Non-profits can generally spend their dollars how they see fit, as long as they are falling within the guidelines of their stated policies.
What if the Komen Foundation wanted to send those dollars for breast cancer screenings to an alternative organization that provided health care services for women? I suspect the outcry would have been largely the same.
My H was in charge of a volunteer business organization not too long ago. He had hoped to change the focus of their fundraising donations from one charity to another. It wasn't a huge amount of money, but you would have thought the sky was falling. "How can you not donate to X - they are so worthy", was the response from half the board. The other half wanted to change because they liked what the other charity was doing for Bone Marrow transplants. The membership was up in arms over it - they eventually compromised and settled on giving each charity half. It was maybe $5000 of their large budget. Both organizations are well respected in field of cancer research. It got fairly ugly and there are still resentments on the board to this day about changing the focus. It's strange behavior to me, because both of these organizations do so much good, and it was a silly argument to have. Even sillier if you realize that most of us will have a family member or friend in our lifetimes that will benefit from both of these organizations!
People are stubborn. Most of us like the status quo and don't want to rock the boat, even if it's for a good cause. Change is tough.
I'm surprised there's a CC thread on this very volatile topic (it's been days since I checked in to CC). The specifics of the topic are so inherently political, that I was sure the thread wouldn't have gotten past the first couple of posts, had I been of the mind to start one.
What annoyed me most about Koman pulling it's support of PP was the blantantly false claim that the decision was not politically motivated. I mean, really! I was quite amused though, by the fact that they obviously weren't prepared for the backlash they received because of it. Few reversals of this sort occur so quickly.
folks were acting like Komen was the only source of breast cancer research, etc. in the world. In the grand scheme of things I suspect it is all irrelevant. I must say I like just about any group that is offering cancer screening.
Less than $700,000 in grant money to PP. Maybe I'm used to the millions, billions and trillions lately in the news, but this doesn't seem like a ton of money. PP has a budget of $1 billion. Staff at both SGK and PP make nice six figure incomes. It's all about ideology. And pretty ugly.
-- Edited by hope on Saturday 4th of February 2012 08:49:21 PM
I'm sure it will scare some people out of donating. I had no idea that they had political ties, but I'm not involved in that organization, nor would it bother me. I do think that this hubub has gotten both organizations ALOT more donations than they might have lost. Kind of a win/win situation.
Nah, I don't think it's tilting liberal. I just think alot of people support planned parenthood, and were disgusted with the Komen foundation pulling their funds. I'm always annoyed when planned parenthood is portrayed as nothing but abortion clinics, and they've gotten alot of my support over the years. But I would definitely consider myself a conservative. And there are plenty of conservatives out there who are pro-choice. We don't all follow the latest party line.
I used PP back in the day as a struggling young twenty-something, and actually think it's needed out here in the wilds of Kansas where I presently live. But it struck me as amusing that many of the posters seem shocked and outraged that Komen has Republican ties. That alone, I believe, for many, is enough for them to stop donating. The rest is just excuse-making.
-- Edited by hope on Friday 3rd of February 2012 06:58:22 PM
-- Edited by hope on Friday 3rd of February 2012 07:00:24 PM
-- Edited by hope on Friday 3rd of February 2012 07:04:22 PM
