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As long as Susan G. Komen for the Cure has funded
Planned Parenthood, it has walked a tightrope between pro-choice and
anti-abortion donors. For years, according to Komen insiders, faith-based
challenges would arise and subside. As an organization that grew from a
core mission to address the issue of breast cancer into a marketing machine,
this was a serious problem. It's a question of balance between mission
and marketing. If you are a faith-based charity, you don't hit up
atheists for donations. If, on the other hand, your mission becomes that
of raising money for the cause, and granting a good bit of it to other
nonprofit organizations, then you have to pay more attention to how your
mission strikes your potential donor. That is to say, you become political .
Nancy Brinker, founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen For the Cure, has long enjoyed
a halo as a nonprofit sector leader with a stellar reputation. She was seen not
only as a consummate fundraiser, a leader who would wear the headdress for the
cause, but also as a leader of unimpeachable personal integrity. That
state of grace, sadly, has collapsed under credible suspicions of a significant
breach of mission and ethics. "
Read the entire article, an Editor's Pick, at Open Salon:
