Nonprofits daily face a variety of challenges to achieving mission. One challenge few nonprofits expect is to be de-friended by another simpatico nonprofit.
But being de-friended AND defunded is what has just happened to Planned Parenthood by Komen for the Cure. Beyond this fact, it's not totally clear what happened.
One story by Komen is that it won't fund an organization that is under any sort of investigation. This is probably a good governing policy in general as I'm guessing it's purpose is to protect Komen and its funds from being pilfered. Maybe there's a performance question which is what I believe the best and most objective reason for stopping the flow of money. And, of course, there are the "political" stories that sort-of mirror the rhetoric in the presidential campaign. The New York Times tried to offer some explanation.
But what is even more unknown is how long this has been coming. One would certainly expect that Komen was pretty knowledgeable of the political issues -- these are not new. An investigation might happen at any time but I wonder that the kind of investigation being conducted doesn't really match the rationale for the policy. And of course, failed performance is a strong reason to disconnect but poor performance also doesn't happen overnight.
One would think this could have been resolved in a more civilized way although another might argue that not having a law suit in play is as civilized two nonprofits can be. Clearly, one of the news media's specialties is to leave more unanswered than answered questions.
This is of course how I will leave the topic except to say that one clear sign that a crisis exists is when funders start backing away. Let's trust this recent experience does not reflect a movement. And if it does, it's really time for the Planned Parenthood board to ante up its own assessment of what's going on.
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