Posted on 01/14/2008 10:07:19 AM PST by pgyanke
When Life Decisions International put out their most recent list of sponsors of Planned Parenthood, my company was on the list. In fact, my company has been on their boycott list since the mid-1990s.
I recently confronted the higher-ups of my company on this and was told that our most recent donation was due to a matching grant in 2004. We haven't donated since and no longer get involved in controversial issues. This new list came out after this conversation, so I went back to LDI to get information I could take back to the higher-ups. I wanted to show them that we do indeed continue to support Planned Parenthood.
There is no information to support LDI's position. They received a letter from my company in 2004 saying the same thing I was told. They can point to no further donations since then. In fact, before the 2004 donation by a local branch office, our last donation was 1999. Then why are we still on the list?
According to "Ken", Douglas Scott (LDI President) believes that it's not enough for a company to cease its support for planned parenthood, it has to send a letter repudiating the organization entirely.
Now, you may agree with this approach--but consider what is the long-term goal. The goal is to choke off the funding of Planned Parenthood (and the abortion industry in general). Large companies have employees with diverse opinions on this matter... and their customers do as well. By denouncing Planned Parenthood outright, they will alienate these employees and customers. While they are complying with the request to cease support, they would be put at significant business disadvantage against those who haven't shown up on the list before.
I would go so far as to say, LDI's hardline stance is encouraging continued support for Planned Parenthood. Why should a company cease its support at all? If the company stops the funding, they will still show up on the boycott list unless they are willing to alienate significant portions of their employees and customers.
This isn't good business and I think it's too hard of a line to take to meet the long-term goal. Perhaps LDI can be persuaded to at least acknowledge those who haven't made a donation in years rather than trashing companies' reputations over a lack of penance.
Planned Parenthood is merely one head of the Zero Population Growth hydra. ZPG is beinhg resisted by Republicans and supported by Democrats and this is the entire foundation of the difference between the Parties such as it is.
I do not agree with their methods, if a company ceases to donate to PP then they should be removed from the list.
That is my thought as well.
I support zero population growth.....of liberals.
In addition you have to pay $$$ to even get this list. They refuse to publish it on their website.
So will LDI do penance for bearing false witness?
Thanks. The policy of demanding penance is self-defeating, as you point out.
I think LDI is wrong. The Catholic League is sometimes blamed for being too harsh, but all you have to do is write and say you’re sorry and you won’t do it again, and you’re off their list.
That’s clearly more productive. Why would a corporation stop funding Planned Parenthood, and risk offending the leftists, if they didn’t even get credit for amending their ways?
LDI is being very stupid about this. You need to be polite when people do the right thing, whatever their reason might be. Otherwise people will throw up their hands and stopp paying attention to you.
I’m not connected with LDI, but I can understand their reasoning. You have to understand what other companies have done when confronted with boycotts like this. They claim they have stopped giving to PP yet funnel the money through foundations and other third parties that then give the money to PP for them.
Once I’m aware a company has given to PP, they’re on my blacklist and they never go off. This is my personal decision and not one I expect others to do. There are companies like General Mills I simply am never going to buy from again. Sometimes, that means giving up some things I really like but I feel I must do that as a matter of conscience.
I understand and respect your viewpoint. I’m just trying to explain what may be behind theirs.
I respect your viewpoint. However, a personal boycott is different than publishing a list to damage a corporation. It’s one thing if you fear a corporation is doing something behind the scenes, but LDI reviews the list of donors to Planned Parenthood frequently and they search out parent companies. That’s how they form their list.
They acknowledge that my company has ceased its donations to Planned Parenthood... we just haven’t yet done our penance.
Sounds like they are demanding confession more than pennance. In any event, I think turning off the faucet should be enough to get one off the list.
I disagree. Confession would be acknowledging that they had supported Planned Parenthood. They’ve done that. Penance is putting on the sackcloth and whipping yourself through the market square over it...
According to my source, there's a few things you're not aware of...
(1) Apparently the key reason why LDI started addressing a corporation's future commitment to stay away from Planned Parenthood had to do with a few sneaky corporations. Let's take your example, Pgyanke re: an '04 contribution; let's say your company was on the "sly" in trying to avoid LDI's detection. Under the old way LDI did this once upon a time, apparently a company could give in '04 & then when contacted by customers, could say..."Well, we really don't know why LDI is still pestering us. See, we didn't give to PP last year in '05; the '06 list of recipients excludes PP; and we have no plans of giving to PP in '07." Then comes 2008 & all of a sudden the corporation is giving to PP again. Apparently, what a few companies were doing is that they were bunching their donations to PP every 4 or 5 years or so...Effectively giving the same amount, but stagnating the gifts. I mean, think of it: Over a decade, a Corporation could give the same amount it planned on giving all along...But if corporations were only "dinged" for the year following their grant, then a corporation which gave to PP every 5 years would only be held accountable 20% of the time.
(2) My source wasn't sure of this, but thought that this corporate "probation" period won't be forever. For example, they may come off the list if their track record is clean for 5 (or so) years. (Hey, that's what "probation" is all about)
The gentleman I spoke to AT LDI didn’t mention this... and he and I had a pretty involved conversation. You’d think it would have been germane.
My company was apparently clean from 1999 until 2004. The 2004 donation wasn’t a large bundle to make up for previous years. It was a small, matching contribution by a single branch office, as acknowledged by LDI.
So, if we take 2004 out of it—because it didn’t amount to a large make-up donation—my company has been virtually clean since 1999. How does that jibe with your analysis?
I can vouch for their future... future donations will be met by howling from like-minded employees and problems with clients (20% of my clients are Catholic religious organizations). Should be interesting.
I think if they succeeded in getting someone to cut off donations, they should thank them, declare victory and leave them alone.
You and I agree.
Hmm...let's examine your two statements a little bit more closely:
If I both read & read into your statements as is, it "appears" to me that your company gave to PP in 1998 and 2004.
The 2004 donation wasn’t a large bundle to make up for previous years.
Maybe not bundled like other companies to make up for previous years...but for those interested in pure math patterns...makes ya wonder if you're company will be giving again in 2010...then 2016...then 2022...
So, if we take 2004 out of it—because it didn’t amount to a large make-up donation—my company has been virtually clean since 1999.
Listen, had your company on its own accord take[n] 2004 out of, we wouldn't be having this convo, now, would we?
Listen, we're talking about a company with over 50,000 employees and 1,200 branch offices. They matched an employee's donation to his choice of "charity". They regretted it (letter sent 2004) and instituted a policy of neutrality with controversial organizations.
Given the size of the business, this sounds to me like they are trying in good faith.
OK. I got tired of hearsay...you say this...my source says that...so I went to the horse's mouth...well, the horse's hoof, anyway. I didn't call LDI, but I looked up their report they put out 6x a year--The Caleb Report.
Their March-April '06 issue was commenting upon misleading feedback from corporations that LDI receives. On page 5 -- here's the URL http://www.fightpp.org/downloads/pubs/March-April-ws3.pdf --and the Report's author was responding to several companies' feedback, two of which I found interesting in light of your claim that your company's gift was only a matching gift to an employee's gift:
So according to LDI's Caleb Report--note the bold-face below (BTW, I have no idea if these companies are still on the boycott list...again this was from Spring '06): Lora Welch Phillips of Symantec’s Community Relations and Corporate Philanthropy department, references the company’s Matching Gift Program, but LDI does not track such donations. LDI does, however, track gifts-in-kind...[page 5] [Then in regard to another company, LDI repeats its policy on page 6]: And LDI does not track grants made to Planned Parenthood via a Matching Gift Program. (p. 6)
Now, mind you, I'm not saying that what you say didn't happen at your place of work...I'm just saying from the Horse's Hoof that perhaps your place of work didn't drop the other shoe in 'fessin' up to you as to a certain additional gift...and that newsletter does say it'll include boycotts due to gifts by regional offices as well as in-kind gifts. How do you know that one of those 1,200 branch offices you mention didn't give a donation that wasn't a matching gift?
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