How Movember Changed the Face of Men's Health

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Ottawa, November 4 – Movember is a top charity organization raising awareness and funds for men's mental health, suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer. Founded by Travis Garone and Luke Slattery in 2003 in Melbourne, Australia, Garone and Slattery recruited thirty of their peers to participate. The organization's message quickly spread, and nearly twenty years later, individuals from over twenty countries participated to raise money for the cause. Movember has supported multiple organizations to help make a tangible difference, remaining true to its goal of contributing something discernible to the world.

Movember raises money for prostate cancer, the second most common type of cancer in men and the sixth leading cause of cancer-related death in men worldwide. Rates are expected to double to 1.7 million cases by 2030. As a result, Movember supports TrueNTH, which handles various stages of the disease with decision support, self-management, peer support resources, and mental health recovery. The organization furthermore connects researchers and clinicians worldwide to improve prostate cancer outcomes.

Similarly, Movember raises money for testicular cancer, the most common form of cancer in men aged 15–40. Despite the high survival rate, treatment can have lasting effects, such as damage to the heart, kidneys, and brain. To help tackle this issue, Movember partners with research institutes to develop effective treatment methods and minimize these aftereffects.

Men of all ages often ignore their mental health despite how heavily it may affect them. Movember claims men usually hesitate to seek help due to societal pressures to appear strong and stoic and aims to provide strategies to enhance men's social connections, provide support, and encourage men to discuss mental health openly with friends and family. Furthermore, the organization facilitates communities to challenge language that stigmatizes mental health discussions and targets harder-to-reach groups, such as rural men or those of lower socioeconomic status, who may be at even greater risk of poor mental health.

"We will remain focused on ensuring that as much of the funds we raise will be invested in our programmes for men's health. We will continue with a cost-control approach to ensure that our administration and fundraising costs remain as low as possible," comments Movember Chief Financial Officer Virginie Lafougere in an interview with Financial Management Magazine. The Movember community comprises seven million participants who have raised funds for over 1,320 men's health projects. During the 2023 Canada Movember fundraiser, over $25 million was raised, with 80.8% of the funds allocated to men's health projects.

Globally, Movember raised $128 million for men's health, with a total of 322,246 participants raising funds.

Image: Movember's breakdown of participants and funds raised globally.

Movember supports many local Canadian organizations and initiatives in an attempt to make a discernible difference.

Canadian Men's Health & Well-being Innovation Challenge

From November 2014 to July 2016, Movember contributed $1,923,149 to the Canadian Men's Health & Well-being Innovation Challenge, which is dedicated to helping socially entrepreneurial start-ups. The goal was to give these social businesses, which attempt to change men's health behaviours, the potential to scale up their projects.

Oligometastatic Prostate Cancer Registry

Starting in 2019, Movember has supported the Oligometastatic Prostate Cancer Registry, a research centre exploring different treatments to help men who have been diagnosed with oligometastatic prostate cancer. The institution combines targeted radiation therapy with hormone therapy.

The Indigenous Social and Emotional Well-being Portfolio attempts to improve Indigenous men's wellness through holistic, collective, community-driven, and innovative approaches. Movember started supporting this initiative in 2024, aiming to improve the social and emotional well-being of Indigenous men and their relationships with their communities. Movember has provided funding and capacity to help Indigenous communities develop, implement, and evaluate strategies to improve Indigenous men's health, as well as implement and assess innovative programs.

SpeakEasy

Movember started supporting SpeakEasy in 2017, an organization that designs workshops to normalize the daily challenges men face. The workshops aim to educate attendees about the frequency of life's challenges, change attitudes, and increase awareness and acceptance of what they or those around them might be going through.

Young Men's Health

Young Men's Health is an organization that helps adolescents and young adults develop their ability to navigate the stressors of adolescence and attempts to educate them, thus reducing the probability of these individuals using unhealthy coping mechanisms. The program has shown improvements in the mental well-being of these young men.

"[Movember's goal is] to reduce the number of men dying prematurely by 25% and halve the number of deaths from prostate and testicular cancer by 2030," comments CFO Virginie Lafougere (Tarafdar). Movember is dedicated to changing the face of men's health. Over twenty years of fundraising have changed the lives of numerous individuals across the globe.

References

FM Magazine. (2020, November 25). Movember CFO: Adapting planning, budgeting cycles to keep the mission alive. https://www.fm-magazine.com/news/2020/nov/movember-cfo-virginie-lafougere-planning-budgeting-amid-coronavirus.html

Movember. (n.d.). Financials – Canada. Retrieved November 3, 2024, from https://ca.movember.com/about-us/our-financials

Movember. (n.d.). Mental health. Retrieved November 2, 2024, from https://ca.movember.com/about/mental-health

Movember. (2023). Movember global annual report 2023. https://movember.com/uploads/files/Annual%20Reports/2023%20-%20Movember%20Global%20Annual%20Report.pdf

Movember. (n.d.). Movember's impact investment strategy. https://ca.movember.com/uploads/files/Our%20Work/OurImpact_InvestmentStrategy.pdf

Movember. (n.d.). Our story. Retrieved November 1, 2024, from https://us.movember.com/about/history

Movember. (n.d.). The work we fund: Canadian Men's Health & Well-being Innovation Challenge. Retrieved November 1, 2024, from https://ca.movember.com/report-cards/view/id/3288/canadian-men-s-health-wellbeing-innovation-challenge

Movember. (n.d.). US home. Retrieved November 2, 2024, from https://us.movember.com/about/foundation