Porte-a-Vie fundraising offer to National Breast Cancer Foundation knocked back

It’s a charity that champions women, but sexy lingerie might be a bridge too far.

The National Breast Cancer Foundation has knocked back fundraising dollars from a popular lingerie e-tailer, suggesting the McGrath Foundation would be a more appropriate recipient.

Porte-a-Vie is a successful e-commerce site whose founders have serious fashion credentials.

They include former Vogue executive Lisa Hili, who enlisted former Vogue editor Kirstie Clements (who has since left the business), and David Bush, a former head of fashion at David Jones where he worked for 25 years.

And late last year the company received a substantial investment from Perth businesswomen and Be Giving children’s charity founder Melissa Karlson.

In October Porte-a-Vie decided to donate a percentage of its earnings to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, but were surprised to be told by the charity that it didn’t want to be associated with the company.

“We started the promotion at the beginning of October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and created a ‘pink edit’, saying we’d give 10 per cent of all sales to the National Breast Cancer Foundation,” Hili told The Sunday Times.

“We’d done a similar promotion for The Pyjama Foundation earlier in the year and sponsored events for The Pinnacle Foundation and Be Giving (a charity for the Perth Children Hospital).

“On October 11 we had an email from (NBCF’s partnership manager) Sarah Barnett.

“She said that the NBCF would not like to be associated with Porte-a-Vie as they are a ‘family charity’. When I tried to explain our brand is run by women, most of us are mums, and we are very much about female empowerment and women being in control of their own bodies, she said that NBCF would not like any association with us or our donation, and suggested I call the McGrath Foundation as they would probably be more open to working with us.”

The company continued the promotion and donated the proceeds to The McGrath Foundation. The Sunday Times contacted both National Breast Cancer Foundation and the McGrath Foundation for comment.