No surprise to me read to read the WSJ report Charity Brawl: Nonprofits Aren’t So Generous When a Name’s at Stake, detailing how the Susan G. Komen Foundation is aggressively going after small disease charities who use the phrase “for the cure” and/or the color pink in their fundraising efforts and programming. The article includes details on other big box charities who engage in the same snarky practices, as this kind of uncharitable behavior is increasingly the norm. Here’s hoping that a dose of sunshine will not only lead to reform but serve to wake up the public to the realities of what’s really going on with the increasingly corporatized nonprofit sector.
Hat tip to Gary Schwitzer for his HealthNewsReview post Who owns pink ideas or cure slogans? Welcome to the Charity Brawl.
Health Watched 
As much as I think we should all get along. You also have to realize the effort and time put into this charity. If you have ever attended a run or other event there is an immense pride in everyone attending. I work in marketing so I may have a jaded view, but, considering what they have done for millions of women and men everywhere, I think they they have the right to have some pride in the branding of their cause. Even in small business, for profit or non profit, I see companies on almost a daily basis “steel or borrow” something that someone else has branded and made their own. My opinion, get your own identity, don’t ride on the coat tails of someone who has already done it. Make your own way.
Dear Nikki,
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on this topic. You obviously have a different viewpoint on cause marketing in general. My views are derived from information learned from both personal experience over 14 years now as a cancer survivor, as well as several decades of professional experience as an advocate.
While a strong dynamic of group solidarity can come from the accomplishment of participation in a mass event, sometimes the public is mislead about causes and what real effect participation will have. Sports events themselves don’t affect environmental causes of cancer nor fix the inequitable health care system we still must put up with in this country. I know from my work as an oncology social worker, that funds raised by the mega-organizations do not primarily go to fund urgently-needed direct patient care, although some promotional materials may imply that they do. Komen primarily funds scientific research and gives some limited grants to community-based organizations, which in turn offers very limited aid to patients. That’s good, but groups like these, which get much of their funding from industry, do not work on issues like doing something about the the price of cancer drugs. Participation in these kind of events is a choice, and can be personally satisfying and fitness-enhacing, but we need to see them for what they really are.
I myself participate in fundraisers of all sorts on behalf of causes that I care about. I have personal experience too in participating in a major athletic event that was billed as a charity venue, and turned out to be something else . I’m referring to the 2007 Seattle Marathon, which was promoted as a benefit for the patient and family housing fund of the University of Washington Medical Center. This was a really big deal for me to train for and complete the Walking Half-Marathon, due to my own situation of having had lymphoma in all the joints in my body, and resulting long-term effects. After the accomplishment of completing the walk, it was a real shock to read the newspaper the next day and learn that almost all the profits from the marathon went to the organizing company, not to the charity
It is really offensive to me and many advocates to witness how Komen , with its corporatized governance structure and ample funds, tries to monopolize themes and exert control over genuine community-based efforts. Especially so as Komen itself “borrowed” the ribbon idea itself from a grassroots activist, volunteering her own time to address the need for prevention and cure of breast cancer on a national level.
You might like to read the following for some basic background:
History of the Pink Ribbon
Think Before You Pink
The Hidden Costs of Cause Marketing By Angela M. Eikenberry (2009)
Stanford Social Innovation Review, Stanford Graduate School of Business
The Assertive Cancer Patient: Pink Ribbons
Joana