsibility of $1,350 a month to cover my treatment, had no savings, and had no child support or alimony after a previous divorce. Our home went into foreclosure, and creditors threatened to repossess my car.

I ultimately experienced a side effect of cancer known as financial toxicity. Between the digestive issues, limb numbness, cognitive impairment, and other symptoms of cancer treatment, patients often can’t work. And someone who doesn’t have access to benefits like federal medical leave might find themselves struggling to pay their basic living expenses, much less treatment. They may be unable to stick to their protocol as prescribed because they can’t cover the cost or the copays, and some even decide to stop it altogether and go back to work just to avoid leaving their families financially bereft.

I spent a lot of time sitting in treatment waiting rooms talking to other working women like myself who were on unpaid leave and making life-altering financial decisions. I thought, “Why isn’t anybody doing something about this? Maybe someone should start an organization to help pay these bills and provide patients with a financial bridge.” To pursue this vision, my husband and I bootstrapped our organization, made the Pink Fund logo, and created a website. A medical writer at the Detroit Free Press then agreed to do a front-page story about our efforts, and we officially launched on October 2, 2006.

How did you achieve nationwide influence?
Pink Fund was an all-volunteer organization until 2012, when it hired a part-time program manager and me as CEO. I knew that the problem we were addressing wasn’t relegated to the state of Michigan, where we’re physically located, but we needed a major partner to take our efforts further. The Ford Motor Company learned about our mission and was very intrigued; it ended up making a significant investment in a national ad campaign for us. It also funded a national TV launch and manufactured 6,000 T-shirts to sell on its Warriors in Pink website, which provided additional revenue for our cause.

Over a decade later, we now have an incredible board that includes a breast oncologist at the University of Texas and the general counsel of Trinity Health, a national health provider. And to help serve more patients, we created an online application program; as of December 2024, there were 1,400 applications in process for assistance.

How do people qualify for assistance?
We support everybody who qualifies. They must be in active treatment for breast cancer, meaning they are undergoing chemotherapy, radiation, or a mastectomy or lumpectomy. They also need to prove loss of income for them or their partner and live at 500 percent or less of the poverty level.

What impact has Pink Fund had?
We have delivered over $9 million total in support to patients, paying their creditors for housing, transportation, utilities, and insurance for up to ninety days. In just one month, Pink Fund might cover about $150,000 of such bills, an amount we would love to be able to double or triple based on the increase in requests we’ve experienced.

We also have a Pink Fund program for women with metastatic cancer. They may be in treatment for the rest of their lives, and many have to go on Social Security Disability Insurance. We will help support them with up to $6,000 for up to six months. Pink Fund assists men as well—we’ve served about 1,800 of these patients. The greatest challenge for men is that there’s not enough education about male breast cancer, so when they’re finally diagnosed, they may be at a later stage and can have a higher mortality rate.

Why is your particular organization so crucial?
Breast cancer charities is a saturated space. What you might see most is awareness or research funding, which are incredibly important efforts. But what makes Pink Fund different is that we offer more direct, concrete help to families.

The power of that can’t be overstated. When you find out you have cancer, the tears come, you’re scared, and you don’t know what’s going to happen. But people reach out to us all the time saying we saved them from losing their homes. We get a lot of comments like “Thanks to your support, I’m crying happy tears for the first timein a long time.”

For more info, visit pinkfund.org

To donate, visit donate.pinkfund.org/remindermedia