More On The Komen Foundation

The above image was found on the blog Dammit Janet. There it was labeled the "new Komen logo". Considering the right-wing politics that has recently been exposed concerning the foundation's CEO (Nancy Brinker), vice-president (Karen Handel), and Board of Directors, the label has the ring of truth. They put their right-wing politics over the importance of poor and uninsured women being able to get early breast cancer screening -- and even though they have apologized for the announcement they made, they have not promised to continue future funding for these screenings at Planned Parenthood (or anywhere else).

The Komen Foundation's political attack has seriously damaged their image and it will probably take years for them to recover, if they ever do. And it has caused many people to look a lot more closely at the foundation and its actions -- and some of the things they are finding are not very pretty. For instance, the foundation spends over a $1 million a year (of charitable donations) to sue other charitable organizations for using the color pink or the words "for the cure" in their fund-raising efforts. Is this really a wise use of donated funds -- funds that were donated to fight breast cancer?

And that is not the only questionable use of donated funds. The CEO of the Komen Foundation receives an annual salary of $459,406.00 a year. That's more than the salary of the President of the United States. That bothers me. Should the head of a charitable organization, any charitable organization, be making nearly half a million dollars a year in salary?

In the 2009-2010 fiscal year, the Komen Foundation reported the following expenses:
$140.8 million (39.1%) was spent on public education
$75.4 million (20.9%) was spent on research
$46.9 million (13.0%) was spent on health screenings
$20.1 million (5.6%) was spent on treatment services
$36.1 million (10.0%) was spent on fund-raising expenses
$40.6 million (11.3%) for general and administrative expenses
TOTAL EXPENSES = $359.9 million

That makes it look like they are spending 78.7% of all donations to actually fight breast cancer in some way. But that is not quite true. While the expenses for the year was $359.9 million, the Komen Foundation actually had an income for the year of about $400 million. What happened to the other $40.1 million (about 10% of their income)? Did you know the foundation plays the stock market? Since all other expenses are accounted for, this obviously is money they use to play the stock market. I think most people who donate to the Komen Foundation are unaware that 10% of the foundation's income goes into the stock market, and I doubt they would approve of it. Their money was donated to be used in the fight against breast cancer -- not gambled in the stock market.

When you consider the actual income of the foundation (instead of just expenses), the percentages change:
35.2% was spent on public education
18.85% was spent on research
11.7% was spent on health screenings
5.0% was spent on treatment services

That means that only 70.8% of their income was spent on cancer related expenses (not 78.7%). Which of course means that 29.2% of their income goes to non-cancer related things. I wonder if the contributors know that only 7 out of 10 dollars goes to the purpose for which the foundation claims it was created to do?

And then you have the issue of "pink-washing". The Komen Foundation receives about $55 million a year from corporations -- and in return, these corporations get the Komen Foundation's seal of approval by allowing them to use the foundation's name and pink ribbon logo. It creates the perception that these companies only produce safe products that can be counted on to not harm consumers. Sadly, that is not necessarily true -- and some of those products actually contain cancer-causing chemicals.

Frankly, I'm beginning to think the Komen Foundation is a nest of vipers -- who care more for their income and politics than they do the health of women. I'm not at all sure I can ever trust them again. There are many other organizations that raise money for breast cancer research and treatment, and you can go to this website to find them. Donating to defeat breast cancer is a good thing. Donating to the Komen Foundation is not.