Bal Harbour

C O U R T E S Y O F E L I A N A L AU D E R ; P H OTO BY R O B R I C H , C O U R T E S Y O F B C R F ( TO P R I G H T ) Learning from Evelyn For Lauder, BCRF was woven into family life long before she understood the scope of her grandmother's work. EL: Some of my earliest memories are leaving my quiet California life, packing my best pink dress, and getting on a plane to New York for the Hot Pink Party. My first experience putting on makeup was for a BCRF event. My grandparents never really separated these things. BCRF stood for making people feel beautiful as much as our family business did. But the memories that endure are quieter. Lauder remembers her grandmother wearing playful wigs after chemotherapy and missing family dinner because she was on the phone with a stranger who had recently been diagnosed and had nowhere else to turn. She remembers care packages Evelyn sent around the country—wine and fresh sourdough—to friends and acquaintances facing breast cancer. Years later, when one of Lauder's own friends was diagnosed, she found herself sending a bottle and a loaf of sourdough, too. Mentor and Mentee As Lauder became more involved with BCRF, Lampert saw something beyond a famous surname. Perhaps unsurprisingly for someone who has built her own career around investing, Lauder approached philanthropy with the same instinct to ask questions, understand how an organization works, and determine where she could add value. KL: It was obvious from your earliest involvement that you really wanted to put in the work and not just be a representative of the Lauder family. You were rolling up your sleeves, seeing what your personal contribution could be. You're humble, you're curious, and you're business-minded. You understand that BCRF's mission is to raise money to fund research. Last fall, Lauder was named vice chair of BCRF's Advisory Board. What stayed with her was the way Lampert framed her new role. EL: It was really important to me that I provide value, that I wasn't just a last name, a totem or a symbol of continuation. When Kinga told me about FROM LEFT Lauder with her grandmother in 2006 and her grandfather in 2022; Lampert with her mentor, Leonard Lauder, at the BCRF Luncheon and Symposium in 2017 the conversation becoming vice chair, she made it very clear: Here is the contribution you made. Here is the progress we made because of it. And therefore, here is why we want to give you this opportunity. It was a lesson in leadership Lauder says she will carry with her. EL: Kinga has lifted up my voice and given me a platform for it to be heard at higher levels of the organization. If every woman had a Kinga, I think we'd elevate a lot of really important ideas. Lampert is quick to trace that lesson backward. KL: Leonard was my mentor. Having him as my co-chair was my master class in philanthropy. So much of what you're describing I learned from both of your grandparents. To think that they taught me philanthropy and now here I am in this role with you, is very beautiful and very rare. Then comes a pause. KL: I feel Evelyn watching over us. I can almost hear her saying, Get together, get together, and sending us pink kisses. EL: Thank you for saying that. I'm tearing up. Carrying the Mission Forward If memory binds the two women, research gives that memory purpose. Since BCRF's founding, breast cancer mortality in the US has declined 44 percent. Today, the organization supports 260 scientists around the world, while increasingly turning its attention to prevention. KL: When Evelyn founded BCRF, she used to say a breast cancer diagnosis inspired more fear than hope. We have come so far from that. When I look at where things stood 20 years ago when I was diagnosed versus what is available now—in diagnostic tools, treatments, drugs, and our understanding of the disease—it is mind-blowing. That is the power of research. For Lauder, the rise in diagnoses among younger women has made that mission newly urgent. Friends her own age have now faced the disease. EL: It's an issue I feel in my own community. I know I'm at risk, and I know my closest friends are at risk. My generation has to make these investments. It feels personal. It doesn't feel like our grandmother's disease anymore. The Next Generation That reality has brought their two priorities together: funding the next generation of research while cultivating the next generation of people willing to fund it. Lampert says their conversations increasingly turn to how BCRF can engage younger donors and how Lauder can help lead them there. For Lampert, who spent 12 years as co-chair of BCRF's Board and continues her work as chairwoman emerita, there is no uncertainty of where her own future lies. KL: Until one in eight women being diagnosed with breast cancer becomes zero in eight, I'll be involved—especially now that I have this one to work with. The invisible thread, it seems, keeps unspooling. 126 126 BALHAR B O U RSH O P S .CO M

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