"charity"

[jneesy]

what you call charity i call a scam

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0509170144sep17,1,4898988.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

someone's getting rich :mad:

[WayzUp]

don't wanna register....what's this all about neesy?

[jneesy]

Farm Aid expenses eat away donations
Only 28% of revenue from last year made it to farm families

By Jason George
Tribune staff reporter
Published September 17, 2005


Even before Willie Nelson strums his first chord Sunday at this year's Farm Aid show in Tinley Park, one of the concert's missions will have been accomplished: Upholding the family farm as an American icon.

But how much the Farm Aid organization helps those farmers financially is a different matter. The percentage of funds given away by the group is exceedingly low compared with money eaten up by expenses or not used.

Last year, Farm Aid donated less than 28 percent of its revenue, according to a review of the non-profit's records and policies. An organization should be giving away at least 65 percent of its revenue to be considered performing adequately, said Naomi Levine, a New York University expert on philanthropy.

The high-profile concert itself, which is also burdened by high expenses, provides only a small percentage of revenue to philanthropic causes.

Farm Aid, which has been more successful than any other group -- maybe even farmers themselves -- at advocating the need for family farms, dispensed $387,641 in 57 grants to local organizations in 2004. This was on total revenue of slightly more than $1.4 million, according to records filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

Evelyn Shriver, president of Bandit Records and a director on Farm Aid's board, said she was "shocked" that such a small percentage of the money raised went to grants last year.

"Farm Aid prides itself on the fact that the majority of the money goes to the grants," she said. "I truthfully don't know how to justify that they raised so much money and only gave that amount in grants."

By contrast, the Band Aid Trust, which like Farm Aid began in 1985, spent $144.1 million, mostly on African projects, between its first Live Aid concert in 1985 and when it shut down in 1991. The trust spent less than $2.5 million, or 2 percent, on administration and salaries, according to numbers released by the British organization.

Shriver, who was Nelson's publicist for a number of years, said Nelson, one of Farm Aid's creators, "is definitely under the opinion that most of the money goes to grants," though she added that he viewed Farm Aid as a political platform first. "He has never seen Farm Aid as a money-raising thing. It was a consciousness thing to raise awareness."

Glenda Yoder, associate director at Farm Aid, argued that the organization should not be judged solely on the grants it disburses. In addition to the $387,641 given out through grants, she said some of the money spent on expenses, including $276,891 in salaries, went toward advocacy work on behalf of farmers.

"Besides the grants, a variety of programs is going on outside the Farm Aid office," she said. "I'd say it's positioned to be a facilitator for family farm advocacy, to pull together meetings [and] to help coordinate efforts throughout the community."

She added, "Raising awareness is just as important as the grants."

Experts say that it is always tricky to do a financial analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of individual non-profit groups, but the rule of thumb holds that a high percentage of money taken in should be given away.

"Non-profit organizations are complex in terms of understanding how it is they do what they do," said Dr. Melissa Morriss-Olson, director and professor of nonprofit management at the Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management at North Park University in Chicago.

"But what this looks like, compared to other organizations of this size, in terms of gross receipts, seems low," she said, after examining portions of Farm Aid's tax documents from 2003 and 2004.

In another surprise, the massive concert that the group is most known for--usually featuring Farm Aid founders Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young--directly brings in little money, after expenses are tabulated.

The 2003 concert earned $1,013,087 through sale of items like tickets, T-shirts and programs, yet the expenses for the show were $853,833. This means that even though all the artists performed for free and traveled to the concert's host city of Columbus, Ohio, at their own expense, the show generated only $159,254 of net income.

To compare, Young has also been involved in putting on annual concerts for the Bridge School in Hillsborough, Calif., which helps individuals with severe speech and physical impairments. That concert in 2003 brought in $1,160,115, of which $76,040 was considered expenses and $1,084,075 was considered net income. Thus the Bridge School Benefit Concert spent approximately 6.5 percent of its money on expenses; Farm Aid spent 84 percent.

Last year, the Farm Aid concert generated slightly less revenue than it did in 2003, but its net income increased to $246,948, dropping its expense ratio to 74 percent.

Morriss-Olson said this is little improvement

"Again, from what I have seen on other organizations, that does not seem like very substantial gains," Morriss-Olson said.

Levine, chair and executive director of New York University's George H. Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising, agreed after hearing the figures.

"That's not good," she said. "If I go to a concert, I would not like that at all."

Farm Aid was founded in 1985 to help family farmers who were facing bank foreclosures. On its Web site, it declares that "the mission of Farm Aid is to keep family farmers on their land."

Last year, Farm Aid's revenue of approximately $1.4 million came from three basic categories: the concert, financial gifts or donations, and savings and investments. Most of the revenue associated with the concert came from direct donations rather than ticket sales.

While the organization aligns itself with causes like the family farm, organic food and environmentalism, its diverse investment portfolio includes companies that appear at odds with Farm Aid's philosophy. For example, while banks are responsible for foreclosing on many family farms, the group owned nearly $19,000 in Bank of America stock last year.

The portfolio also included thousands of shares of companies from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries, aluminum manufacturing, Procter & Gamble Co., and petroleum companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp.

Nelson, by contrast, has aligned himself with the alternative fuels movement, going so far as to attach his name to a renewable diesel fuel replacement made from vegetable oils or animal fats. One selling point of BioWillie is that it comes from family farmers.

Yoder declined to comment on Farm Aid's holdings.

"I don't know about that," she said.

Much like the United Way, all of the money Farm Aid gives out is through grants to local groups who then give the funds to farmers, she said. Farm Aid did not, and does not, given any money to farmers directly.

"Charities are not permitted to do that," Yoder said. "Many people might have that misconception."

In Illinois, four groups received grants in 2004, totaling $24,500. One such group was the Illinois Stewardship Alliance in Rochester, which "promotes a safe and nutritious food system, family farming and healthy communities," according to its Web site.

Abby Rubley, its agricultural policy coordinator, said they used their $5,000 last year for operating expenses, such as travel costs and office supplies.

"We have a relatively small operating budget so every little bit helps," she said.

The other organizations in Illinois that received Farm Aid grants were the CSA Learning Center in Caledonia ($7,500), Seven Generations Ahead in Oak Park ($7,000) and The Land Connection in Congerville ($5,000).

Morriss-Olson said cases such as Farm Aid present difficult issues for those that examine philanthropy.

"On one hand, there is good being done and you don't want to take away from that," she said.

"But that good could do seven times what they do if they could become more efficient, whatever that might mean for them."

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jageorge@tribune.com

[WayzUp]

Who knows...this could be just a case of the people in charge being as competent at their jobs as my boss is. Which is to say they're completely inept and have no business whatsoever being in charge when any number of people doing the actual work could do the job with no problem...and half the salary! :rolleyes:

Whatever the reasons...it's good to see it's getting at least a little exposure cuz it otherwise wouldn't get fixed.

[JerryBeeds]

Who knows...this could be just a case of the people in charge being as competent at their jobs as my boss is. Which is to say they're completely inept and have no business whatsoever being in charge when any number of people doing the actual work could do the job with no problem...and half the salary! :rolleyes:

Whatever the reasons...it's good to see it's getting at least a little exposure cuz it otherwise wouldn't get fixed.

I know your boss and I'm forwarding this post to him. Clean out your desk. Your gone come monday... :p

[WayzUp]

I know your boss and I'm forwarding this post to him. Clean out your desk. Your gone come monday... :p
Good luck finding him...it's rained here 2 days all summer and if it's not raining, he's golfing. No exaggeration.

You just can't become a 4-handicap golfer by hitting 'em around on the weekends. :rolleyes:

And my desk is my company car...I'm in it more than I'm at my desk..which is at home. To clean it out, all i have to do is swipe my arm across teh top of it, shoving everything on it in the general direction of my garbage can. ;)

Tell him I still need an answer on that sodium hexametaphosphate bid for the city of Kalamazoo too....i've been waiting almost a month for it. :eek:

[SeattleGamecocks]

Seeing charities that don't do a good job is disturbing. I've always heard that 75% of donations going directly to the charity was the standard for charitable organizations. That's what the marathon group I'm running w/ for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is very proud of; that they exceed that 75% marker. In defense of Farm AID, they don't work solely on donations, rather ticket sales. Once they pay Ticketmaster, rent the venue, pay the stage crew, travel expenses, etc. you can see why there wouldn't be that much profit to benefit the farmers.The Farm Aid that was at Williams-Brice was one of the best concerts I've ever seen and the ticket price was pretty average. Willie, John Cougar, Neil Young, Son Volt, Rusted Root..., so as a patron and music fan I'm not as mad about the proceeds of my ticket not going all directly to the cause as if I had given a straight donation. Just my $.02.

[jneesy]

but it seems they could get some of the expenses donated its like that charity concert they had for africa in philly a while back where they had catered lobster and caviar backstage and all the performers got gift bags to the tune of $22000.00 each