INTRODUCTION

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

Our pal Cassius, he of the “…lean and hungry look…” had an important point. (In addition to the point he stuck in Caesar’s back.)

Nonprofits ARE underlings. Nearly every one. And thus, if they hang around with the wrong folks, they are subject to victimization by a larger force which uses it power to advance its own agenda.

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The above realization came to me as I watched the unfolding events and crossfire of accusations during the ugly, unnecessary and destructive Komen/Planned Parenthood episode.

I was mad. Read everything I could find. Began to understand the underlying cause that positions a nonprofit as an “underling” which eventually can be pillaged by a more powerful force. That is  the unacknowledged elephant in the room.  Many nonprofits harbor this beast.

When I shifted my thinking from the Komen Fracas to Vulnerability of the Underling, I visualized how many times I have seen the elephant trample a nonprofit who invited it into the room…. and how many times I had foolishly caused or permitted such a disaster myself.

Thus, title of this blog page is HERESIES because this is where I will occasionally dispute conventional wisdom. First Order of Business is to publish a lengthy analysis of the things we can learn from the Komen Mess. Chapter One follows. By late Spring I will insert the subsequent chapters. They will contain anecdotes and observations about all the times and all the ways a worthy nonprofit got swamped by a relationship it thought was beneficial and benign….until it was sold out by the other party’s agenda in a form of Mission Predation.

Mission Predation is a subtle but critical branding risk well demonstrated by the Komen mess. Mission Predation receives little comment in the nonprofit literature, yet its consequences can be devastating.This risk starts with well-intentioned decisions in which management or governance form relationships they expect will benefit the nonprofit. Later the consequences of the relationship land on the underling brand like an avalanche lands on a ski chalet.

Chapter One follows. The rest will be posted in a few months. We’ll let you know when.

John Burke, February 18, 2012

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CHAPTER ONE

HERESIES is not about Komen. But we’ll start there.

It does not matter who went overboard first or who threw the first punch or who was more aggressive or more deceptive or more righteous. The blow-up in the first days of February was a symptom.

There is also a disease.

In this brand-damaging, mission-degrading conflict, BOTH sides were victims. Both were also aggressors. Both were wrong. And both lost a great deal. The disease that caused that symptom is this:

over a period of time leaders of Komen and Planned Parenthood let their mission, their brand and their role in women’s’ health become politicized. Both willingly got sucked into the marketplace of political advocacy. Both outfits sold out their missions and put their brands at risk. Both became allies, and eventual pawns, of political forces that had the power to use, abuse and discard them while pursuing their own political agendas.

Each organization was an underling to the enormous constituency and agenda of the other. Eventually, political forces went on the march, forcing ech to engage in and become victimized by Mission Predation.

In today’s predatory political climate, cultivating and/or accepting the favor of a political movement is just ten or fifteen kinds of dumb. Were they to be honest with themselves (and at this point I think the probably will never be) the leaders of BOTH Planned Parenthood and Komen would have to acknowledge that the cause of the recent conflict was “…not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

Political pressure is not the only offender. The same destructive role can be played by trustees and executive directors, by large contributors, by affiliated organizations, by corporate sponsors. In every case, instead of maintaining focus on its sovereignty, on protecting its brand, on fulfilling its mission, under pressure from power-brokers an organization can allow itself to be an underling – a hostage to another party.

“The fault was not in their stars. It was in themselves, in that they became underlings.”