CBS Atlanta 46Statements regarding Susan G. Komen decision

Statements regarding Susan G. Komen decision

Statement from Susan G. Komen Board of Directors and Founder and CEO Nancy G. Brinker

DALLAS - February 3, 2012 - We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives.  The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen.  We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood.  They were not.

Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation.  We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.

Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer.  Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process.  We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities. 
It is our hope and we believe it is time for everyone involved to pause, slow down and reflect on how grants can most effectively and directly be administered without controversies that hurt the cause of women.  We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue.  We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics – anyone's politics.
Starting this afternoon, we will have calls with our network and key supporters to refocus our attention on our mission and get back to doing our work.  We ask for the public's understanding and patience as we gather our Komen affiliates from around the country to determine how to move forward in the best interests of the women and people we serve.

We extend our deepest thanks for the outpouring of support we have received from so many in the past few days and we sincerely hope that these changes will be welcomed by those who have expressed their concern.

Komen Atlanta Local Statement Regarding Planned Parenthood

 Komen Atlanta Applauds

 National Organization for Revising Policy

The Board of Directors of Susan G. Komen for the Cure Greater Atlanta Affiliate understands and supports the need to have strict policies pertaining to the grant of Komen funds, but sometimes policies have unintended consequences. We called on the national organization to revise the new guideline providing that an applicant, or its affiliates, that is under a formal investigation for financial or administrative improprieties by local, state or federal authorities would be ineligible to receive a Komen grant.  We disagreed with the premise that an organization cannot apply for funding while under investigation.  We believed this to be a nebulous and open-ended criteria for funding that would require Komen to make judgment calls about organizations before any finding of wrongdoing.  This type of prejudgment would have made the Komen organization vulnerable to criticism that it was making funding decisions based on political factors, which simply cannot be allowed. 

Komen National has agreed to amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political.  That is what is right and fair.  Komen will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and will preserve Planned Parenthood's eligibility to apply for future grants.  This modification will maintain the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.

The Atlanta area Planned Parenthood organization has never requested funding from Komen Atlanta so this policy had no immediate effect on our local funding of breast cancer services.  Komen Atlanta remains committed to ensuring that all women, especially the underserved, in our community have access to lifesaving breast cancer screening and support services.

Komen Atlanta currently provides $2.2 million in funding to 22 Atlanta area breast cancer screening and support service programs.  Last year alone, Komen Atlanta and our grantees were able to provide services to 151,759 people in our community.  

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