Worst Week in the World goes to the folks at the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization, whose leadership managed to immolate their brand almost overnight. They did it by pulling their funding from Planned Parenthood, an organization with whom they shared a long-standing partnership. Planned Parenthood offers an array of services to women and families, but lately they have been demonized because they also happen to be an abortion provider. [I shouldn't have to point this out, but I will: it's an election year, and if you are at all curious who is doing the demonizing, well, you can blame Republican operatives working out of the RNC headquarters in Washington, D.C., writing what they hope will be successful talking points for whatever lunatic Republican candidate will take them. More on this in a minute.]
Why would the Komen people do this? Why would they pull their funding from an organization like Planned Parenthood, which wasn't even providing abortions with their Komen dollars -- they were offering breast screenings and exams.
Of course, they must have had a good reason. Their founder, Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, said that it had to do with a re-structured grants and funding system.
As a guy who works for a community funder, I can sympathize with that argument.
The problem is, there is a preponderance of evidence which would suggest that the whole "grants re-structuring" thing is, well, a load of crap.
First of all, Ambassador Brinker, the sister of the actual Susan G. Komen, who died of breast cancer in 1980 at the age of 36, is a pretty well-credentialed Republican. She was a multiple George W. Bush appointee, serving on the Board of Trustees for the Kennedy Center, as the Chief of Protocol in the Bush Administration, and as Bush's Ambassador to Hungary.
She served on a committee monitoring R & D in breast cancer research presided over by then-Vice President Dan Quayle.
She was a George H.W. Bush appointee to the President's Cancer Panel. And in 1986, Reagan appointed her to the National Cancer Advisory Board.
Well, maybe simply analyzing the political affiliation of the founder of the organization is unfair.
Problem is, there's more. Look at what Karen Handel re-tweeted:
Oh, you don't know who Karen Handel is. Sorry about that.
Turns out she is more than just Georgia's former Secretary of State, as stated in her Twitter bio.
She is the Senior Vice President for Public Policy for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and the fact that she would re-tweet what you've read above (from a Republican political operative, no less) ought to be testament enough to Komen's tone-deafness of this whole affair.
Though I'd say the connection to conservative politics is a bit more tenuous here, a lot of folks have found this page, complete with a slightly unnerving picture of a pink Walther .22 handgun, and wondered aloud how Komen could value a sponsorship with an instrument of death and carnage more than an organization which actually does the good work they, well, used to fund.
Lest you accuse me of suggesting this conservative-lead organization is engaging in bad public policy based solely on their conservatism alone, let me take the time to note that this move was widely protested within the Komen organization itself. Seven Komen affiliates in California registered a very public protest of the move. Komen affiliates in Oregon, Washington and Puget Sound protested the move as well.
But the real proof came from a Komen board member himself, published in the New York Times today:
Komen’s founder and chief executive, Nancy G. Brinker, held a news conference Thursday and insisted that the organization’s decision had nothing to do with abortion or politics. Rather, she said, it resulted from improved grant-making procedures and was not intended to make a target of Planned Parenthood.
“We think this is the right thing to do from a stewardships standpoint,” Ms. Brinker said.
Her comments directly contradicted those of John D. Raffaelli, a Komen board member and Washington lobbyist, who told The New York Times on Wednesday that Komen made the changes to its grant-making process specifically to end its relationship with Planned Parenthood. Mr. Raffaelli said that Komen had become increasingly worried that an investigation of Planned Parenthood by Representative Cliff Stearns, Republican of Florida, would damage Komen’s credibility with donors.
You've got to hate it when that happens.
For me, I saw the personal impact this bone-headed move had through my friend Laura Jane. She had done one of the 60 mile walks at one point, and it was a source of great (and well-earned) pride for her. I damn sure couldn't have done it. I could sense her disappointment and sadness in a recent Facebook post, in which she lamented the decision.
This is such a shame. When I raised over $2000 and walked 60 miles for these folks it was, in large part, because they provided these types of grants so women could receive free and reduced cost mammograms. These mammograms save lives, I sorta thought that's what Susan G Koman was all about.
I am assuming since LJ posted this popular Facebook graphic not long after that post, the Komen people have pretty much lost her:
She's not the only one.
As Mayor Bloomberg, who made an immediate matching donation to Planned Parenthood, said so well, “Politics have no place in health care. Breast cancer screening saves lives and hundreds of thousands of women rely on Planned Parenthood for access to care. We should be helping women access that care, not placing barriers in their way.”
The Komen folks lost the faith of good people like my friend Laura Jane. They lost policy leaders. They lost activists. And they lost those who have been affected by cancer.
Is it impossible for them to rebuild the brand? No, and I am sure they will try. But it will a long, slow process. It is a process almost as painful as the one which they must undertake in order to de-tangle themselves from the wrong side of the political tracks.
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UPDATE: After a week of pressure, Komen has reversed their position and will keep ties with Planned Parenthood.
"We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities," Komen said in a statement.
That's great and everything, but I'm not so sure the damage hasn't already been done.
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UPDATE II: Here's the inevitable apology.
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