If you want to ruin a highly successful fund-raising brand, do the following:

Lesson 1: How to cut your donor base immediately in half.

Make a decision (cut funding for women services at Planned Parenthood for women to get breast examinations) that will anger on half of your base between their stances on abortion through a tenuous tie to breast cancer screenings. And be in a Catch-22, because even reversing your decision will only switch which group you anger.

Lesson 2: How to cut your sponsorships and funding from large organizations.

The Susan G. Komen charity was a safe organization to give money to. An “All-American” charity. I mean, how could you be against breast cancer? Well, never underestimate the power of sheer stupidity. Now instantly seen as a partisan organization, not many businesses will want the hassle of making their sponsorship for the cause look like a political sponsorship as well. Groups like the NFL, who do their yearly pink gloves and shoes to help the Komen Foundation promote breast cancer awareness, probably have some thinking to do before next season in fear of angering split football fans.

Lesson 3: How to make a bad decision worse.

On first pass, the reason for the decision to not fund Planned Parenthood seems both opportunistic and a kick in the back at the same time. The original reason the charity stated was a new policy that Komen doesn’t fund groups “under investigation.” An investigation of Planned Parenthood that consisted on one Congressman, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who mentioned he’d like to do an formal investigation of Planned Parenthood. He hasn’t yet. That’s it. No active investigation. Such action on such a flimsy premise made it look like the Komen foundation just couldn’t wait to push Planned Parenthood off the money train. And for many sensitive to Planned Parenthood, that looks political. Whether it is or not.

Plus the fact that Komen spokespeople had two different justifications in two days makes turns media coverage and messaging into a confusing media echo chamber that bring up more questions than answers. Such a mess that people start looking under the hood of your foundation (which I guess means that the Komen charity might end up under investigation as well).

Also any sponsors and events that rely on the Komen brand are probably beginning to take flak and lose sponsorships as they become like a political bombshell about to go off.

The foundation reversed itself because it’s finally realizing what cutting off $700,000 became, a proxy for the abortion battle. And a sullying brand message that they’ll never likely completely recover from:

That we’ll do everything in our power to fight women’s breast cancer — as long as you’re not a woman going to an place that also does abortions.