If you're one of the millions of Americans who got angry with the Susan G. Komen Foundation's blatantly political decision to defund Planned Parenthood last week (and then refund it when they realized just how many people were mad), prepare to be re-enraged. Former SGK Vice President of Policy Karen Handel is calling the folks at Planned Parenthood bullies. Why? Well, because they dared to actually share factual information with the public about their funding shortfall!
Wait, what? They told the truth? Shocking!
Handel -- who not coincidentally is the SGK bigwig who was forced to resign this week over the whole funding debacle -- told The Daily Beast that the two organizations had a "ladies' agreement" not to alert the press. Well, why the heck not? Didn't Komen feel confident enough in their decision to let people know about it?
After all, charitable organizations are supposed to make their decision based on their ability to help people. Part of that is weighing out how a decision will affect the charity's ability to fundraise. And in the case of SGK, Handel is still trying to claim that they were losing donations because they supported Planned Parenthood.
Based on the sheer outrage in this past week and a half, it's hard to believe her. But let's just say it's true. Let's humor her and pretend that SGK really yanked $680,000 from funding breast cancer screening via Planned Parenthood in order to please donors.
Then wouldn't they WANT their donors to know what a marvelous thing they'd just done? Wouldn't they welcome the press? I mean, gee, I've worked on charitable benefits for years. If I thought a decision would make people more likely to donate to my charity, I know I'd be screaming it from the rooftops!
This is the kind of excuse that should bother people who were angry with the SGK decision and the ones who were happy, to be honest. It speaks of an organization that has a real problem with transparency.
And let's talk about the flipside, why don't we? Until a few days ago, Karen Handel was part of the executive team of a major American charity. She knows how things work at these kind of organizations -- or is supposed to anyway. When a big chunk of funding goes missing, going public is exactly what they do; because they need to make up the gap by impressing on donors that there is a need.
Planned Parenthood isn't run by bullies. It's run by people who know that getting important services to American women means telling the truth to the American public, not making a political decision and then trying to hide behind finger-pointing.
Do you believe Planned Parenthood should have kept quiet about this?
Image via Tessa Ann Buttons/Flickr