Komen disparities again

Of course, Nancy Brinker, founder and president of the Komen Foundation for the Cure (because they trade marked 'for the cure') had to grab onto the Angelina Jolie announcement. She latched onto the disparities of availability of the BRCA test and affordability of breast cancer treatment for lower income women.

Why doesn't this surprise me?

Anyway I digress. She was very proud to announce that Komen has donated a whopping $34 million dollars for BRCA research since their start, out of the total $755 million research investment.

$34 million is peanuts for them.

In their fiscal 2012, Komen raised $342 million. In one year. So if you do a little math, their total BRCA research investment is 1/10th of their total annual revenues. It only took them 30 years to reach that number (they started in 1982). What they have donated to research over 30 years, would take them just over 2 years to reach at their current revenues.

So Komen doesn't really fund research. They fund community programs and also spend a lot of money on pinkification. I guess if you don't think they fund research this is okay. I think we all thought they funded research.

Why do I blog about Komen? Because they just irritate me so much. They are a really good example of a poorly run organization which has problems with putting their foot in their mouth regularly and they might have just done it again.

All Ms. Brinker's post did for me was highlight more discrepancies in what they do vs what we all thought they did.

If you want to help fund cancer research do not donate to Komen, send your money elsewhere.