The Power of Giving

The numbers are terrifying. There are 48 million American women living with or at risk of heart disease. As the first and only patient-centered organization for women, our mission is to bring about change and provide education about the leading cause of death in women.

For 20 years, supporters have made a positive impact in our efforts to achieve these goals – an integral key to our success, and we wouldn’t be celebrating 20 years without them.

WomenHeart board member Gayathri Badrinath and WomenHeart Champion Robin Olson recently created their own online fundraisers to support WomenHeart during #GivingTuesday. For Gayathri, her passion for bringing a mission such as ours to life was most important when deciding to get involved.

Fundraising is a critical element to help organizations such as WomenHeart translate passion into action and live out our mission each day.  With every dollar donated to WomenHeart, we have the opportunity to touch the lives of women whose needs are often underrepresented and under-appreciated.

As a board member, Gayathri not only serves the community of women living with heart disease, but also understands what it takes to run a nonprofit. She believes donations are “the backbone helping us to reach our goals.” She used a Facebook fundraiser and the power of her social network to help women who “would otherwise not get the support they need following a heart attack or other significant event.”

One of those women is Robin Olson, a WomenHeart Champion who, by not knowing the signs of a heart attack, almost waited too long to seek emergency care.

I set up my fundraiser on Facebook because I believe in WomenHeart’s mission. I think people should support WomenHeart because we are helping to educate and give peer support to women with heart disease.

Friends and family have been a pillar of support for Robin throughout her recovery, and her experience has empowered Robin to pay it forward ever since. So Robin did not hesitate to not only set up her fundraiser, but also volunteer to be one of the faces of WomenHeart’s #GivingTuesday campaign– helping to empower other women and prevent her experience from happening to them.

By donating today, you can help up us train more WomenHeart Champions to educate women about heart disease, as well as provide in-person and virtual support to thousands of women living with heart disease.

“Our Champions work tirelessly to bring women who need support together, educate them about their heart, and lend a listening ear at a time when it’s most needed,”  says Gayathri. She adds that studies show more work needs to be done to increase women’s awareness of the risks involved in developing and managing heart disease.

Your donation helps to build that community of empowered women, who wake up each day prepared to stand in courage and fight.