It is a well known fact that October is breast cancer awareness month and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity goes hand-in-hand with that. What is far less known is what a terror the organization has become. The charity began in 1980 when Susan Komen died of breast cancer. Her sister, Nancy Brinker, had vowed prior to Susan’s death to dedicate herself to working to finding a cure. The foundation’s beginnings were honest and just, with millions of dollars raised to help fund breast cancer research and prevention. However, somewhere along the last thirty or so years the organization has lost its way. Today instead of fighting for a cure, the charity seems to be fighting for a private agenda.
In 2010 alone, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure spent over one million dollars of donated funds to sue other charities who were also trying to fund cancer research and/or prevention. The lawsuits were filed over use of phrases deemed to be similar to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Money that could’ve been used for legitimate cancer research was wasted on making and dealing with lawsuits.
The Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation has always claimed to be apolitical and in its beginning the foundation was. But in recent years much of that has changed due to the beliefs of the the founder, former CEO, and current chairperson, Nancy Brinker. She is a Republican who worked under the George W. Bush administration as an ambassador to Hungary. While she held the CEO position, Brinker donated large sums of money to Republican political candidates. Money that had been donated to the charity believing it would go towards breast cancer research and prevention. Around this same time, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation also cut off their donations to Planned Parenthood. The donations that had been made in previous years to Planned Parenthood were used to provide mammograms used to detect breast cancer as well as ultrasounds and education programs on cancer prevention to women. These were services created to aid in prevention and the fight against breast cancer. This cut in funding was widely viewed as part of a Republican agenda to cripple Planned Parenthood and its so-called “abortion machine.” This shows that the Susan G. Komen for a Cure cares more about an anti-abortion agenda than the anti-cancer mission it is supposed to be focusing on.
Nancy Brinker also received a large salary increase during her time as CEO from 2009 to 2013. From 2010 to 2011, her salary within the company increased by 64 percent just as the charity began to lose more and more funds due to lack of donations. According to the nonprofit website, Charity Navigator, $250,000 is an average amount of money for a CEO of charities the size of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Nancy Brinker’s annual salary is $684,000.
In light of all of this, the charity is still, according to 2010 Harris Interactive EquiTrend brand equity poll, one of the most trusted nonprofit organizations in the United States. This October, make the choice to support breast cancer prevention programs that live up to the promises they make. Some more honest foundations to look out for this October include the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, The Rose, and Breast Cancer Connections.
With the appointment of a new CEO, Judy Salerno, the charity has declared its intentions to turn itself around and back into the public’s favor. Salerno started off her employment with the company by taking a salary significantly lower than Brinker’s ending salary. In the next few years we’ll see how successful the company is at regaining the honesty they have lost.
For More Information:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/judith-salerno-salary-smaller-t…
http://butterbeliever.com/i-will-not-be-pinkwashed-why-i-do-not-support-susan-g-komen-for-the-cure/
http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/10/susan-g-komen-ceo-salary-up-64-as-charity-loses-funds/
http://jezebel.com/5881401/how-the-susan-g-komen-foundation-lost-its-way
http://www.somethingawful.com/feature-articles/for-the-cure/