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Friday, March 9, 2012

Invisible Children vs. Susan G. Komen

The reason I chose to compare the charity organization Invisible Children (the guys behind the viral video Kony 2012) against Susan G. Komen is because recently a lot of people were outraged about the breast cancer charity when they decided to pull funds from Planned parenthood. Then the people fell in love with the charity when they found out the CEO would resume funding a few days later.

First, if you haven't seen the Kony 2012 video yet, go here.... http://m.youtube.com/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DY4MnpzG5Sqc&v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc&gl=US

Okay, so I have a lot of friends who support IC and Kony 2012, but I have some who are either skeptical or completely against IC. These friends post blogs of peoples opinions and "facts" that are against Kony 2012, but these blogs fail to cite where they get their information from... They are a lot of opinions really.

Im here to put out the facts. I will tell you now that I am getting my facts on these two charities from CharityNavigator.com. A credible source.

First lets start with Salarys of the Founders of Invisible Children and Susan G. Komen. IC co founders Jason Russel and Laren Poole make a combined salary of about $180,000 a year. JASON makes $89,000 a year while LAREN makes $84,000 a year. Susan G Komen founder Nancy Brinker makes $417,000 a year alone! That's nearly half a Million dollars a year! Let's also mention that the IC is in San Diego, CA while Komen is in Dalas, TX. Everyone knows that the cost of living in California is MUCH higher than in Texas. The average cost of a house in California is $580,000 while the average cost of a house in Texas is $276,000(trulia.com). Raising a family is very expensive and as you can see here, raising a family for Nancy Brinker will be much easier than for Jason Russel.

IC currently has 3 out of 4 stars on charitynavigator.com. Komen has 4 out of 4. These are based on opinions of people like you and me. Sort of like Yelp! Have you ever been to an amazing restaurant, go on Yelp to review it but then see some bad reviews and wonder 'what the hell is wrong with that guy'? Yeah, this COULD be the issue with why IC. Even though 3 out of 4 is not bad at all, it doesn't surpass Komen. But how many reviews are actually for each organization? Komen has 645 and IC has only 29. We need to give IC a little while longer to get a decent rating from them.

IC started in 2003 and Komen started in 1982.

IC has 80.5% of their donations go to their cause while Komen has 82.5% go to theirs. Both very good

Another thing I keep hearing is that the IC uses all their money for their film making. This is untrue. As I've previously stated that over 80% goes to their cause, they spend only 3.2% of their donations on advertisings. Komen spends over 9%. Komen spends 3 times more on "their film making" than IC does. I guess all those TV commercials you see 5 times a day can get pretty expensive

My Opinions

I think Invisible Children is a great organization. I don't think a lot of people REALLY watched the Kony 2012 video. Some are claiming things about the video that are just untrue. A lot of people don't understand that the videos purpose was to get Joseph Kony "famous". It was a different way to get your attention about evils that are happening in our world, and guess what? It worked. Weather or not you agree with Kony2012 or Invisible Children, THEY still got you talking about the issues in Africa...didn't they?







No one deserves this kind of treatment. NO BODY! Okay, maybe Kony himself, but only for him to know what it feels like to have your face and body disfigured....

People say that the video simfies the issue in Africa. Think about it tho...that's a good thing. Have you ever donated money to help abused animals after Sarah McClauchan made you feel like shit on her sad ass commercials? Did you "share" that commercial on Facebook? Most likely not. But IC got you talking about the issue and got you really thinking about it.



 

If you don't wanna support IC or Kony 2012, then don't. You have your freedom of opinion. But don't preach about problems in the US and diss what IC is trying to do in Africa if you aren't gonna help either country.

My main point: look the FACTS before you support or oppose a cause. Any cause. This is worth looking into.