Do you remember when Komen got into a little bit of a spat with the public over their decision to no longer provide grants to Planned Parenthood? This was largely believed to be because of the conservative politics of its (at the time) new senior vice president for public policy, Karen Handel, a vocal anti-choice former candidate for governor of Georgia.
Despite the fact that Planned Parenthood spends only 3% of its annual budget on abortion services, misinformation was spread, particularly after Arizona Republican John Kyl disingenuously claimed that Planned Parenthood spent 'well over 90%' of its operating budget on abortions. In fact, Planned Parenthood spends far more on contraception (35%), STD detection and treatment (35%), cancer screening and prevention (16%) and other women's health services (10%) for over 3,000,000 women annually.
Amidst the uproar of public backlash, Komen quickly reversed their decision and Ms. Handel subsequently resigned her position. One of the consequences of the above, however, was a fairly steep 22% drop in contributions to Komen in the year following the dustup over Planned Parenthood.
With the increased scrutiny of Komen after the Planned Parenthood fiasco, many critics started sniping about the compensation that Komen provided to its CEO and other senior leaders and questioned their stewardship of donation dollars.
Yesterday, a friend of mine emailed me a note that she had seen on the internet which stated, "Think Before you Pink-my mother died of breast cancer 2/11/2000. Susan G. Komen only gives less than 20% of donations to cancer research. Their CEO make $684,000 a year."
The internet is rife with inflammatory statements like the above and the pain in this person's statement about the loss of her (or his) mother is obvious. It is understandable to want to blame someone, anyone, for their loss. People or organizations who are well-known public personas often get the brunt of the frustration and pain that people feel when things don't go well for them or their loved ones. But making ill-informed and inaccurate statements does them and no one else any good and, in fact, can be quite harmful.
A few things to keep in mind: Komen is a multinational worldwide charitable organization which provides breast cancer screening, detection, diagnostic and treatment services to thousands of women every day. In addition to these services, 25% of all funds raised go to research. To date, more than $880 million have been granted to research projects around the world and, currently, nearly 500 research projects are being supported by grants totaling over $285 million in 48 states and 18 other countries.
With an organization with this breadth and scope, attracting and retaining top talent is a priority. As such, hiring leaders with the talent, vision and energy to continue Komen's mission to end breast cancer as we know it requires competitive compensation and benefits. Even so, despite the daunting task of keeping an organization the size of Komen functioning efficiently and effectively, their current president and CEO, Dr. Judith Salerno, doesn't even make it into the top 25 charitable organizations compensation packages for CEOs. In fact, the top executives of the Boy Scouts of America, the Girl Scouts of the USA, the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the NRA, the Alzheimers Foundation, United Way Worldwide, the Easter Seals and even the US Olympic Committee all make far more than Dr. Salerno, in some cases more than double her annual salary of $475,000. Yet where is the outrage about their compensastion?
The take-home lesson I think in all of this is to keep an open mind and take a reasoned and fact-based approach to analyzing the worth and value of where you spend your own charitable dollars.
I have worked with Komen for 6 years now and see, every day, the value of donated dollars as they go towards the care of the patients that I serve. Each day that I enter my office, I read the words of the founder of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, Nancy Brinker, "Every woman-no matter where she lives, whatever the color of her skin-is equally deserving of the best possible care."
This is why I continue to support Komen and I am heartened that the drop in donations following the Planned Parenthood controversy has started to reverse, at least in Denver. It is also why, as a Komen Pink Tie Guy alumnus, I continue to raise funds for this worthy cause. In fact, you can help me reach my goal of $2000 for the upcoming Pink Tie Affair, Komen Denver's premier fund-raising gala coming up in November by clicking here. I pledge to you that I will use every single dollar granted to my clinic from Komen with faithful stewardship and constant focus on providing the absolute best care possible for every women who walks through our doors.
