Chick-fil-A’s chief executives have announced their company will no longer donate to faith-based groups opposed to gay marriage.
That means no more cash for the Salvation Army and the Fellowship to Christian Athletes. The abrupt move has sparked controversy as neither organization could be misconstrued as homophobic.
Surviving faith-based groups in the mix for Chick-fil-A’s charitable giving will undergo more stringent vetting going forward.
Per Bisnow:
“There’s no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are,” Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassopoulos said in an interview with Bisnow. “There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message.”…
The new giving structure moves away from the multiyear commitments Chick-fil-A had with the Salvation Army and the FCA and focuses on annual grants, which Tassopoulos said will be reviewed and assessed each year. Future partners could include faith-based and non-faith-based charities, but the company said none of the organizations have anti-LGBT positions…
But after years of “taking it on the chin,” as a Chick-fil-A executive told Bisnow, the latest round of headlines was impossible to ignore. This time, it was impeding the company’s growth.…
[C]ompany leaders … felt a new message was needed — especially in foreign markets, where the most prominent brand exposure to Chick-fil-A are headlines about its support for organizations with anti-LGBT stances.
The Salvation Army has since responded to Chick-fil-A’s announcement:
UPDATE: @salvationarmy speaks out, saying that they are “saddened” that @ChickfilA “felt it necessary to divert funding to other hunger, education and homelessness organizations” and adding that SA serves more than 23 million individuals a year, including the LGBTQ+ community.
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) November 18, 2019
.@salvationarmy adds that they believe they are
“the largest provider of poverty relief to the LGBTQ+ population.” https://t.co/2bpdOrSYxr— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) November 18, 2019
AAN Staff
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