We Asked Companies About Their Donations to Planned Parenthood. Here’s How They Responded.
Kate Scanlon /
On Tuesday, The Daily Signal published a list of companies that donate or have donated directly to Planned Parenthood, either through grants or through matching employee gifts, according to 2nd Vote, a money-tracking website and app that looks at consumers and political causes.
The Daily Signal reached out to each company to ask about its donations to the nation’s largest abortion provider.
Representatives for Xerox, Coca-Cola and Ford Motor Co. told The Daily Signal that they had been incorrectly listed as donors by Planned Parenthood. They said their companies do not contribute to Planned Parenthood and do not match employee gifts to the organization. All three said they have contacted or will contact Planned Parenthood to be removed from its website.
A spokesman for Fannie Mae said they do not contribute as a company to Planned Parenthood, but they will match employee gifts. He said they only have “two broad sets of criteria” for the organizations they will match donations for: they must be 501(c)(3) organizations, and they must not be on a government terror watch list.
“Fannie Mae makes no decisions about who our employees choose to give to,” the spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for the March of Dimes said they have no “current grants” to Planned Parenthood.
They also posted on their Facebook page:
To set the record straight, the March of Dimes does not have a relationship with Planned Parenthood. Additionally, the March of Dimes does not promote or fund abortion services, nor may foundation funds be used for directive counseling regarding abortion. Violation of this policy would be grounds for immediate cancellation of a grant or cooperative agreement. Since 2007, five local March of Dimes chapters have given local grants to Planned Parenthood exclusively for prenatal education. In these communities, these are the only such services available to improve the health of low-income women and reduce the risks of birth defects, low birthweight, and prematurity in their babies.
The following companies provided statements to The Daily Signal:
Avon:
“Avon does not make any direct donations or grants to Planned Parenthood. The Avon Foundation for Women is a U.S. based 501c3 public charity and all of our grants are made public and searchable via our website.
“Avon does offer an employee match program for associates in which associates can choose to support 501c3 organizations of their choice and Avon will match their donations.”
Clorox:
“As part of our annual giving campaign at Clorox, the company provides employees the opportunity to make contributions to nonprofit organizations of their choice, which are matched through The Clorox Company Foundation. While the foundation does not select these organizations, we recognize that Clorox employees choose to support many different causes they care about. For perspective, year-to-date, approximately $2,000 in foundation matching funds have been directed toward Planned Parenthood. Last year, The Clorox Company Foundation donated more than $4 million in total to many nonprofit organizations.
“We are proud of our employees’ generosity, and our matching program is intended to encourage that. Although the causes they choose to support do not necessarily reflect the focus areas of The Clorox Company Foundation—which are K-12 education, youth development, and cultural and civic vitality through the arts—community support has been, and will continue to be, an integral part of our business.”
Levi Strauss:
“Like many companies, Levi Strauss & Co. has a policy to match employee donations to nonprofit organizations. Levi Strauss & Co. has made donations to Planned Parenthood for those employees who choose to support the organization.”
The American Cancer Society:
“The American Cancer Society does not fund grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates. We have previously funded a very limited number of cancer control grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates to implement cancer control programs, such as training clinic staff to screen patients for smoking, providing patients the benefits of quitting smoking, and referring patients to a toll-free smoking cessation helpline. These grants expired several years ago. The American Cancer Society does not fund—nor has it ever funded—abortion or contraceptive counseling.”
United Way:
“United Way Worldwide, the leadership and support organization for the network of local United Ways, does not provide financial support to Planned Parenthood.
“All funding decisions by local United Ways are made by individual United Ways based on an assessment of local needs. United Way Worldwide does not dictate funding decisions to local United Ways. Out of nearly 1,200 local United Ways in the United States, only a small number (less than 6 percent) provide support to Planned Parenthood. The amount of financial support represents less than one-tenth of 1 percent of total United Way revenue. In many of these instances, funding for Planned Parenthood is the result of specific requests from individual donors.
“No United Way funds are currently used, or have ever been used to support abortion services. Several local United Way partners provide professional family and individual counseling services, which include professional counseling on pregnancy-related problems.
“Local United Way-funded Planned Parenthood programs focus on community health maintenance (e.g. communicable disease prevention; medical care service; family planning; health education; public awareness services; and family preservation) and strengthening services like counseling and family life education.”
Macy’s:
“Our company makes no direct donations to Planned Parenthood. In our Matching Gift program, we will match our employees’ donations to any 501c3 organization. We are a company of 160,000 people, and we do match a small handful of gifts each year to Planned Parenthood organizations given that they are 501c3.”
ExxonMobil:
“ExxonMobil funding for Planned Parenthood organizations have been made through our employee/retiree matching gift and volunteer programs, which 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 and does not reflect ExxonMobil’s philanthropic priorities or support for community causes.”
Morgan Stanley:
“The guidelines established for the firm’s philanthropic arm, The Morgan Stanley Foundation, stipulate that the foundation does not directly provide funding to organizations for programs related to reproductive issues. However, Morgan Stanley’s giving guidelines support employee match requests for recognized 501c3 organizations, which may include Planned Parenthood. We also provide small grants to organizations where our employees invest their time through our Volunteer Incentive Program.”
Verizon:
“We support our employees by making matching gifts to the qualified 501c3 charities they care about. Our matching gifts programs support Verizon employees’ commitment to making the world a better place. To see more about our commitment to our employees and our communities, check out: http://www.verizon.com/about/responsibility/employees.
“While we do not support Planned Parenthood as a corporation, some employees may make private donations to the organization and request matching funds through our employee matching program.”
American Express:
“American Express last contributed to two Planned Parenthood community projects more than fifteen years ago. One project provided services to teens such as computer workshops, job preparation, mentoring, recreation and counseling. The other supported adult volunteers working with at-risk adolescents in a local school district. The American Express foundation also makes small matching gifts to support our employees in their volunteer and charitable involvements.”
Progressive:
“The Progressive Corporation does not make philanthropic contributions or provide grants to any organizations or causes. Instead, the Progressive Corporation contributes annually to the Progressive Foundation which provides matching funds to eligible 501(c)(3) charitable organizations to which Progressive employees contribute their personal funds to.”
AT&T:
“Our company matches employee contributions to various 501(c)3 organizations. Under this program, some of our employees selected Planned Parenthood for these contributions. That matching option is no longer available.”
Spokespersons for Adobe, Bank of America, Bath & Body Works, Ben & Jerry’s, Converse, Deutsche Bank, Dockers, Energizer, Expedia, Groupon, Intuit, Johnson & Johnson, La Senza, Liberty Mutual, Microsoft, Nike, Oracle, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Starbucks, Susan G. Komen, Wells Fargo, Tostitos and Unilever did not return The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
This post has been updated to include responses from American Express and Progressive, who returned our request for comment on July 24, after this article was published. AT&T returned our request for comment on July 27. It has also been updated to reflect that Wells Fargo did not return The Daily Signal’s request for comment.