Could Susan G. Komen have avoided the backlash?

Susan G. Komen reverses Planned Parenthood decision: Too little, too late?

Komen apologized “to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives.”

 After our class last night, I couldn't help wondering how Susan G. Komen got itself into such a disaster. If you haven't heard yet, the organization made a decision to no long give grants to organizations under investigation. This new policy was followed by an announcement that the organization, as a result of the policy change, would no longer give grants to Planned Parenthood. The partnership between the two organizations helped Planned Parenthood give breast cancer screenings and in turn helped Susan G. Komen fulfill its mission. According to the article, after lots of backlash the organization changed the policy so only organizations under investigation for criminal activities would not receive grants.

Even a box office program like Ovation Tickets has whole profiles of information on patrons. I know non-profits keep information on their donors and assume they keep extremely detailed information on top donors. I feel like the whole situation could have been avoided with a report from the database (no matter what the software is they use) telling them what their donors look like. I would guess, because breast cancer does not care about politics, that their donors span different political backgrounds and have a variety of views on any issue related to women and their bodies. That should have been enough for them to reevaluate the initial policy and never make the decision to cut off Planned Parenthood in the first place. If you have the information in place, why not use it to make sure you don't risk your donors? I would love to know how many people threatened to never donate to Susan G. Komen again or wrote the organization questioning if it was truly making decisions based on its mission.

I definitely believe this is a situation that could have easily been avoided by just taking one day to actually use whatever software they have in house to document donors and talk about how the decision would hinder those relationships.