ThePMTEAM blog

I am beyond furious at the hypocrisy and loud voices that are all over the Komen/Planned Parenthood debate. I have seen so many people post on digital media spaces, email and or send viral petitions and they have NEVER before this noise suggested they were passionate about Komen, Planned Parenthood or Women’s health issues. Truth be told, there is NO debate to be had. I have far more questions than answers, as should we all.

1) How many of you or those around you that are publicly posting on Social Media have ever participated in a NATIONALLY sponsored Komen or Planned Parenthood event or funding request? If so, did you ask where the funds would go at the time? What were the administrative costs? Could you designate your hard earned funds and those of your supporters to a local program? (Probably not as they designate them for you through their grant making committee). And you still participated and are now upset?

2) How many of you that are screaming have researched who funds Komen or Planned Parenthood and has a seat on their Board of Directors? Are there perhaps conflicts of interest?

3) How many of you have personally funded a local program to support women that needed affordable health care? Have you raised awareness and funds on a day when there was no noise? If you are upset, did you ever make a gift to National Planned Parenthood or Komen? I suspect National Planned Parenthood  will benefit from this debacle as will Komen, taking the control once again out of our local decision making. Just watch the national media work us all up into a frenzy so we support the NATIONAL organizations of our political persuasion. Now the good news is a few friends have quickly sent links to local organizations that may actually benefit, if and only if the local organization can create relationships with the new contributor that last past the noise.

4) How many of you screaming folks screen the requests you get from friends asking for support for any charity? Do you ask yourself, is this a program or a serious sustainable  501 c-3 Corporation? How many of you sit on a 501 c-3 Corporate Board that have a sustainability plan so when your funders change their minds, your clients do not suffer?

5) If you work in development for a 501c-3 Corporation, how much research do you do on the funds you ask for and receive? Did we learn nothing from Enron? You know the Enron Foundation, the one that left the city of Houston hurting for all those pledged dollars that never came? If we had done our homework, we would have quickly seen their was NO ENDOWED Foundation, rather a convenient pass though based on marketing and tax needs. In most cases the “President” of todays Corporate Foundation, view it as their own money and fund the groups that put them or their companies in the most highly visible marketing situations. We all know that is so good for the bottom line: SHAREHOLDERS. We brand this as corporate social responsibility. They always were and are risky funds to ask for and take without a solid long term replacement strategy.

Are there answers? Of course, we are the answer. We can research a local need and work with an established program, not re-invent the wheel and create a new 501 c-3 Corporation in our own name! We can each just fund one small need. Yes, my family did that very thing when Mom went through chemo and was always cold in the infusion room. Someone had already created a center in their own name and that was fine with me! They invested HUGE personal financial assets and we were happy to support that. We saw a serious need for a blanket warmer, did our homework, stayed on top of the development department and took responsibility for the funds we solicited.  It was one letter. It was seamless and  it took the 501 c-3 Corporation we chose a long time to actually purchase it, but you know what, that was our impatience. Compared to what it costs them to ask for and if funded, wait for national grant funds or federal dollars to trickle down, I am thinking we did a wonderful thing. For all I know Komen has pledged funds locally that we counted on and now what?

Please stop the noise and get serious as to how and why we grow business and 501 c-3 Corporate activity. We best educate ourselves and fast. No, Komen/Planned Parenthood is not the issue. We are. We are jumping on the noise train instead of funding with our brains. Fund your local world that supports your passion. Stay away from monolithic national systems and political debates that distract us from solutions. You want a local organization to fund? C’mon, how hard can that be……….. really?