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APFA donation turned away by charitable, called “stripper money”
Ok Veeners! I know we are all very supportive on this site, so I am asking you all a BIG favor! Log on facebook and support the APFA (American Pole Fitness Association) by liking their page, reading the full story, and giving them some positive support.
They recently tried to donate to the charity National Breast Cancer Foundation, and were turned away when the representative insuinated that their money would not be acceptable because it is "stripper money".
This has of course spurred quite the conversation on facebook with pole addicts weighing in their voices. Please visit both pages and leave your message for them!
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32 Replies
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This article just really got my goat! I can't believe that a charity would turn down a donation? It's not as if someone walked into their offices with a stack of ones sticking outta their thong or something! (And really, isn't money just money anyway??)
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http://lolorashel.blogspot.com/2011/02/strippers-get-breast-cancer-too.html
Here is another poler weighing in on the controversy!
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Veena and I have discussed our stance on this and I am posting as she is currently significantly under the weather.
The National Breast Cancer Foundation is a wonderful organization who has saved many millions of womens' lives by starting an education campaign to teach women the importance and methods of self examination and by providing free mammograms to women who cannot afford it. They are a phenomenal institution and one which anyone should be more than happy to donate to under any circumstances.
There has been absolutely no evidence presented that the money was turned down because they thought that it was given by strippers, or that they even thought after an explanation that it was given by strippers. To the best of our knowledge it was turned down due to their donation requirements which are set forth in the charter for the organization. Statements to the contrary made by the article's author are nothing more than assertion and grand assumption meant to sway the audience to anger.
The writer refused to donate anonymously or under a name that would meet the requirements as set forth by the National Breast Cancer Foundation. The writer of the article also failed to research the foundation to determine their donation requirements or gain their approval before planning a fundraiser to benefit the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
In the end it is about the cause and not our pride. It is about educating women about breast cancer, it is about making sure everyone, even those who do not have the financial means have access to mammograms. We should not slander organizations who are doing good things.
We all seek to expand the acceptance of pole as a sport and an art but we cannot further that cause by reaching out and attacking organizations who are doing great good in our society. We won't further our cause by attacking organizations who have experienced their own growing pains and roadblocks. We certainly won't gain anyones favor by biting the hand that has saved so many millions of lives.
We would gladly support a positive initiative to try and resolve this dispute but we cannot and will not support assertion and assumption at the cost of an organization who has done so much good for the world.
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Hi Webmaster (and Veena) – thanks for a well-thought out response – I was shocked and upset when I heard the news this morning, but also figured there might be more to the story than met the eye.
Just so we can be informed, can you link to the info regarding donation requirements you are referencing? I'm on http://www.nationalbreastcancer.org/How-To-Help/Donate-Online.aspx right now – I'm trying to find the charter you mention, but a site search for "Charter" comes up empty.
Or is this found in other literature not available on the web? I just want to know as much as possible about the situation and the organization.
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Charters and donation requirements are not usually published, because they can be complex documents. Generally the best idea if you want to put on a charitable event of any kind is contact your potential beneficiary and ask them if you can donate under the name of your company, what their rules are as far as using their name, and anything else specific to your event.
It is also important to remember that there are many, many organizations that experience similiar responses. In these cases they will often times give anonymously or partner with another company such as a radio station who can submit the donation, because they know the cause is much more important than their own pride.
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the APFA just posted this on their facebook:
"It appears some of you think that they used the word "stripper". Please the note said "Apparently our money to them is stripper money". We can't release details of their email to the public but the answer is a NO to pole dance fitness money. They never used the word "strippers" in the email. Anybody smart enough to read the email can obviously read between the lines, hence the word "apparently" in this status. Thought we should make this clear. Thank you all for the support and suggestions via email for other charities to consider. We will look into all of them."
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sorry, for some reason after i pasted the content into the box i coudln't edit the text! they actually posted that a few hours ago.
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@amy – This is unfortunately what we are talking about. You shouldn't back a defamatory article with assertion and assumption. You can read the full article at Pole Spin Magazine, you will have to google for it as we won't link to the article. You will notice the header graphic on the front page of their site reads "No Stripper Money Allowed". Which immediately leads a person to believe that the National Breast Cancer Foundation made this statement.
If we are to be taken seriously as an industry we have to put on an air of respect. We have to show people generosity and kindness, and when we are misunderstood or mis-categorized we need to kindly educate.
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Just to clarify..
I brought this topic up as a chance to urge polers to educate the nbcf on pole dance and fitness. And regardless of the activity used to raise money I think they should have graciously accepted it. Money is still money.
I certainly dont think people shouldn’t donate or support a cause that has helped a lot of people. I just found the situation distasteful.
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As I stated on Joels FB page…I would really like to know more details and if it was a specific location of the organization. One facility does not make the whole bad, just like if you went to one IHOP and got a lousy meal that does not mean all are bad. I also saw nothing in the Pole Spin article that stated any real facts of the situation.
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@STL – In this case money wasn't just money. If it was, Tinu would have given it with no strings attached. In this case money came with strings, a requirement that the NBCF accept a platform and a name that they have not pledged to support. The NBCF pledged to support breast cancer education and free mammograms not the acceptance of pole. Educating the world about pole is our job not that of the NBCF.
This really isn't about the NBCF understanding pole, the NBCF simply couldn't accept the donation under the name that Tinu was requiring them to accept it under. There are many reasonable explanations for this. Tinu, however, could have easily donated under another name or anonymously, but rather than understand that charity is about helping people and not about ones own pride she turned it into a platform and demonized a charity that has done alot of good work and saved alot of people, and in no way caused harm to Tinu.
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I think chem and webmaster make valid points. its not another orgs job to promote pole. its up to each one of us to take that on, if we so choose to. raising money for a great cause should be done from the heart and not for publicity. helping one more woman fight cancer is what's ultimately important . this debate takes away from that!!!! sad day for pole!!! im not saying that anyone should not support tinu but personally i am not likely to support such behavior and will likely take measures to take her, the magazine, and apfa off of my facebook account!!!
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These were a few of my comments. This entire situation with the National Breast Cancer Foundation really saddens me. I have lost family members to Breast Cancer, my family is actually involved in a study for breast cancer (I, myself declined as I had no desire to know if I have "the" gene or not). I had a triple lumpectomy in "94", they were benign.
Though I wasn't happy to hear this news… I still intend to support Breast Cancer Research and awareness…Cancer unfortunately is bigger than we are, and I believe (after getting over the initial shock) that we can best serve our sport by not personalizing this. We can hold our heads high and show our more graceful and grateful side and not allow this to beat us down…it's what others would expect. I chose to show them that's not how we are. Believe me, as a woman that has had a breast cancer scare, I understand why everyone was so upset…and that's ok…so now let's pick ourselves up, brush off the dust and continue to make a POSITIVE impact on our communities, because one day pole will have earned the respect it deserves! I want to be a part of the reason that happens!!
My stance is this…I am moving on to focuss on further educating my community..one person, one student at a time. My actions and how I present myself to the public eye (that is already scrutinizing me) must be positive if I hope to achieve changing even one persons attitude regarding pole. Much love and Happy Poling!!
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I'm a total nerd but in my journalism classes we are currently discussing how important it is to have all sides of the story before making any assertions about a situation….I think people should have taken the time to find out all the information before accusing them of calling us "strippers" which isn't true. STL….I feel like if the breast cancer awareness people saw this thread they would probably be even less likely to take money from pole fundraisers because of how we're all suddenly talking about it and they didn't even do anything – they really didn't do anything distaseful if they're just honoring their rules about accepting donation money. I highly doubt that this is the only time they have ever not accepted a donation, I am sure there have been other non-pole related groups that have probably gotten turned down for some reason or another. Money is money but they most likely have a standard set of rules as to how they go about accepting their donations, and someone didn't look into it far enough to make sure their donation would be accepted. And maybe they are anti-pole even though they have not called us "strippers", but it's an organization that benefits thousands of women (a lot of whom would probably would be interested in pole) and our donation money goes primarily toward them getting access to medical care etc and not the people who run the organization. Even If they had called us strippers, I would still donate because it's not about the people who run it, it's about the women and their families who benefit from it, and as women I feel we should look at that as the bottom line.
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I would be suprised if the donation was 'turned down'. The breast cancer organization probably just didn't want the AFPA to use their logo to say they are donating. I'm sure the organization will take money from anyone(they would probably take from drug dealers, if know one knew about it), they just only want certain organizations affiliated with their business…..
That is right, I said business…..even though a charitable organization, it still has to be run like a business, otherwise, they would have no organization to help generate the money donated to people with Breast Cancer. And as a business they are entitled to be involved with whatever organization they feel is the most suitable. They probably have a strong support from conservative groups that would think it was inappropriate to be associated with a pole dancing organization. The fact is pole dancing is still not accepted by many people. They are probably not willing to have these risks. It is very unfortunate that they didn't want to be associated with a pole dancing organization. If it truly is about just getting the money to the women who need it, then they(breast cancer organization) need to consider if their involvement with the AFPA could result in loosing alot of funding they currently have.
Normally when a business/ organization, promotes their event announcing money being given away to a charitable organization, they ask in advance so they can use the logo of the charity to show their patrons they are supportive of this group and donating X to the organization.. Which would be beneficial for any given company because, patrons always like to know their money is helping other people, Well. this too is a business move. Unfortunately, sounds like AFPA didn't do their research before they started announcing they were giving to this organization, which to me sounds lazy, not to mention illegal to use another organizations logo/ name without the organizations consent. .
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