We are proud to share that our founder, Molly Lindquist, was awarded an Eagle Rare Life $5,000 prize for Consano in the heroism category. We are so grateful for all of your votes and support, which put her in consideration for the prize. Scott Finkelstein nominated Molly, and the nomination can be seen below. You can read about the other winners here.

Eagle Rare Life Nomination: Heroism

A hero is defined as one who shows great courage. Without a doubt, my wife, Molly Lindquist, is the most inspiring person I know and exemplifies all the qualities of a hero. When Molly was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011 at the age of 32, I never imagined how that experience would motivate her to become a champion for innovative medical research funding. But after enduring surgeries and chemotherapy, she emerged a different woman, beyond the scars and the fear; Molly had a purpose. Like so many other cancer patients, Molly wanted to ‘pay it forward’ and make an impact for other patients who might walk her same path. For Molly, and for so many other patients, supporting medical research to find new and improved treatment options is the most effective way to make things better. Molly wanted to directly support research projects that mattered to her, projects that could help our girls. But much to Molly’s surprise, no simple mechanism existed to enable transparent and directed donations to innovative medical research. So Molly created one, and Consano was born.

Instead of letting this experience darken her world, Molly was invigorated. By creating something positive out of this journey, Molly gave our entire family an outlet that has helped us all to heal. Consano, which means “to heal” in Latin, was created to provide a way for any family who has been touched by illness to find healing through sharing their stories and directly supporting the research that matters to them. Before Consano existed, the only way someone could directly support a specific research project was to donate large sums of money 5 or 6 figure donations. By democratizing this process, Consano enables anyone to have the same direct-ability, transparency, and connection with innovative researchers at more than twenty top academic institutions across the country.

Since founding Consano in 2013, Molly has helped to raise over $1,000,000 to support innovative medical research. Molly has become a national leader in digital health, with features in TIME, Tech Crunch, and Fast Company among others. She blogs about her cancer experience for the Huffington Post and was named a 2014 Knowledge Networks Rising Star by Portland Monthly magazine, a 2014 Orchid Award Winner and a 2015 “40 Under 40” award recipient by the Portland Business Journal. But her most meaningful work hits much closer to home. She spends many hours talking with frightened breast cancer patients who are unsure how to tell their small children about their disease and provides insight into what life after treatment looks like. Although difficult and emotionally draining, Molly answers all of their questions, providing hope when appropriate, and always giving love and support.

After facing a health crisis, many people are inspired to increase awareness for their disease through volunteering and mentoring. While these are important contributions, that wasn’t enough for Molly. She identified a real need for greater transparency and connection between patients and medical research, and then devoted thousands of unpaid hours to create an organization to address this. While Molly’s breast cancer diagnosis is unfortunately common, what she has done with this experience is truly extraordinary. Beyond the money raised and projects supported, her daughters know that mommy is doing everything possible to help keep them healthy in the future.

100% of every donation to medical research on the Consano platform goes directly to the research project or Honor Fund, giving complete transparency and control to the donor. Consano takes no percentage to support operations. In addition, Consano’s Scientific Advisory Board, comprised of physicians, researchers, and patient advocates, vets every project to ensure it is high quality, legitimate, and has the potential to translate into improvements in patient care. This unique screening process sets Consano apart, and allows donors to have confidence that their donation will make a real impact exactly where they choose. A $50,000 Eagle Rare Life Award would fund six months of Consano’s operational expenses, enabling the organization to grow more rapidly and “heal it forward” for more patients and families.

Molly’s breast cancer diagnosis showed our family firsthand that life can change in an instant, that tomorrow is never guaranteed, and that we must spend each day doing what we can to make the world better. As Molly has written, “My cells malfunctioned. Cancer grew. I can’t change that. But what I can do is use my personal cancer experience as a catalyst for change.” It is incredibly inspiring to see Molly’s story of resilience motivating others to take back control of their stories and “heal it forward,” too.

Team Consano is so grateful to be the first non-profit recipient of 100% of Foundation’s profits! Who doesn’t love a giant check?! See the press release from Foundation below.

GIVING WITH STYLE: FOUNDATION DONATES 100 PERCENT OF FIRST PROFITS TO MEDICAL CROWDFUNDING PLATFORM CONSANO

Portland-based boutique celebrates with partners at Impact Event, announces next recipient, Children’s Healing Art Project (CHAP)

PORTLAND, Ore. (March 6, 2018) – Foundation, a Portland-based boutique where fashion meets philanthropy, was thrilled to present Consano (www.consano.org), a non-profit crowdfunding website that enables individuals to directly support medical research, with a check for $5,000 at its quarterly Impact event last Thursday.  In addition, Foundation highlighted its current non-profit partner, Children’s Healing Art Project, CHAP (www.chappdx.org), which brings the healing power of art to children and families facing medical challenges.  

“All of our nonprofit partners are very important to us,” said Holly Levow, co-founder and CEO of Foundation.  “We couldn’t be more excited to help educate the community about their missions and to empower customers to give directly to these important organizations through something they would be doing anyway – shopping for clothes and accessories they love and feel great in.”

Foundation, which opened in August, gives 100 percent of profits from every purchase made at its store (and soon online) to their featured non-profit partner.  “Foundation’s business promise to donate 100 percent of profits is incredibly inspiring,” said Molly Lindquist, founder and CEO of Consano.  “Consano was honored to be featured as Foundation’s first non-profit partner, and is grateful not only for the very generous $5,000 donation to medical research, but also for the added exposure we received from the community as a result of being featured in the boutique.”

Foundation also partnered with Latino Network (www.latnet.org) from the end of November through February and is excited to announce and present their donation to Latino Network at their next Impact event in June.  Latino Network is a Latino-led education organization, grounded in culturally-specific practices and services, that lifts up youth and families to reach their full potential.  

“When creating Foundation, we knew it was important to not only give with purpose but purchase with purpose,” said Chelsea Armstrong, co-founder of Foundation.  “With Holly at the heart of our philanthropic vision, it’s my job to bring that full circle by sourcing ethical and socially conscious brands that complement our mission while increasing our customers’ ability to give back.”

To learn more about Foundation, upcoming events and their quarterly non-profit partners visit:  www.foundationpdx.com.

About Foundation

Foundation is a Portland-based boutique with a BIG mission: to champion a wide variety of social movements through a combination of fashion, philanthropy and community dialogue.  Each quarter the women of Foundation research and carefully select a non-profit organization whose mission they strongly believe in.  Foundation kicks off each partnership with an Impact event, an evening of fashion, philanthropy, food and drinks, that it hopes brings awareness to each organization’s mission.  The community is invited to learn about Foundation’s non-profit partners, celebrate their great work and contribute to the cause by shopping the season’s best styles.  Foundation donates 100 percent of profits and features ethical and socially conscious brands in its store.

There is still time to sneak in that holiday gift with impact or end-of-year donation! FYI, Consano is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, and our employer ID number (EIN) is 46-0745383 (just in case you need it for tax deduction purposes!). Here are some ways to give at www.consano.org:

1. Donate to a research project which has the potential to lead to improved treatments and outcomes for patients.
2. Support a friend or family member’s Honor Fund.
3. Start your own Honor Fund in honor or in memory of a loved one.
4. Donate to The Hope Fund, our general fund that supports research in a variety of health categories.
5. Donate to the Consano platform to help us continue to direct 100% of research donations to the research that matters to you.

Thank you for all of your very generous support in 2017! Happy holidays and sending extra love to those of you who are missing loved ones! #healitforward

After my breast cancer diagnosis in 2011, my life catapulted from life “BC” to “New Normal.” In talking with other patients and families, I’ve found that it’s difficult not to be changed by facing down time and mortality. However, few people I’ve met have taken this “new normal” to the extreme of Andy Woods, our 2017 “Ripples of Hope” award winner.

When Andrew Woods’ oldest daughter was diagnosed with an aggressive form of childhood kidney cancer at the age of 4, he didn’t realize that his mission to save Stellablue would lead him down a new path in life. “It became my personal mission to attempt to provide more-promising treatment options, not only for my daughter, but also for any child suffering with a rare cancer.” Andrew, a contractor by trade, decided to shift his professional focus to cancer research and after a summer internship with Dr. Charles Keller at the Children’s Cancer Therapy Development Institute, moved with his family to Portland to work full time in the lab. Andy used Consano’s platform to raise the seed funding for his early research which then led to two large grants that continue to support his work.

Andy continues to inspire us with his work to help kids like Stella fighting rare cancers. Thanks for healing it forward, Andy! You can support Andy’s crowdfunding project here.