Not Just Pretty in Pink

If you're not feeling good, you can't look good.

by Gail Sachson

It should come as no surprise that Evelyn Lauder, Senior Corporate Vice President of the Estée Lauder Companies, Inc. and the woman who helped create the “give cancer the pink slip” pink ribbon campaign in 1992, wore a pink jacket as the keynote speaker at the Jewish Federation of Dallas Women’s Luncheon. Although she looked pretty, she used some ugly words – words like CANCER, a word only whispered before Lauder had the nerve to say it out loud in 1993, when she created the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and empowered millions of women to say, without embarrassment, “I have
breast cancer. Help me find a cure.”

In 1989, Lauder says she couldn’t find a single organization that confined itself to clinical trials and research to find a cure for breast cancer. As a board member of New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, she saw a need she could fill.

By 1993, she had established the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, which she chairs today. In its first year, the Foundation raised $400,000 and funded eight researchers.

To date, it has raised over $127 million dollars and funds 110 researchers worldwide. Fifty million pink ribbons, promoting October as breast cancer awareness month, have been distributed all over the world. Based upon the fact that the Breast Cancer Research Foundation pledges at least 85 cents of every dollar raised to research, it is rated one of the top eight charities in the country. To those building their own charities, Lauder’s message is simple: “Don’t be discouraged. Don’t give up.”

How did Evelyn Lauder, who escaped the London Blitz and came to New York from Vienna with her family in 1940, become one of our strongest voices for inspiring others to give? She is a teacher. Teachers communicate. Teachers are compassionate, and teachers challenge. Evelyn Lauder taught elementary school in New York, but after marrying Leonard A. Lauder, now Chairman of Estée Lauder Companies, in 1959, she was persuaded to join the family business by her mother-inlaw, Estée Lauder. Using her teaching experience, she created the company’s initial training programs and taught the women who promoted Estée Lauder products. She has since increased color choices for all complexions, developed fragrances, and furthered the corporate vision of Estée Lauder, who founded the company in 1946 with the goal of “bringing the best to everyone we touch.”

Estée believed that every woman could be beautiful, and so does Evelyn. But she knows that if you’re not feeling good, you can’t look good. Lauder challenged each person at the Neiman Marcussponsored Federation luncheon to find a personal path to philanthropy.

“What is your hobby? What do you like to do? Do it,” she said, “but do it for charity! Energy breeds energy. The more you do, the more energy you have to do more!” The screens then lit up with evidence of Evelyn’s hobby.

Shots of snow scenes, sunrises, landscapes, exotic locales, and a personal collection of miniature head vases. Traveling extensively as an Estée Lauder ambassador, and loving gardening and nature, Evelyn began taking pictures. The hobby became a serious endeavor, resulting in two published books of photographs and limited edition prints shown at prestigious galleries. All proceeds from her photography are donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

“This [photography] is what I like to do,” she says. “If you like to knit, sell your sweaters. If you like to cook, do something with food. Give of yourself. Everybody has a creative urge of some kind. If it’s not time, it’s money. Or it can be both.”

With numerous awards such as the Woman Who Has Made a Difference award from the International Woman’s Forum, New York, in 1994, and the Inner Beauty Award from the Cosmetic Executive Women, United States, in 2003, Lauder says “My value in life, and my best reward in my life, is to see my children healthy and successful and committed to their community and charity and to see my grandchildren learning that from their parents. That’s the most important thing in the world – to leave a legacy.”