Category Archives: Social Entrepreneurship

Announcing Our New Partnership with the Prevent Cancer Foundation

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As Father’s Day approaches, we are pleased to announce that the Prevent Cancer Foundation has been selected as one of our new partner organizations!

Life Tie believes transparency is critical to the relationship with our supporters and customers. We like to keep you up to date on the amazing organizations you are helping fund with your purchase.

The below criteria outlines how Life Tie chooses partner organizations to fund. The Prevent Cancer Foundation is especially strong in Collaboration and Process/Policy. They have an established history of partnering with other organizations and working collaboratively on legislative and policy objectives to advance cancer research and prevention for patients and their families.

 

Life Tie Selection Criteria:
  • Transparency: Full disclosure of financials and how funds are spent and allocated.
  • Collaboration: Stimulate innovative collaborations across all sectors – academia, government, industry and non-profits.
  • Patient-Centric: Increase patient engagement in research and optimize use of patient data.
  • Process & Policy: Improve research process and policy to support efficient development and approval of new therapies.
  • Capital: Facilitate greater access and more strategic allocation of capital to support results-driven medical search.

What you wear = How you think

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Look good. Be good. Think good? This New York Times article – Mind Games: Sometimes a White Coat Isn’t Just a White Coat – echos Life Tie’s belief that what you wear can affect how you act and think. While our ties are meant to inspire meaningful conversations and symbolize commitment to health and cancer solutions – they may be even more powerful. Clothing has long been known to shape the perception of those around you, however it may also affect your own cognitive abilities. This article describes a series of experiments that demonstrates how wearing a doctor’s lab coat can improve one’s ability to pay attention. Clothing helps shape our own self-perception and role-playing. We think the same is true of Life Tie (and scarves). Put one on and you may just find yourself making better decisions about health, spreading the message of important cancer research and taking the time to appreciate the loved ones in your life.

Ties = Love

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We get a lot of questions about the Life Tie logo. When people think about neckties, they often think only about business and profits. Ties have always been about expression of the values that we connect with. With Life Tie they are about compassion and connecting with the people that are close to us. The Life Tie Project reinstates the tie to its former glory.

Ties are worn on special occasions, during job interviews, important meetings and celebrations. These happen to be some of the best times to bring up cancer research and talk about what Life Tie stands for. The heart is a universal symbol for compassion and the tie is a universal symbol for profit. Life Tie combines the elements of each into a powerful mechanism for funding healthcare innovation.

What is the most important part of the tie – is it the knot, the patterns, the color?  Those things are all very important, but it’s the conversation that a tie can start that gives the necktie its real power. The power to spread ideas and change lives.

 

Rebuilding the Social Contract in Cancer Philanthropy

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Komen lost a lot of support in the past few weeks. However you feel about its decision to pull funding for Planned Parenthood, the uproar it provoked served a good purpose – it made people start questioning where their donations actually end up. It also uncovered a deep rift between customer values and Komen’s actions. When we give to non-profits, we develop a social contract. We expect that our donations will be used to support actions in line with our values. When we learn instead that our donations have gone to the $400,000+ salary of the CEO or to lawyers who protect the phrase ‘for a cure’, we feel betrayed.

Now we are tasked with revolutionizing philanthropy and rebuilding the social contract. At Life Tie, we started this undertaking to fund organizations that we think are doing amazing things in cancer research and prevention. No lawsuits, no outrageous salaries and no BS. Our funding breakdown is provided in our Business Philosophy section. If you want to suggest a new organization for us to donate to, or just have a question about how our funds are used – send us an email. We want to hear from you. Seriously.