Two executives at Susan G. Komen have suddenly been seized by the desire to spend more time with their families. HuffPo had the story this morning:
Two top executives at Susan G. Komen for the Cure have announced their resignation, amid reports that the breast cancer charity is struggling to raise money and repair its reputation after its decision to defund Planned Parenthood and subsequent reversal.
Katrina McGhee, Komen's executive vice president and chief marketing officer, privately announced several weeks ago that she will be stepping down on May 4, and Dara Richardson-Heron, CEO of Komen's New York City affiliate, announced her resignation on Tuesday. Both cited "personal" reasons and declined to elaborate.
Last week Komen announced it was cancelling a Gala in NYC "because we were not certain about our ability to fundraise in the near term", a spokesperson
told The New Yorker.
And I imagine this is a story that will be repeated around the country:
Komen race donation drop in S. Ariz. is called 'crisis'
A drop in donations to its biggest fundraiser of the year is creating a crisis for Susan G. Komen for the Cure's Southern Arizona chapter, its executive director said this week. With the event less than two weeks away, registration this week totaled 4,200, far less than the event's target of 11,000.
The event has a fundraising goal of $700,000 and so far has pulled in $200,000, said Jaimie Leopold, executive director of Komen Southern Arizona, which gives grants to local groups for breast cancer treatment, awareness, research and prevention. Last year's race raised $660,000. The race is the organization's biggest fundraiser of the year.
Leopold said participation is about 30 percent lower than where the organization needs to be this close to race day. Komen Southern Arizona says it needs to add another 4,000 registrations by Monday to meet its grants expectations.
Lookee
here: similar story in Fort Worth:
Race registration down for Susan G. Komen's Race for the Cure
Komen funding is 40% lower than this time last year for the Komen Greater Fort Worth Chapter Race for the Cure following Planned Parenthood funding controversy
The Komen Greater Fort Worth office at Ridgmar Mall in Fort Worth is seeing a lot less traffic this year compared to last, though the 20th anniversary race is just 30 days away. Registrations for next month's Komen Race for the Cure in Fort Worth are down 40.5-percent. So far, only 2,200 people have registered compared to 3,700 last year.
and
also in Baton Rouge:
Komen race participation down this year
Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the nonprofit dedicated to finding a cure for breast cancer, provides about $600 million every year for research, says a local Komen executive.
“About half of that money is raised through the races,” said Janet Dewey-Kollen, executive director of the local Komen affiliate, referring to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure held annually in cities throughout the U.S.
This year, the Baton Rouge race will be held Saturday.
Participation, though, has apparently been affected by a controversy that erupted earlier this year on a national level, Dewey-Kollen said.
“We’re down 1,200 registrants this year,” she said Monday.
So, Susan G. Komen: how's that
decision to take direction on women's health issues from the Catholic Bishops workin out for ya?
Catholic bishops pressured Komen over Planned Parenthood
Internal Komen documents reviewed by Reuters reveal the complicated relationship between the Komen Foundation and the Catholic church, which simultaneously contributes to the breast cancer charity and receives grants from it. In recent years, Komen has allocated at least $17.6 million of the donations it receives to U.S. Catholic universities, hospitals and charities.
Church opposition reached dramatic new proportions in 2011, when the 11 bishops who represent Ohio's 2.6 million Catholics announced a statewide policy banning church and parochial school donations to Komen.
Such pressure helped sway Komen's leadership to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, according to current and former Komen officials. The decision, made public in January, and Komen's reversal only days later, sparked an angry outcry from both sides of an intensifying American debate over abortion.
UPDATE: The Southwest Florida Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, held on March 10,
brought in around 30% less compared to last year.
And I have no idea how I missed it (this story is a month old), but Huff Po has another story that deftly illustrates the insincerity of SGK's regrets:
Susan G. Komen Hires Consulting Firm To Assess Damage To Reputation
After Susan G. Komen for the Cure's controversial decision several weeks ago to cut funding to Planned Parenthood, and the subsequent reversal of that decision, the cancer charity has hired a consulting firm that specializes in messaging strategy to essentially ask its donors: Do we still owe you an apology?
Penn Schoen Berland (PSB), which was founded by former Democratic pollsters Mark Penn and Doug Schoen, circulated a survey among Komen's supporters last week to assess the damage caused by the public backlash against the charity in early February. The 20-minute questionnaire first asks a series of questions to determine how favorably people feel about Komen now and how likely they are to donate to it, as compared to the American Cancer Society, Planned Parenthood and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
...
Perhaps most interestingly, one section of the Komen survey asks participants whether they feel that the organization still owes them an apology, and then lists a series of potential apologies to test whether or not they are effective. The options range from deeply apologetic to defensive and deflective of blame. "We made mistakes, but political elements on the right and left have sought to use our missteps to advance their own political agenda," one potential apology reads.
Just reeks of integrity and honesty, doesn't it?