Evan Gardner

A Charity Drops the Ball

1. Summary of Case 3-A
The Susan G. Koman foundation which is the largest breast cancer awareness charity in
the country was under fire for revoking funds to Planned Parenthood. In the year of 2012
Planned Parenthood was under an investigation for if they were using federal funding to finance
abortions. The amount of funding from the Koman foundation was in the upwards of 680,000
dollars annually. The Koman foundation comes under criticism very swiftly for the suspending
of funds because of a relatively small issue. All in all seven of the executives gave formal
apologies and resigned that year.
2. Does the average donor even know his or her money might go to any number of agencies that
the donor might or might not agree with? Should donors have a right to shape the way their funds
are used after they have given them?
This is not even a legitimate question in my opinion. It is sad that this made it into a text
book where it is talking about ethics. In my recent interview with founder and bereavement
specialist Leslie Delp of the local charity Olivias House, is that basically any stand up charity
has what is called donor intention. This is when you give money to a charity that you dictate
exactly what it is going to be used for. In other words if the Koman Foundation does not have
donor intention I do not believe they have the right to be a working charity.

3. The decision to break the affiliation with Planned Parenthood by Koman came in the midst of
a congressional inquiry with largely Republican support. What was the subsequent decision of
Koman to reinstate Planned Parenthood politically motivated?
I feel that the idea to suspend the funds was absolutely politically driven. There is an old
saying that if you lay with dirty dogs you get flees. This is true in business and all of life. If you
as a charity are funding another organization that is doing shady work you will absolutely get
dragged through the preverbal mud when they get caught. I completely agree with the Koman
Foundation for suspending funds while the investigation was under way.
4. Donations to organizations like Koman are tax deductible. To what extent does that give the
government a right to regulate them?
The government has absolutely no right to regulate tax deductible money. They truly in a
sense have no right to tax the fascist way that they do. In a country that was born from a war
started by a 2% tax on tea the federal government has no right to be taking the approximately
25% in tax form citizens from their paycheck.

Works Cited"Leslie Delp." Personal interview. 20 Nov. 2014.

"Strategic Cummunication: Does Client Advocate Mean Consumer Adversary." Introducation to
Communication. 1st ed. Vol. 1. McGraw-Hill Education, 2014. 155-156. Print.