Regarding Your Support of Planned Parenthood
Recently I came across an article that named 38 organizations that have provided charitable donations to Planned Parenthood. I decided to write all of these organizations and ask them if their inclusion in this list was accurate. I don’t believe in boycotts and stated that my intention in writing was not in an effort to promote or join any boycott. You can read a sample of the letter that I wrote to each organization here. My letters were sent out between July 31, 2015 and August 4, 2015. I’m linking to a graphic version instead of a live text version because I don’t intend for it to be something people can rapidly copy and paste.
Below you fill find the response I received from each organization. Not all of the organizations had email addresses or web contact forms available so many of them had to be contacted by postal mail. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide whether or not they should be included on the list from the original article.
Adobe
Awaiting response
American Cancer Society
American Express
Awaiting response
AT&T
Awaiting response
Avon
Awaiting response
Bank of America
Awaiting response
Bath & Body Works
Awaiting response
Ben & Jerry’s
Awaiting response
Clorox
Hi Tim,
Thank you for reaching out to The Clorox Company regarding your concern about support for Planned Parenthood.
Community involvement is an integral part of our business and is carried out through a holistic program of grant-making, volunteerism and leadership in community service. In support of this goal, the company provides employees the opportunity to make contributions to nonprofit organizations of their choice, which are matched through The Clorox Company Foundation through our annual giving campaign. While the Foundation does not select these organizations, we recognize that Clorox employees choose to support many different causes they care about.
We are proud our employees have long fostered a culture of personal generosity by donating their time and money to help others. Although the causes they choose to support do not necessarily reflect the focus areas of The Clorox Company Foundation, we continually encourage employee giving.
Again, thank you for voicing your concerns at this time.
Sincerely,
Consumer Services
Converse
Converse does not have a partnership with Planned Parenthood. However, as an affiliate of NIKE, Inc., all employees are eligible for participation in our Employee Matching Gift Program and as part of that program, NIKE, Inc. matches employee contributions to organizations, one of which is the Columbia Willamette Chapter of Planned Parenthood.
Please let me know if there are any questions.
Deutsche Bank
Awaiting response
Dockers
Awaiting response
Energizer
Thank you for visiting Energizer’s Web site and also for taking the time to contact us with your comments.
Energizer Holdings does not directly contribute to Planned Parenthood. Like many companies, Energizer does offer an employee matching gift program in which Energizer colleagues can contribute personal funds to eligible 501(c)(3) charitable organizations.
Thank you for contacting Energizer. If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Energizer Consumer Services
Expedia
Awaiting response
ExxonMobil
Thank you for your email expressing your concern of ExxonMobil’s funding of Planned Parenthood.
All of ExxonMobil’s funding for Planned Parenthood organizations has been made through our employee/retiree matching gift and volunteer programs. ExxonMobil’s matching gift and volunteer programs exist to support our employees and retirees in their personal philanthropic giving and community involvement. ExxonMobil’s giving through these programs is based entirely on employees and retirees’ support for these organizations. ExxonMobil’s giving through these programs does not reflect ExxonMobil’s philanthropic priorities or support for community causes.
Exxon Mobil Corporation, together with ExxonMobil Foundation, engages in a range of philanthropic activities to improve education, particularly math and science; promote women as catalysts for economic development; and combat malaria and other infectious diseases in developing countries.
Fannie Mae
Awaiting response
Groupon
Awaiting response
Intuit
Awaiting response
Johnson & Johnson
Awaiting response
La Senza
Awaiting response
Levi Strauss
Awaiting response
Liberty Mutual
Awaiting response
Macy’s
Thank you for writing to us and expressing your opinion. Please be aware that Macy’s makes no direct contributions to Planned Parenthood. Our company does offer a Matching Gift program which allows our employees (we have a workforce of 167,000 Americans) to apply for a company match to their personal gifts to any charitable organization (defined as any organization organized as a 501c3 under the Internal Revenue Service code). Of the many thousands of employee gifts matches each year across the country, a small handful are to Planned Parenthood. But again, these are not direct contributions from the company. We hope this clarifies the nature of our giving program.
Again, we appreciate the time you took to express your viewpoint.
Corporate Communications
Macy’s
March of Dimes
Awaiting response
Microsoft
Awaiting response
Morgan Stanley
Awaiting response
Nike
Awaiting response
Oracle
Awaiting response
PepsiCo
Hi Tim,
Thank you for writing to Frito-Lay, a PepsiCo company, about a possible affiliation with Planned Parenthood. We appreciate the time you took to share your sincere feelings with us and for the constructive spirit in which they were offered.
Neither the Tostitos brand, Frito-Lay, PepsiCo nor the PepsiCo Foundation is a corporate sponsor of Planned Parenthood or its related agencies. Through its matching grant program, the PepsiCo Foundation matches contributions made by employees to eligible nonprofit organizations and projects.
We hope this information is helpful to you and we appreciate you sharing your concerns with us.
Best regards,
Tina
PepsiCo Consumer Relations
060903815A
Pfizer
Progressive
Awaiting response
Starbucks
Hello Tim,
Thank you for contacting Starbucks. I just finished reading your email and appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns with us.
I am so sorry for any confusion Tim and want to assure you that we take these concerns very seriously. Starbucks does not have a corporate relationship or sponsorship with Planned Parenthood.
Starbucks may be listed as a donor of an organization the company does not directly sponsor. This is because the Starbucks Foundation “Partner Match” program provides matched cash awards for contributions made by Starbucks partners (employees). Every fiscal year, funds are available to each partner to request in support of personal financial donations or individual community service efforts. Most 501(c)(3) designated nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and most Registered Charities in Canada qualify to receive matching funds.
If you ever have any questions or concerns in the future, please visit us at customerservice.starbucks.com. I hope you have a great weekend.
Sincerely,
Ashley W.
customer service
Susan G. Komen
Awaiting response
Tostitos
{see PepsiCo}
Unilever
Awaiting response
United Way
Awaiting response
Verizon
Awaiting response
Wells Fargo
Awaiting response
August 16, 2015 @ 12:27 am
A check is prepared, cut and mailed from said company. In my book that is direct support. God send Jesus soon, please. <
August 16, 2015 @ 1:52 am
Thanks for looking into that and letting us know what they said. I have also been doing the same. I also did not receive an answer from Groupon. We did hear from Wells Fargo , who said they do not support PP on a national basis.Trader Joe’s was on a boycott list but they said their only gift was a $25 gift basket to a charity that they did not know was PP. Thanks
August 16, 2015 @ 3:15 am
Two thoughts: 1) Money = Money 2) So if an employee wants his/her donation given and matched to, say, Westboro Baptist Church, the KKK, or maybe a group organized to lobby for pedophilia….
August 16, 2015 @ 11:05 am
It seems to me that if the company gives matching donations to their employees, they are giving to those who support PP. Therefore, they give to PP.
August 17, 2015 @ 12:01 pm
I agree with others that note that funds donated through matching grant programs still finance Planned Parenthood, an organization that performs over 325,000 abortions a year and markets the body parts of its later term human victims. I contacted the PepsiCo Foundation asking follow up questions to Tim’s inquiry:
“Before determining an appropriate response on my part, could you provide me some additional information?
1. Does the PepsiCo Foundation match donations to all 501c3 organizations? If not, what are the requirements for inclusion or exclusion from your list of eligible institutions?
2. If not addressed in the reply to the first inquiry, might the PepsiCo Foundation considered not funding organizations that engage in activities regarded as morally evil by many of its customers, employees and stockholders?
3. Are there unassigned donations to the foundation’s giving programs, if so how are those funds apportioned?
4. For the last year that information is available, how much money was donated by the PepsiCo Foundation to Planned Parenthood and its affiliates?”
I will update the site if I receive a response.
September 23, 2016 @ 3:36 am
I agree with philanthropic giving and the great majority of the matching going to worthy causes and not planned parenthood. So I am at an impass, do we deny the good that most of the money does for other worthwhile organizations, including pro life organizations? I was boycotting all employee match programs that included PP but then started wondering about the companies that were “by catch” in this endeavor. I think it comes down to this: is it legal to exclude a particular 501 c 3 organization from a program where employers match these types of “charities” . If it’s legal to exclude a particular organization (I.e., PP) then I’m definitely sticking with not buying from any company that matches PP But, if by law no 501 c 3 can be excluded then I hate to boy cott against all the charitable employees that are giving back to the community in positive ways. Direct contributions to PP other than employee match are much more clear cut in my opinion. I think about this all the time … It’s a true delima for me
October 25, 2016 @ 5:26 pm
Convenience tries to cloud my view from what is true. I think of how convenience has clouded the truth from so many would-be mothers. These companies either give funds or they don’t give funds to Planned Parenthood. I want to support Life with the funds that I have in my control. Thank you Tim for sharing this.
February 18, 2017 @ 6:31 am
Thank you for your work on this! I found it extremely frustrating that when I googled to find out what corporations to boycott, there was no concrete current info, except from LDI who charges a fee! How is a boycott going to be successful without spreading the word to as many consumers as possible?
October 1, 2020 @ 6:36 pm
It has been a few years, but your work is appreciated. I was in particular interested in PepsiCo’s possible sponsorship of Planned Parenthood, but I see that the matter affected a great number of companies.
Now, I appreciate that some people here will regard employee donation matching in the same regard as direct support, and an argument could be made that money is money, after all.
That said, I don’t think anyone opposed to abortion is morally obliged to boycott any such company’s products or services. While I still find it unfortunate, if an employee feels strong enough about PP that he donates money to it and his employer matches it on exactly the same terms as the employer would for any other beneficiary, it creates enough of a distance between the company and Planned Parenthood that it, in my opinion, is morally acceptable to go on buying Pepsi.
It would be much different if, for instance, we could look at Pepsico’s annual reports and balance sheet and see an item indicating that Planned Parenthood by name receives a grant from the company’s own proceeds or capital gains. That would be morally problematic, in my view.