The happily ongoing saga of SGKF inserting itself ever so inartfully into politics is the motherlode of all schadenfreude. Not that any of us wish anyone ill, but the Susan G. Komen Foundation has revealed itself to be a bad actor on the charity stage and it's high time they make room for other more honorable charities to feel the love.
To that end, I hope you will join me in contacting sponsors and corporate partners of Komen programs and events. It's a very daunting process, as each region has local sponsors, as well as the national partners, few of whom have their own retail outlets, as they just brand things for/contribute to Komen.
So join me below the cloudline and let's get started!
First and foremost, understand that you will find almost no meaningful info at any given company's main website, often even at the main "contact us" link. The information you are after will most likely be at the links for "About Us" "Company" or "Investor Relations." The main IR contact is actually a pretty good bet if all you can find otherwise is a generic "info@" type of address, but it's always worth checking the page for links like "Investor Contacts" and such. Some sites even have direct links to the company's philanthropy outfits.
Armed with this info, your next step is to go to your regional Komen affiliate's website and find their (local) sponsors. I, personally, was dismayed to find my favorite grocery store (Fred Meyer/Kroger Co.) on their page. But again, the upside of that is that by directing comments at Kroger itself, the feedback will be heard by the management of some dozen retail grocery chains.
These pages, and the ones about specific race sponsors, will frequently yield some juicy nuggets like that: national companies who, unlike Kroger stores, have the same eminently knowable name everywhere. For example, Pepsi, Gatorade and the Old Spaghetti Factory are sponsoring an event here in Oregon. Pepsi is , of course, owned by entwined with Yum! Brands, who also owns Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and who knows what else. Go ahead and snail mail the Yum! Brands BoD here, or go the digital route from this page.
Speaking of parent companies, if you are not sure if a sponsor is an independent or part of a larger business interest, you can usually find out by googling the company's name followed by "parent company." You'd be surprised how many separate restaurants/retail chains/commercial properties are owned by the same investor group, for example.
So off I went hunting down the sponsors of the Sunriver Marathon for a Cause. I found several local sponsors I was really sad to see up there, but these sponsor lists also point us towards some of the larger national players, like New Balance, where our efforts can make the most difference. It's also pretty easy to suss their merchandising sponsors from this list.
New Balance is an important one to turn, as they have been partnering with SGKF for 20+ years. I noticed something very interesting on this page: New Balance has many, many community partnerships with a variety of businesses. But under the heading "Sponsorships and Cause Marketing," SGKF stands alone. Anyhoo, their contact email is media.relations@newbalance.com.
My digging into this particular marathon also netted a reeeeaaaaaaaalllly big fish, Sprint. They're a "bronze" sponsor, which I assume means they're more generous than some other sponsors. They also have a page with some very, very interesting info on it:
Ineligible Requests
The Sprint Foundation is unable to fund requests for the following groups or programs:
Individuals
Political organizations (including lobbying organizations or causes, candidates, organizations or campaign fundraisers, )
Be sure to contact investor.relations@sprint.com and communityrequests@sprint.com and remind them that SGKF is all up inz
lobbying efforts, retaining the services of no fewer than four lobbying orgs. Information like that is especially fun, because it allows us to tailor a very specific message to the sponsors. Use the link at "lobbying efforts" above and the ones in the intro blurb to find info best suited to sway the company in question; goodness knows there is no shortage of issues to be found in SGKF's dealings!
So who's with me?!