Did one of the greatest heavyweight nonprofits in the world just shoot its own brand in the foot — a foot it so desperately needs in the race to cure breast cancer?
Susan G. Komen for the Cure, America's most recognized and funded breast-cancer charity, announced that it will cease its work with Planned Parenthood, a major provider of breast cancer screening. A day after the move, a massive outpouring of outrage has the charity on its heels trying to defend itself.
"Your priority is obviously NOT women when you choose to defund Planned Parenthood, a highly accessible organization that provides breast cancer screenings to low-income women. You have MADE this a political action by kowtowing to religious, right-wing conservatives. Breast cancer and abortion are not related!!"
"I will continue to support Planned Parenthood with both money and time. I will never again donate a cent or a second to Komen. I will tell everyone I know to do the same."
"I won't be sponsoring anyone doing Komen walks any longer - I'll be taking my momeny [sic] to PLanned Parenthood…"
Those are just three of the 6,000+ comments at the Susan G. Komen Facebook page under a PR statement added today after growing outrage about the defunding forced the brand to respond. The full statement:
"At Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the women we serve are our highest priority in everything we do. Last year, we invested $93 million in community health programs, which included 700,000 mammograms. Additionally, we began an initiative to further strengthen our grants program to be even more outcomes-driven and to allow for even greater investments in programs that directly serve women. We also implemented more stringent eligibility and performance criteria to support these strategies. While it is regrettable when changes in priorities and policies affect any of our grantees, such as a longstanding partner like Planned Parenthood, we must continue to evolve to best meet the needs of the women we serve and most fully advance our mission. It is critical to underscore that the women we serve in communities remain our priority. We are working directly with Komen Affiliates to ensure there is no interruption or gaps in services for women who need breast health screening and services. Grant making decisions are not about politics—our priority is and always will be the women we serve. Making this issue political or leveraging it for fundraising purposes would be a disservice to women."
Komen's insistence that its move is "not about politics" has not convinced the outraged, who point out that Komen's new policy just happens to coincide with the hiring of new policy executive Karen Handel, an anti-abortion Republican who recently said that defending Planned Parenthood was a priority. Many Planned Parenthood clinics provide abortion services, although, Planned Parenthood reports that only 3 percent of its services are abortions and 16 percent are breast cancer screenings, of which it claims to have performed 170,000 in the last five years thanks to Komen funding.
By the afternoon, Planned Parenthood was already using the policy change as a money-raising opportunity. "Wow. Just wow." was the subject line of an email from Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. In it she was defiant: "You can't win. You can't break us." Indeed, by the day after the Komen announcement, there was speculation that Planned Parenthood had already raised more from outraged donors than the organization had received from the Komen for the Cure. Ironically for Handel and anti-Planned Parenthood abortion activists, much of the funds raised on the back of Komen's action may be unrestricted to breast cancer screening. (Planned Parenthood recently launched a TV commercial praising Obama's contraception policy.)
Many other activists got into the groove of kicking Komen while it was down. For example, Progress Now Colorado sent out an email asking people to pressure the local Denver Komen affiliate to push back and "call on the national Komen organization to reverse their decision."
Teen novel writer Judy Blume even called out the charity on her Twitter feed. And the wags at SomeECards.com didn't waste any time responding:
Komen's PR team appears unsure how to respond. The brand's Twitter feed, which usually updates several times a day, has been silent since Monday, and its blog is down. The Facebook response and a YouTube video featuring Komen founder Nancy Brinker in a posh setting are the primary means of addressing critics.
The description of the video, released today: "Susan G. Komen has spent 30 years providing real help to low-income, uninsured and underinsured women, and recent changes to Komen's granting policies only reinforce our commitment. Recent reports about those policies aren't getting it right. See the real story from SGK Founder and CEO Nancy G. Brinker in this "Straight Talk" video."
Clearly, the Komen brand has a real problem on its hands. On Monday, it was one of the most popular, respected organizations fighting breast cancer. By Wednesday, it had outraged many of its long-time supporters.
Worse, the brand is now facing internal pushback. The head of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Connecticut openly told the Washington Post that she was "absolutely frustrated by this." That chapter's own Facebook page posted in open rebellion of the new policy:
"The decision regarding the funding of Planned Parenthood was made by Susan G. Komen for the Cure National Headquarters. Susan G. Komen for the Cure Connecticut enjoys a great partnership with Planned Parenthood, and is currently funding Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. We understand, and share, in the frustration around this situation."
Can the Komen brand rebound from this controversy? Share your thoughts below.
Update: Komen's head of health, Mollie Oliver, was revealed to have quit in protest; while Planned Parenthood received more than $650,000 in donations in the 24 hours after this news broke — or more than its annual Komen grant.
| Privacy Policy | About Us | Contact Us | FAQ 
