Sunday, June 10, 2012

How to Kill a Charity

Do you give to charity? I give to charity. I give a few bucks to my school (for what I have no idea). I give a dollar or two to veterans aid organizations like the Wounded Warrior Project because the VA sucks. I give a bit of loose change to the Shiners Childrens Hospitals because a good friend of my dad (and me) is a Mason and he rides around on go-carts every Christmas parade so I figure if he'll do that there must be something good about the place. Plus they send me circus tickets I never use. I also give to Special Olympics and the Autism Society because I have an autistic kid. Now, I don't give a hell of a lot (I don't have a lot) and at my funeral I don't think I'll be eulogized as a great philanthropist, but again I try to give a few bucks to good charities. I've even given a tiny bit to the Susan G. Komen Foundation (you know, bought the ribbons), but never again.

Giving to a charity is like investing money, reputation is everything. The Komen Foundation has ruined theirs. When you accept money for one purpose and use it for another purpose entirely, especially one as controversial as Planned Parenthood then you are just asking for trouble. They're not dead yet and I'm sure they'll struggle along for a while with government and other grants, but the small giver, the ones they depend on to keep the lights on, have been reduced by over half. Komen was a good single purpose health charity with no taint of politics whatsoever. Planned Parenthood is first and foremost a political organization with a high profile, divisive agenda. Plus they've been exposed in the news these past three years doing some very unethical and illegal things such as helping pimps run a string of underage prostitutes. Something like that doesn't exactly endear you to middle America.

Regardless how you may feel about abortion, and I'm not against it in all circumstances, it's the "false flag" misrepresentation that is the issue. They should have never gotten involved with PP to begin with. The Komen Foundation was terribly naive to believe Planned Parenthood was just another women's "heath services provider". When the crap hit the fan where did PP go? They went straight for the political arena to Komen's chagrin and surprise. I cannot imagine a better way to commit institutional suicide that to do what Komen did. The Komen folks may know all about running a charity but they obviously know dick about politics, and it's going to cost them. They have killed this charity.

3 comments:

CR UVa said...

And this isn't just your opinion either. It is clearly the truth. Susan G. Komen is hemorrhaging money right now, and the organization has been noticeably missing from news reports lately as such news would hurt the cause. Quite frankly, I'm amazed the Komen Foundation hasn't tried to completely rebrand at this point.

Odyssey Woman said...

I was a runner in the "sea of pink" yesterday at Komen's Raleigh event.

A team was formed at work in support of an OB/Gyn and a secretary who were both diagnosed this year. The team was forming just as the story with PP broke. I was sure that the OB would not want us to form a team in her honor, as I thought she would stand firmly with PP. But Komen flip-flopped, a team was formed, we proceeded with the event, I had a decent 5K time, and its over.

It will be my last event with Komen. I'm concentrating my efforts with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and their Team In Training.

I learned a lot about their efforts in blood cancer reasearch and how their funds directly helped to help researchers develop a drug that helps chronic leukemia patients.

I'm changing from pink to purple.

Mudge said...

The membership Venn diagram for Planned Parenthood, NEA, NOW, MoveOn, etc is composed of concentric circles. Starve one financially, you starve them all.

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