When Planned Parenthood of NY applied to become a grantee
from Komen for the Cure and was turned down, a PR s**t storm ensued. Nancy Brinker,
founder of Komen did not immediately respond. What followed was passionate politics
mixed with news bites and media hype.
Many women were fed up with Komen for their “Pink Washing”
charitable giving and sponsorship. Many people were mad at Komen for being a
nonprofit but paying their top employees big salaries.
I volunteer for Susan Komen for the Cure affiliate of Oregon
and SW Washington. Our affiliate, which is 25 years old, has never had Planned
Parenthood apply for any grant money. Not many affiliates in the hundreds found
throughout the world have had Planned Parenthood apply for grant money. I know
this because for my affiliate, I am a peer review member. I read the grant
applications.
The first year I volunteered to read the grant applications
I was in tears. I wanted every organization to get money. They were all worthy causes.
The criteria in general are breast cancer outreach in education, awareness and
mammograms to those women who are underserved or without financial means. The
organizations have to be able to evaluate the effectiveness on their
programs. Although I still cry when
reading the grant applications, now I am able to get through them without
sobbing!
I attended the ‘Grant Award Celebration’ last week. The
charities that received the grants were ecstatic. Distributed was $1.3M in grants to address
breast cancer screening and $600,000 for research.
To all the Komen bashers and Pink haters, I wish you could
have been in that room with the charity leaders to feel the hope, care and
support that the grant money will bring to their cause. The Komen debacle is behind us and supporting
Komen is helping to save women from death from breast cancer through awareness,
education, mammograms, research and support.
4 comments:
super good points Haralee -- it is hard to imagine how many good causes need money out there.
Thanks Rachel for commenting. It is amazing the groups that need help navigating the world of cancer. It is also amazing the groups that have to jump cultural barriers for breast cancer education!
I know this may not be a popular stance, but in order to hire the best people you need to pay top dollar. If the head honchos of Komen are more effective than their peers they should get paid well. I don't mean outrageous salaries (and I haven't looked at theirs), but competitive ones. Unless the people complaining are willing to give 100% of their time for minimum wage they shouldn't get too upset.
My 2 cents + inflation.
I agree with you Nicole. Just because a company is non profit does not mean that the top executives don't get paid well. It is not by mere chance that Komen is a huge charity!
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