Susan G. Komen Executives Resign Amid Reports Of Internal Troubles

Dara Richardson-Heron CEO of Komen Greater NYC

Two top executives at Susan G. Komen for the Cure have announced their resignation, amid reports that the breast cancer charity is struggling to raise money and repair its reputation after its decision to defund Planned Parenthood and subsequent reversal.

Katrina McGhee, Komen's executive vice president and chief marketing officer, privately announced several weeks ago that she will be stepping down on May 4, and Dara Richardson-Heron, CEO of Komen's New York City affiliate, announced her resignation on Tuesday. Both cited "personal" reasons and declined to elaborate.

Komen founder Nancy Brinker informed the staff about McGhee's resignation in an internal email, sent Feb. 28 and obtained by The Huffington Post.

"For personal reasons, she feels it time to make a change," Brinker wrote. "We are thankful she has agreed to do some project work on an ongoing basis in order to stay engaged with Komen."

Richardson-Heron wrote in her resignation letter that she had made the "personal decision to leave ... to pursue new career opportunities," but that it was "not an easy decision."

Komen has been struggling to repair its reputation since the public backlash over its decision, at the beginning of February, to pull cancer screening grants from Planned Parenthood because some of its clinics perform abortions. Komen ultimately decided to restore Planned Parenthood's eligibility for grants, but the public had already soured on the charity for focusing on abortion politics rather than detecting and treating breast cancer.

Susan G. Komen Greater New York City recently decided to postpone its annual fundraising gala because executives "were not certain about our ability to fundraise in the near term," spokesperson Vern Calhoun said in a statement.

A Komen insider told HuffPost that "employee morale is in the toilet" since Komen leadership made the controversial decision to defund Planned Parenthood, one of the nation's most prominent women's health and family planning organizations. The move was led by anti-abortion executive Karen Handel, then Komen's senior vice president for public policy, who has since resigned.

"Brinker in complete meltdown," the source wrote to HuffPost. "People want her to resign but she won't."

Brinker did not respond to a request for comment.

A number of Komen affiliates are reporting lower than usual revenues, including the Baton Rouge, La., Greater Fort Worth, Texas and Southern Arizona chapters. Participation in Race For The Cure, Komen's signature fundraising event, is down. Jaimie Leopold, the executive director of Komen Southern Arizona, told the Arizona Daily Star on Friday that its race had only raised $200,000 of its $700,000 goal so far.

"If 30 percent of the grants we want to give out won't be funded, I think that's a crisis, especially given the recession," Leopold said.

Leslie Aun, Komen's national spokeswoman, said it was "too soon to tell" whether the controversy has had any real impact on Komen's financial situation.

"There has been some lower participation rates in some areas, but also some where we've seen it increase," she said. "We're hoping folks will come back and support the local communities and support the great work of Komen."

Comments

[Diplomom08]

01:28 PM on 03/23/2012

Woo-hoo, this is awesome! Can't wait to see this organization fall apart completely. I have loathed them for years, from their strong-arming tactics to pink plastic crap everywhere...remember, Komen says there's no link between environmental toxins and breast cancer, so the more pink, plastic junk, the better! Especially if it's sold on their website and they make even MORE money! Good riddance to bad rubbish (the whole Komen Kulture)!

http://dinoiafamily.typepad.com/the_dinoia_family/2012/02/i-never-thought-id-blog.html

[infmom]

04:19 PM on 03/22/2012

The right-wingers were so smug and so certain they could do whatever they wanted to, that the thought of possibly taking the consequences of their actions never came up.

Now they need to race for a cure for themselves, it seems.

[Andrea Rader]

11:48 AM on 03/22/2012

Hi, this is Andrea Rader at Komen and I just want to correct some statements here about research. We fund research and community health programs, so that 83 cents of every dollar we spend goes toward cures AND programs that help women and families today. We’ve always believed that research will get us to cures, but we have to help women facing the disease today, and we spent $102 million on programs with 2,000 partner organizations last year delivering help, education and advocacy for hundreds of thousands of women. 17 cents goes to administrative or fund-raising costs – well above the thresholds for effective charities. You can see what we’re funding in research on our web page here: http://ww5.komen.org/ResearchGrants/ResearchandGrants.html

[PatA]

01:42 PM on 03/22/2012

Hi, Andrea. This is Pat, from reality, and I'm afraid that it is too late to regain our trust. We know too much about your organization. Thanks, Pat

[jennnn10]

10:00 PM on 03/22/2012

ha! i just revisited this article. this is beautiful! i love you, pat and george...!

[George From NYC]

03:46 PM on 03/22/2012

Hey Andrea, This is George, a former donator to your cause. Why don't you ask Karen Handel to make up the difference in the amount of donations you have lost? While you’re at it, you can coordinate with her and start a Walk to cure gay people. Why not go whole hog and start denouncing lesbians and promote the teaching of creationism.

Never, ever again, will I donate to your organization.

[beauregard62]

04:55 AM on 03/22/2012

The brand is poison . Donate to American Cancer Society instead.

[chris784100]

12:27 AM on 03/22/2012

I bet the salaries will continue to be paid. Thats what they are truely worried about. These women make me sick. Ego is a hell of a think.

[chris784100]

12:22 AM on 03/22/2012

Dara Richardson-Heron, CEO of Komen's New York City affiliate. LOVE the hyphenated name. That screams "Look at me I am SOOO important I can lose my maiden name" That is so annoying. I am glad to see that this group is imploding. We dont need a middle man or woman to keep the lions share of donations for themselves when its just as easy to give directly to the legitimate foundations.

[chris784100]

12:18 AM on 03/22/2012

Shocking a bunch of egotistical women cant get along? I guess they can decide how to mismanage the donations properly. I cant stand this group. A bunch of self riteous women that dont have a clue what they are doing. They do however know how to reward themselves with nice fat salaries.

[humbleop2012]

06:14 AM on 03/22/2012

I find your post(s) to be hostile and offensive toward women. I'm not an SGC fan anymore, nor do I advocate what they have done, but seriously, what does hypenating their names have to do with anything? These egotisical and self righteous (not riteous) women are no different than thousands of male crooks like Bernie Madoff, The Enron gang, and not to mention the United Way mismanagement of funds years ago. Since when did dishonestly become a gender issue?

[PatA]

01:46 PM on 03/22/2012

I agree with you about the post being hostile and offensive.

I believe that some of the 'passion' here may come from the fact that SGK was a 'breast cancer' research charity and since only women get the cancer, it has really upset people. At least that is how I see it. Perhaps the poster has someone close that has cancer now, survived or has died from it.

[Kris79]

10:49 PM on 03/21/2012

But I thought that charities were the answer and should be able to take over all the functions of a govt!?

[Sam D man]

08:56 PM on 03/21/2012

Non Profit organisations in general have lost their focus on the mission they once served.
every project is a bureaucratic loop hole which by time an agreement is reached the money has vanished on consulting fees etc.
I now give only to people and organisations within my own community.

[anneeger]

10:48 PM on 03/21/2012

That is what I do. There are enough needy people around where I live, no need to pay the enormous salary of an executive of a non profit organisation.

[Tokie]

11:20 PM on 03/21/2012

I completely agree with you about community based organizations. These types of charities usually have a lower overhead expense ratio and higher volunteer participation. The two local charities that I sit on the boards of are almost completely volunteer organization with only one paid employee in order to qualify for larger grants. The grants that we receive go direct to providing health services to members of the community. Even doctors donate their time.

[The JillyBean]

07:43 PM on 03/21/2012

Life sucks when you shoot yourself in the foot.

Nancy Brinker only has herself to blame. If she'd done an adequate job at background checking the new CEO and making sure that they were not a political liability to the foundations reputation she wouldn't be in this mess.

I was never a contributor to Koman, but I did buy Komen branded products. No More!

There are basic needs in a society and women's care is one of them, seeing as how a high female mortaility rate would unbalance the population and lower birth rate (after all we're the ones with 85% of the baby making equipment). If there is a population crisis, then our country's security is at risk. So subjugating women to second class with poor access to healthcare is not a win-win situation for anyone.

[Peter8328]

08:59 PM on 03/21/2012

It's not about background checking

It's about a "charity" that was revealed as a scam

80% overhead / 20% "research"
Bloated salaries
Suing other charities
Part of the Republican War on Women
Against science eg. stem cell research
"Research" money going to Catholic organisations
"Pink" handguns
Never found a "cure" (or anything else useful?)

The donations were funding the donor's enemies

Watch it implode!

[evergreengirl]

10:42 PM on 03/21/2012

Fanned you for succinct yet spot on posting. Although, if truth be told, you had me at "Faux News"... F&F : )

One small addition: "Watch it implode" It already has.

[MWA1111]

05:14 PM on 03/22/2012

As much as I am not a fan of the over $400K Ms. Brinker takes home from the Charity, I do have to correct you. I heard a similar statistic that you are quoting but it is wrong. In addition to the ~20% research, another 65% goes to detection and education. The overhead is 15% which does put it in a good light as far as charities go.

[Tokie]

11:39 PM on 03/21/2012

I completely agree Nancy Brinker needs to accept responsibility for her actions and aligning herself with the very toxic Karen Handel causing the downfall of SGK. It backfired on Handel while PPA's donation have increased five fold.

The foundation that I work for withdrew its support for SGK and threw its support behind PPA. We also sent a letter to SGK explaining our actions and requesting that Brinker and Handel resign and stop politicizing healthcare for women in financial need.

[PatA]

01:34 PM on 03/22/2012

See my post and Peter's post. Handel did NOT bring the Susan G. Komen foundation down. She was the messenger/scapegoat/sword-faller-on-person, for a hefty check.

[Jasmine Tokuda]

07:12 PM on 03/21/2012

This may be one of the best things to happen to helping prevent and cure breast cancer. SGK was totally in bed with big PHARMA. A cancer diagnosis can earn the medical establishment as much as a quarter million dollars, so there isn't that much incentive for big PHARMA to prevent cancers. There are other groups that put more effort into education, prevention, and working with non mainstream treatments that could very well bring us leaps closer to preventing death by breast cancer. SGK basically sucked all of the oxygen out of the room. Avon walk for life has picked up thousands of people who would have walked for SGK. A great group to become involved with is Breast Cancer Fund http://www.breastcancerfund.org/ There are many other great groups. We must never assume because an organization was the gold standard, that it will remain so. It's good for people to re-evaluate their donation and volunteer routines from time to time.

[annadams]

06:53 PM on 03/21/2012

I was one of those donors of SGK. I put together a promotion that for every purchase a consumer made of a grocery store product that we were promoting, we would donate a portion to SGK. A $5,000 check was cut to Race for a Cure. As a pro-choice advocate, SGK politics just soured me.The only way I would work with them again is if they increased PP funding by 100x and fired everyone involved in the decision to cut PP in the first place. But then, I would still wait a year until this whole issued cooled down.

[beauregard62]

04:57 AM on 03/22/2012

Don't bother. It is a front for right wing politics. Nothing more.

[Bamfhammer36]

04:40 PM on 03/21/2012

Well this is a no brain-er. Lets put this into a simple environment: the playground.

Susan has friends Joann and Laura.

Joann and Laura both give Susan money equally.

Joann thinks she is special and right because she once read a book, so she tells Susan that she needs to tell Laura they cant be friends anymore.

Susan tells Laura they cant be friends.

Laura is mad and she and all of her friends stop giving money to Susan.

Joann is pleased.

Susan starts losing money, so she quickly tells Laura she was "just joking" and to start giving her money again.

Joann is displeased and decides to not give money to Susan because she still wants to be friends with Laura.

Laura is displeased and does not think the "joke" was actually a joke at all and decides not to give money.

Now Susan has no money and no friends.

[Peartree3]

05:59 PM on 03/21/2012

You obviously spent a long time working on your playground analogy. Too bad it makes no sense.

[evergreengirl]

10:48 PM on 03/21/2012

I thought it was just me.

[MWA1111]

05:17 PM on 03/22/2012

Thanks, I got about three lines in and skipped to here. Thanks for saving me the time. ;)

[PatA]

06:12 PM on 03/21/2012

Do you not know that the Susan G. Komen died of breast cancer?

[Albie 2346]

04:36 PM on 03/21/2012

Maybe you remember not long ago Susan G Komen nazis went after a small group in Alaska for sponsoring a "Mush For the Cure". What's the real goal here- fighting breast cancer...or lining the pockets of the SGK mafiosa?

[Capn Scott]

02:50 PM on 03/21/2012

Uh, except that the monies from Komen that went to Planned Parenthood didn't "fund abortions" as Rush's followers so falsely claim, rather, the money funded breast cancer screening services provided to woman by Planned Parenthood.

Interesting how the conservatives and right-wingers distort what actually happens to fit their own narrow world view. There is no "backlash" from former anti-abortion donors to Komen...because they largely don't exist. The 'backlash' is from former donors who are abhorred that Komen would put religious & political beliefs before women's health

[Peter8328]

09:02 PM on 03/21/2012

Let Komen survive on the Republican donations

See Komen implode

[evergreengirl]

10:53 PM on 03/21/2012

Nice post. Talk about right-winger distortion. I was on the Sandra Fluke thread and had to escape all of the crazy talk coming from Rush supporters.

Women have had it with anyone politicizing women's health issues. And we never forget. And we vote!

[Capn Scott]

05:12 PM on 03/22/2012

There is a certain subset of the male population ...generally older white males with erectile dysfunction issues...like Rush (lol!), ....that dreams of the 'good old' days of yore when they could simply grab a woman by the hair and drag her off into the bushes and be done with it with no consequences whatsoever ....like cavemen. And so they attempt to legislate control over women because they feel like they no longer are 'real men'.

The puzzling question is....why do woman not shun these guys, completely? Well, at least we know in Rush's case its because of the money.

You woman have the power to shut these guys down post haste. Time to 'man up' ...as the saying goes :)

[Hiker54]

07:05 PM on 03/22/2012

I hope you're right. Between this SGK mess, the Rush mess and all the state and federal attacks on women's health issues, this should be a very telling election in November.

You can count on the support of this middle-aged, gray-haired white guy. But it's truly going to take the lion's share of the women's vote to effect real change.