Should Breast Cancer Fundraising In The Office Make You Think Pink Or See Red?

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, which in many offices means it’s time for fund-raising through initiatives like “wear pink day.” Do you resent being hit up for fundraising cash at work? Do you want to be a team player but you can’t afford it? Do you prefer another cause, or a different approach to defeating breast cancer? Too bad!

Charities have found several inroads into encouraging donations among workers on the job. The Susan G. Komen Foundation provides conveniences like automatic payroll deduction. The American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer program invites companies to make a $200,000 pledge, and appoint a volunteer to encourage employee “engagement.” Some companies invite employees to pay for the “privilege” of wearing pink to work on a designated day, or host after-hours fund-raising activities.

But breast cancer charities are already overflowing with money, and pink-branded merchandise branded as anti-cancer is often a scam, as this great new Marie Claire piece pointed out.

About $6 billion — yes, with a “b” — is donated every year toward breast cancer, according to the magazine. The country’s 1,400 recognized anti-breast-cancer charities raise untold amounts, with the Susan G. Komen Foundation in the lead with $420 million a year. The National Institutes of Health allocates twice as much money to this disease as to any other cancer.

And that’s the money that flows to legitimate fund-raisers. Because breast cancer is such a money-rich area of the nonprofit world, it also appeals to scam artists. Many of the pink-branded products that flood store shelves each October don’t have any connection to breast-cancer charities; other donate a “portion” (who knows how small) or proceeds for only a limited time. And even some legitimate-sounding organizations use shady accounting practices or outright fraud under the halo of raising money for cancer.

Breast cancer is one of the most “famous” diseases in America now — it’s hard to imagine that lack of awareness is still an issue. On that front, the pioneering Susan G. Komen Foundation has done amazing work. It has become a totally non-controversial disease that everyone feels good donating money towards. That’s what makes it such an ideal in-office cause, and so hard to say “no” to, even if you can’t afford it or would rather spend your money elsewhere.

I’d make the case that it’s fine to embrace your inner Scrooge and decline well-meaning colleagues’ attempts to raise money this month. Decline politely, of course, to maintain workplace harmony. But it’s worth thinking carefully about where your charitable donations go, and if this isn’t the right cause for you, or you’re skeptical about where exactly those donations are going, you don’t have to be ashamed to say no to pink.