Case Analysis: Susan G. Komen for the Cure vs. Planned Parenthood

By Katharina Volkmer

Situation

Susan G. Komen for the Cure (SGK) decided to stop making grants for breast exams to Planned Parenthood (PP), a decision that the Foundation later reversed. The first announcement caused an immense social media backlash, political posturing and a huge amount of donations for Planned Parenthood.

SGK’s Strategy

In mid-December, SGK informed PP about stopping grants. On January 31, the Associated Press broke the news and an immense social media reaction started (Miller, 2012). People’s dissatisfaction about the decision was expressed on Twitter, Facebook and on various individual blogs. News stations reported about the reactions on social media platforms, causing numerous reports in TV and radio broadcast and print coverage.

Even though SGK initiated the announcement, for about 24 hours, it did not provide a statement, no expression nor an apology about its decision. SGK did not respond to negative comments and its activity on Twitter was not frequent (Miller, 2012). The organization even declined interviews with network news and major newspapers. Its defensive position seemed like the Foundation was hoping that the crisis would end soon. SGK’s position was criticized publicly, as it did not listen and engage with affected groups of interest that supported it for many years. In the late evening of February 1st, the Foundation finally started publishing responses on Twitter and released a video response on YouTube (Jacobson, 2012). On the next day, after deleting negative posts on Facebook, the Foundation claimed that it was acting “in the best interests of women” (Jacobson, 2012). Three days later, the Foundation was forced to retreat and reversed the announcement and finally commented with an official apology from Nancy Brinker, SGK’s founder