Charity contiues shady practices in California
Ron Campbell of the Orange County Register investigated the the shady practices of the American Deputy Sheriff's Association, one of America's most ineffective "charities." In 2004, after being banned from seven states, an Ohio judge seized the charity and appointed a new receiver to oversee operations. However, the new management did not eradicate the problems. For every dollar raised by the organization, only a half cent actually goes to charitable causes. Despite the organization's large presence in California, California officials say any regulation must come from the Ohio Attorney General's office.
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Charities enjoy tax-free profits from "unrelated business income"
An investigation by Grant Williams and Peter Panepento of The Chronicle of Philanthropy found that about half of the nation’s largest charities pay no taxes, even though they generate millions in unrelated business income. Some organizations are claiming a loss on their income — meaning that they are losing money on side ventures. A change in federal tax law now makes it possible for the public to see the IRS Form 990-T, filed by charities that generate money from activities that do not relate to their charitable mission. Williams and Panapento spent the past several months requesting and gathering these documents.
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ACT board positions prove profitable
Lee Rood of The Des Moines Register finds that testing fees paid to the non-profit ACT Inc. of Iowa City are lining the pockets of its board of directors. "ACT, the college-entrance exam developer that has grown increasingly successful in taking on longtime rival SAT, is paying its influential board of directors about $520,000 annually — an amount that experts say surpasses the compensation of about 98 percent of nonprofit boards across the country." Recent board members included "former U.S. secretaries of education, heads of some of the country's largest universities and school districts, a former governor and national education policymakers." The Iowa Attorney General's Office has the power to revoke a company's nonprofit status and is examining the situation.
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Some Boy Scouts leaders earn six-figure salaries
Lee Davidson of the (Salt Lake City) Deseret Morning News analyzed nearly 300 tax returns, known as IRS Form 990, filed by tax-exempt organization and found that Boy Scouts both in Utah and across the U.S. tend to pay their top executives significantly more than do other nonprofit groups that serve youths. It's a topic of particular interest in Utah, which is home to some of the largest Boy Scouts councils in the country in part because The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes scouting part of its youth activity program.
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Neglect plagues property holdings of ex-NBA star
An investigation by The Sacramento Bee's Terri Handy and Phillip Reese shows that former NBA star Kevin Johnson is responsible for a slew of neglected properties in the downtrodden area of Oak Park where his investments have been widely publicized and praised. "Within a two-mile radius, a Bee investigation found, half of the 37 parcels owned by Johnson or companies and organizations he founded have been cited by the city in the past decade, some multiple times. The 73 violations at those Oak Park properties resulted in 42 fines or fees totaling at least $32,080."
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Anti-poverty agency funded private jet trips to MTV awards
In another installment of The Miami Herald's Poverty Peddlers series, reporters Scott Hiaasen and Jason Grotto reveal that the Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust, the county's largest anti-poverty agency, squandered millions of dollars on lavish parties, bad loans and insider deals. The reporters showed that public money for the poor went to pay for celebrities like Sean "Diddy" Combs and Shakira to fly to Miami for MTV award shows; the flights used a charter company run by a board member.
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Youth programs vulnerable to internal theft
San Diego Union-Tribune reporters Leonel Sanchez and Brent Schrotenboer looked into employees stealing money from non-profit organizations taking a cue from the case of Pamela Sue Adams, who was sentenced to a year in jail for embezzling as much as $131,000 from the non-profit Friends of Jamul-Dulzura Schools. The newspaper asked for information on similar cases in 42 school districts, with six reporting back that they had investigated missing funds, as well as problems in four youth sports groups.
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Contributions call school board president's ethics into question
James Pressley, school board president in Pleasantville, N.J., sought money from community businesses who were seeking contracts from the school board. John Froojian, of the Press of Atlantic City, reports that money was solicited for the James A. Pressley Scholarship and Community Youth Build Foundation, although neither the IRS nor the New Jersey Consumer Affairs Division have record of the registration of such a charity. Of nine businesses approached by Pressley, eight had no-bid contract proposals before the school board.
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Shriners investigation
Over a year ago, online investigative reporter Sandy Frost began digging into whistleblower’s allegations that executives of the Shriners Hospitals for Children used their positions of public trust for private gain. Frost researched thousands of pages of tax returns, meeting minutes, and public documents to find that the Shriners have, at the very least, failed to file accurate and complete tax returns. The 17-part investigation published on Newsvine.com can be viewed here.
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Boy Scouts executives splurge on conference
Tony Saavedra and Teri Sforza of The Orange County Register report on internal travel records showing that executives of the Boy Scouts ran up a tab of over $27,000 at a four-day conference in Key West, Fla. held last January. The Orange County Boy Scouts chapter picked up most of the tab, although they were reimbursed by other chapters within 30 days. Expenses included alcohol, greens fees and chartered fishing expeditions, some of which were reimbursed after The Register raised questions about the charges.
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Nonprofit subsidizes Schwartenegger's lavish travel
Paul Pringle of the Los Angeles Time reports that much of Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger's travel is billed to "an obscure nonprofit group that can qualify its secret donors for full tax deductions." Not only do watchdogs claim these write-offs are "abuse of tax codes," but they also create a loophole to limits on campaign finance contributions since charities are not governed by disclosure rules and donors can contribute an unlimited amount.
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Healthcare nonprofits spend millions in federal funds, operate in secrecy
In a two-part series, Clark Kauffman of The Des Moines Register examined the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care, the largest of 53 federally funded Quality Improvement Organizations. The newspaper found that the tax-exempt Iowa foundation, which investigates complaints of poor patient care received by Iowa's 500,000 Medicare beneficiaries, reviewed only 12 complaints in 2005. That same year, the foundation spent $85 million and handed out more than half a million dollars to two former executives as severance pay. The Register also reported on the salaries and complaint investigations at all of the nation's QIOs, many of which operate as tax-exempt nonprofits.
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Hospital profits from nonprofit tax loopholes
Tim Darragh and Ann Wlazelek, of The Morning Call, report on the Lehigh Valley (PA) Hospital which posted a record surplus - $ 76 million - in 2005. "Such boomtown prosperity at a nonprofit institution is allowed under the tax code as long as the hospital provides a substantial "community benefit" each year in exchange for an exemption from local, state and federal taxes." Scrutiny of this "community benefit" illuminates problems in state and national rules. "Much of what the hospital claimed as community benefit was what for-profit businesses would consider routine business costs: unpaid bills, employee orientation costs...another significant portion of its reported community benefit involved putting a price tag on the hospital's volunteers." Darragh and Wlazelek look the issues at hand, including suggested tax reforms at the federal and state levels.
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Charities lose out in bingo game benefits
Darren Barbee of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram analyzed state records and found the proceeds of bingo games were going to the people running the games instead of benefiting the charities they were supposed to help. "No bingo proceeds were reported being spent by more than 40 Texas groups conducting bingo last year, though they raised about $11.5 million." The investigation also found that the state was the ultimate enforcer, but to some extent, charities were supposed to watch their own backs.
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Builders, nonprofit have close ties
Reese Dunklin of The Dallas Morning News reports that "The low-income housing builders at the heart of the FBI's corruption investigation at City Hall created a nonprofit organization, stocked it with friends and political allies and used it to obtain more than $3 million in tax-free subsidies that earned their companies millions more in profit." The builders and the nonprofit failed to disclose their ties to the IRS and described the money as loans, "although a nonprofit official says there's no intention to repay."
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Car donations to charities thwarted by salvage companies
Dave Savini of WBBM-Chicago used a computer database of vehicle identification numbers to show criminals are cashing in on vehicles donated to charity, in a series that exposed how two unlicensed Illinois towing and salvage companies cheated nearly 200 charities nationwide. The companies were run by convicted felons. The investigation revealed how they ripped off 5,000 cars with an estimated street value of $2 million. "No one was monitoring how these private towers and salvage yards handled car donation money." The reports have lead to police raids, grand jury investigations and proposed legislation that would ban felons from operating as middlemen in the car donation industry. The new car donation bill would also require full disclosure of who profits from each donation and how much of the proceeds go to charity. "The car businesses would be required to report to the attorney general's office."
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Dubious charities raise millions
Ronald Campbell of The Orange County Register reviewed more than 10,000 pages of court records, financial reports and other documents and found that former associates of imprisoned charity telemarketing king Mitch Gold have raised more than $83 million in four years for dubious charities. Fundraisers and managers kept almost all the cash, leaving just 7 cents on the dollar for charity. "A typical Gold-style contract guarantees a charity a set amount or a fixed percentage of the take — seldom more than 15 percent and sometimes far less. " The investigation analyzed a GuideStar database of more than 150,000 charities, concluding that only about 500 sizeable charities spend most of their money on fundraising. The package includes a social network analysis diagram (done with UCINET) showing how dozens of charities and fundraisers are related to each other and to Gold.
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Program for disabled exploited
Jeff Kosseff, Bryan Denson and Les Zaitz of The Oregonian used hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of documents and visits to more than a dozen charities in seven states to show that a program created to benefit Americans with severe disabilities is being exploited at the cost of the people it was supposed to help. The program was started so federal agencies could reserve contracts for small nonprofit workshops that hired epileptics, paraplegics and the mentally retarded to make simple products such as mousetraps, blackboards and first-aid kits, thus helping the disabled gain a paycheck. "More than three decades later, the nonprofits increasingly are hiring workers who are mildly disabled, if at all, with aching backs, substance-abuse problems and other maladies common in the American workplace." This new class of federally subsidized worker is getting the highest-paid jobs, while many of the most severely disabled toil for pennies an hour. Their bosses are benefiting handsomely, with at least a dozen earning $350,000 or more a year, and average pay and benefits for some top executives have grown more than three times faster than their workers' pay.
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Md. churches violate law with political donations
John Fritze of The (Baltimore) Sun reviewed candidate finance reports to show that more than 100 churches in Maryland — including dozens in Baltimore — have made campaign contributions to political candidates in recent years, an act that is prohibited by federal tax law and blurs the line between politics and the pulpit. Some have given repeatedly, such as the Southern Baptist Church in East Baltimore, which made a dozen campaign donations between 2000 and 2004 that add up to more than $3,000. Statewide, at least 115 churches have given to about 40 candidates since 2000, and while the donations are generally small and sporadic, they flout Internal Revenue Service regulations that prohibit churches from advocating for specific political candidates. "Churches that give to candidates can face revocation of their tax-exempt status or a 10 percent excise tax on the contributions, according to the IRS." A variety of candidates from both parties — including many in top leadership positions — have taken money from churches in recent years.
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County fails to monitor AIDS services program
Norberto Santana Jr. and Tony Saavedra of The Orange County Register used data crunching, document digging and old-fashioned gumshoe work to reveal how Orange County bungled its fledgling AIDS program for African-Americans. The investigation found what the county hadn't bothered to look for when hiring an AIDS service provider. " Pastor Aubrey Keys, the person they put in charge had a long history of personal financial troubles calling into question his ability to ably manage federal funds." The reporters audited the county's books and also found Keys, who had disappeared when the AIDS funding ran out. He was unrepentent, as was the county. The story uses a local example to show how AIDS funding nationwide is being put in jeopardy by rogue programs and regulators who are missing in action.
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Oilman's donation invested in his fund
Stephanie Strom of The New York Times investigated Boone Pickens, the Texas oilman turned investor, to show the $165 million that he gave to a tiny charity set up to benefit the golf program at Oklahoma State University was invested in a hedge fund controlled by Pickens' BP Capital Management. The gift, which helped Pickens get a tax deduction, propelled him into the ranks of the nation's top philanthropists last year. "By giving the money before 2005 expired, Mr. Pickens was able to take advantage of a provision in Hurricane Katrina relief legislation that allowed him a deduction for a charitable gift equal to 100 percent of his adjusted gross income, double the normal limit of 50 percent."
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Charities exploit vulnerable elderly
Jon Burstein of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reviewed more than 700 pages of court documents and sworn statements involving two companies, as well as more than 1,500 pages of financial records obtained by the Attorney General's Office to show a pattern of telemarketers getting money from senior citizens who seem confused or hearing-impaired. The Global Mindlink Foundation and its sister nonprofit organization, Select International Donors, took in more than $5.3 million since August 1999, but less than 2 percent went to charitable causes, according to federal tax returns and the groups' accounting records. "Instead, company officials were using the money for everything from a $2,885 stay at a Key West hotel to a $301 meal at a Boca Raton restaurant, records show."
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University leader serves on 10 boards
Eleanor Yang of the The San Diego Union-Tribune used calendar records obtained under the California Public Records Act to show that UC San Diego Chancellor, Marye Anne Fox, has served as a director for 10 corporations and nonprofit organizations, while running the university for the past year and a half. Fox spent more than 180 hours attending board meetings — many of them on the East Coast — in the past 12 months. "For all of her outside positions, Fox, 58, an organic chemist, receives compensation that rivals her university salary of $359,000. " In the past year, she received cash and stock worth at least $339,260 from her board memberships, according to corporate annual reports, proxy statements and tax returns from the nonprofit organizations.
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UFW strays far from Chavez's legacy
Miriam Pawel of the Los Angeles Times examines the current state of United Farm Workers to find that Cesar "Chavez's heirs run a web of tax-exempt organizations that exploit his legacy and invoke the harsh lives of farmworkers to raise millions of dollars in public and private money." Pawel's reporting finds there is little to link the UFW with the impoverished farmworkers for whom Chavez crusaded. "The UFW is the linchpin of the Farm Worker Movement, a network of a dozen tax-exempt organizations that do business with one another, enrich friends and family, and focus on projects far from the fields: They build affordable housing in San Francisco and Albuquerque, own a top-ranked radio station in Phoenix, run a political campaign in support of an Indian casino and lobby for gay marriage."
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OC residents donate nearly $2 billion to charity
John Gittelsohn and Michele Himmelberg of The Orange County Register used IRS data to show that “Orange County taxpayers donated $1.8 billion to charity in 2002, the most recent tax year available. That’s 2.61 percent of their adjusted gross income, which sounds meager to some, but it’s above the state and national average. In fact, Orange County tied Los Angeles for third in its donation rate among California’s 58 counties, behind only Santa Barbara and Marin.”
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Land deal results in huge profits for developers
Bert Dalmer of The Des Moines Register analyzed land records to uncover an insider land deal that makes big-name developers rich but ends with taxpayers paying twice as much. The operators of a struggling scale-model air show sold 84 acres along Interstate Highway 35 at $15,000 an acre, though other land being sold in the area was going for almost twice that much or more. The land was sold to two developers who had helped bring the air show to central Iowa and who had appointed some of the directors who approved the sale. "The investigation showed that the the nonprofit expo benefited from tax breaks and government loans it would never fully repay for six years." The investigation also found that the state of Iowa last year bought seven acres of the former expo property at $130,000 an acre, a price that amounted to an 866 percent profit for the developers, in a transaction never debated publicly.
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Despite donations, charities spend little on vets
Matthew Kauffman of The Hartford Courant conducted a computer-assisted analysis of federal financial records for nearly 300 veterans' charities across the country to show that veterans' charities, whose donations have increased since the start of the Iraqi War, lag well behind other charities when it comes to the percentage of money that goes directly to services for those in need. The report identified some charities that raised millions of dollars but provided no services to veterans. Among them are the American Veterans Coalition, a Seattle-based charity that raised $1 million in 2003 and spent nothing on veterans, and the American Veterans Relief Foundation of Santa Ana, Calif., which raised $3.6 million and spent less than 1 percent on veterans. "A handful of veterans' groups spend almost nothing on veterans' causes, diverting 90 percent or more of their money to administrative and fundraising costs. Scores of others claim hefty spending on charitable programs, but only by including a large portion of the cost of their fundraising drives as charitable expenses"
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CEO salaries soar at disabled workers' expense
Jeff Kosseff and Bryan Denson of The Oregonian found that executive pay has soared at nonprofits that often give disabled workers less than the federal minimum wage. "In Texas, one of the biggest nonprofits paid $4.6 million to a management firm founded by its CEO. In Baltimore, another charity's top executive earned more than $700,000 in cash and benefits. And a Tennessee nonprofit boosted its CEO's pay and benefits eightfold over four years to $500,000. " The newspaper found more than 100 executives earning six-figure pay and benefits at the 50 most active nonprofits in the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program during 2003. This when eight of the biggest charities in the Javits-Wagner-O'Day program paid 1,644 subminimum wage workers a median rate of $1.93 an hour, according to Department of Labor records analyzed by the newspaper.
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Private foundation sponsored international travel of congressman
Bob Williams of The Center for Public Integrity and Steve Henn of Marketplace examine the organizational structure and business activities of the International Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources, or the IFCNR in their "Power Trips" series. IFCNR has alienated mainstream environmental groups and its tax documents show its major financiers include the Japan Whaling Association, the International Fur Traders Association, Monsanto and a company whose president was convicted of smuggling and violating endangered species protections. The report shows that "Congressman [Richard] Pombo is chairman of one of the most important environmental committees in the House of Representatives. He, his wife and a staffer have accepted $23,000 in international travel from the IFCN in the last 5 years." Experts on tax issues said the law requires Pombo to return the costs of the foreign trips to the foundation. "If not, both the foundation and the member of Congress could face stiff penalties from the IRS. "
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Getty museum had clues it was buying looted pieces
Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino of the Los Angeles Times report the J. Paul Getty Museum, the world's richest art institution, knew as early as 1985 that "three of their principal suppliers were selling objects that probably had been looted and that the museum continued to buy from them anyway." The Times obtained Getty documents that "include memos, purchase agreements, correspondence and other records going back 20 years."
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Nonprofits mislead about destination of donations
Kelby Hartson Carr of The Times in Munster, Ind., looks into the accuracy of IRS 990 forms filed by nonprofit organizations. After an examination of all 990s filed for "fiscal year 2003 by nonprofit agencies based in Lake County, Porter County and Chicago's south suburbs," the paper found that 70 percent that raised public donations reported no fund-raising expenses. Experts say it is difficult to raise money without spending money and "zero-expense fund-raising claims always should be questioned." The project includes a database of the nonprofits that includes the data from their 990 forms. Other parts of the series look at nonprofit employees who make six figures and have generous benefits packages, the powerful part nonprofits play in the local economy and tips to evaluate a charitiy before donating.
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Foundation for children buys luxury home
Dan Stockman of The (Fort Wayne, Ind.) Journal Gazette used business and property records to show that an Indiana foundation set up to benefit children and schools "has been used to buy a luxury vacation home in an exclusive neighborhood where an advertisement says 'the fortunate few' will 'live where everybody wants to play.'" Directors of the Olin B. and Desta Schwab Foundation refused to answer questions about the organization's spending. The original Indiana foundation "has been merged into a Nevada non-profit of the same name, and the Indiana agency that helped students choose vocations for more than 15 years was dissolved. Its assets — the millions Schwab left behind — are property of the Nevada foundation." The paper's story has led to a state investigation.
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Church leader takes in millions
John Blake of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution used public tax and property records to show how Bishop Eddie Long, leader of the 25,000-member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, received more than $3 million in salary and property over four years from a tax-exempt charity that he founded in 1996. The charity's compensation for Long was nearly as much as it gave to all other recipients combined in the same period. Blake used the charity's tax returns and property records in Georgia and corporate papers filed in New York.
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State lobbyists spending nears $1 billion
An analysis by The Center for Public Integrity found that lobbyists and their employers in 42 states reported spending nearly $953 million in 2004 attempting to influence state legislators and executive branch officials. That figure is up from the $904 million reported in 2003. "It seems likely that state lobby expenditures will exceed the $1 billion mark this year." The investigation includes a sidebar on methodology and general breakdowns of their findings.
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County grant program riddled with problems
Daniel Chacón of the San Diego Union-Tribune analyzed county grant receipts finding a multimillion-dollar system riddled with shoddy bookkeeping and lax oversight. The investigation "found that records for 54 grants totaling nearly $1 million are missing. Receipts that have been collected show that money has been spent on everything from Cheetos to seared ahi crostini." Many of the organizations receiving grants are considered grassroots organizations and don't have paid staffers to handle financial reports.
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Leaders, volunteers used charity money to finance events for themselves
John W. Allman and Michael Fechter of The Tampa Tribune investigated the activities of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Sarasota/Tampa Bay, finding that: "For much of that time, it used money intended for sick children to pay for questionable expenses such as lavish dinners for chapter leaders and volunteers. It permitted and covered up a rogue fundraising operation in Sarasota through which hundreds of thousands of dollars passed, some of which has never been accounted for. It failed to comply with state and federal laws regulating charities. The charity says everything is as it should be now but refuses to substantiate that." Many of the details came from a former executive directory who was jailed for making personal use of her foundation credit card.
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High school athletics organization spending questioned
Jean Rimbach and Gregory Schutta of The (Hackensack, N.J.) Record have a two-part series on spending by the non-profit association that oversees New Jersey high school athletics: "It's a good thing the organization that oversees high school sports in New Jersey is making money because it's spending plenty, too. On handsome salaries. On generous retirement packages. On out-of-state trips and cars for its directors." A second piece details how the group does not split revenues from tournaments with the host school, a practice that "is the norm for schools chosen as tournament sites to benefit from the ticket sales."
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Youth charity fails to deliver on promise
Collins Conner and Bridget Hall Grumet of The St. Petersburg Times investigated the Florida Youth Conservation Corps, which receives a state no-bid contract to help maintain highway rights of way in exchange for providing jobs and scholarships to its young employees. "FYCC said 46 trainees got scholarships from 1999 to 2003, but none came out of FYCC's pocket. Instead - unbeknownst to state leaders who supported the program - FYCC asked Americorps to provide them. Americorps is a national work-study program funded by federal tax dollars." Although the FYCC at first said it would provide access to its spending, it later closed its books to the paper, despite the fact that all of its funding comes from government sources. The paper also found that the FYCC "sent its top staff - including St. Petersburg City Council member Jay Lasita - on all-expenses-paid trips to the Dominican Republic where FYCC sponsors a baseball team."
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Getty chief's high compensation, management style under fire
Jason Felch, Robin Fields and Louise Roug of the Los Angeles Times investigate Getty Chief Executive Barry Munitz and his handling of the nonprofit. Declining stock markets helped in the nonprofit's two-year $1 billion loss, leading to cutbacks and layoffs. Two days following a series of layoffs the Getty paid $72,000 for an SUV for Munitz. The board of directors also approved an increase in pay for Munitz; "placing him among the highest-paid foundation chiefs, museum directors and university presidents in the nation ..." The story includes three graphics detailing the executive's compensation and perks.
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Lobbyists use nonprofits to finance congressional travel
Bob Williams and Stephen Henn of the Center for Public Integrity investigate lobbyists who sit on the governing boards of nonprofits. Lobbyists are not supposed to pay for congressional travel, but the investigation found "that a favored way to evade the prohibition on picking up the tab is to do so through charitable non-profits..." The investigation includes a map detailing the most popular congressional junket locations, a list of the top companies and lobbying firms, and a summary of their findings.
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Amnesty execs contribute maximum to Kerry
Rowan Scarborough of The Washington Times used Federal Election Commission records finding that the top leadership of Amnesty International contributed the maximum of $2,000 to Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign. Amnesty International describes itself as nonpartisan. William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty USA and Joe W. "Chip" Pitts III, board chairman of Amnesty International USA, "gave the maximum $2,000 allowed by federal law to John Kerry for President."
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Police failing to prevent false identifications
Bill Moushey and Nathan Crabbe of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in conjunction with the Innocence Institute at Point Park University, investigated potential wrongful convictions in Pennsylvania, finding that "police failed to follow the steps that can help prevent false identifications." Many police agencies in the state either were not aware of federal guidelines for eyewitness identifications or disagreed with them, the project found.
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TV evangelist receives millions from ministry
Carolyn Tuft of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch used Missouri's Open Records law to obtain documents showing that "TV evangelist Joyce Meyer and her family have received millions in salary and benefits from her worldwide ministry in recent years." The details were included in a property tax dispute involving the tax status of the ministry's headquarters. Joyce Meyer earned a $900,000 salary in 2002 and 2003, and her husband got $450,000 in each of those years.
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Scout program overstated numbers to entice donors
The investigative team for WAGA-Atlanta investigated claims that Atlanta's inner-city boy scout program grossly overstated their numbers to boost their image, in an attempt to convince potential donors to donate. "Insiders say the way the Boy Scouts account for members and troops inflates its numbers resulting in what insiders call Ghost Scouts and Phantom Troops." They would do this by dispersing scout executives throughout the communities having boys sign flyers saying they were interested in joining the scouts. Then they would take these kids and add them to the list, without checking to see if the boys even took the oath and joined the scouts. The team uncovered many instances where large troop numbers were reported, however in reality the numbers were small or even none.
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Flaws found in Head Start program
Susan Vinella of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer used state reports to show that "Ohio's largest Head Start agency has repeatedly failed to enroll the number of children it has been paid to serve and has erroneously reported children eligible for the program." The paper also found that top officials at the Council for Economic Opportunities in Greater Cleveland are well-paid despite the program's failures in meeting federal requirements.
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Nonprofits not required to follow sunshine laws
Matthew Hirsch of the San Francisco Bay Guardian investigated nonprofit city contracts and found that San Francisco is spending billions on nonprofit contracts without adequate oversight. "Since 2002 ... the city has distributed more than $1.5 billion to nonprofit organizations ..." The nonprofits receiving the contracts, unlike city agencies, do not have to comply with sunshine laws. "They're run by nonelected boards that often meet behind closed doors, effectively making public policy decisions without direct public input or oversight."
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Nonprofit tax breaks scrutinized for hospitals
Misti Crane and Geoff Dutton of The Columbus Dispatch reported a three-day series, "Prescription for Profit," that examines the impact of specialty hospitals on general hospitals. The series also examines how nonprofit hospitals use aggressive collection tactics to collect from poor patients and whether the four hospital systems in Columbus deserve their $88 million tax break.
Also included is a chart of the highest paid employees.
Journalists can access the Dispatch's Web site at no charge using this account:
User name: usapress@dispatchpress.com
Password: dispatch
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Charity linked to evangelical sex cult
Don Lattin of the San Francisco Chronicle used tax and property records to show that a Southern California charity called the Family Care Foundation has "deep, ongoing ties between the organization and the Family, the evangelical sex cult rocked by a recent murder-suicide." Officers of the foundation are linked to the Family via property records, Internet domains and other ties. "Former members say the vast majority of projects funded by the foundation are run by the Family. Two children's programs, including one which was based in San Francisco, were run by one-time cult members who had faced separate allegations of child sexual abuse." The foundation denies any link to the Family.
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Charity money goes to fund-raiser
Bill Smith of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch used tax records to show that "a foundation run by some of Missouri's top police officials has raised millions of dollars on behalf of charity, but more than 80 percent of those contributions have gone to the foundation's Texas-based fund-raiser." The group raised about $3.1 million between 2000 and 2004, but just 17 cents of each dollar went to the Missouri Police Chiefs Charitable Foundation. Less than one percent of that amount was used for the charity's stated purpose of helping children.
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King Center deteriorating, faces financial crisis
Ernie Suggs and Mae Gentry of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution dug into the finances of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, which said it could not afford many millions of dollars for necessary repairs, to show how it had gotten into such a financial hole. They found that "Martin Luther King III, who took over as the center's CEO in January 2004, was paid a salary of $150,000 last year," while his younger brother "Dexter King, the center's chief operating officer and chairman of the board, is paid the same salary he was paid previously when he was CEO. Tax records show the center paid Dexter King $179,933 when he was CEO in 2003, plus $8,708 in benefits and deferred compensation."
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Food bank honor system attracts questionable charities
Jeff McDonald of The San Diego Union-Tribune spent three months investigating the San Diego Food Bank, finding that "the food bank has no way of making sure all the charitable food program's donations get to the tables and cupboards of hungry families. Instead, the program operates on what amounts to an honor system." Five little-known charities are the largest participants in the program, but they are "run by people whose backgrounds include a felony conviction, bankruptcy, court orders for child support and multiple lawsuits. At least two have operated businesses that sell groceries. Most gave the food bank cell phone numbers as their only means of contact."
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Executive pay soars at Indianapolis hospitals
Jeff Swiatek of The Indianapolis Star used data from federal filings to show that "high-level officials at Indianapolis' four urban-based hospital systems pulled down average annual raises of more than 20 percent in their most recent reporting period, despite slim earnings margins and growing scrutiny of hospital salaries by federal tax authorities." Most of the top-paid executives worked for Clarian Health Partners, a company that runs four area hospitals. Community Health Network's William Corley topped the list with $777,140 in total compensation.
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D.C. donors trade easements for tax breaks
Joe Stephens of The Washington Post, with contributions from Sarah Cohen and Alice Crites, has a two-part series on the practice of donating historic facade easements to nonprofits in turn for a tax break for the homeowner. "Such tax deductions are increasingly common although the District already bars unapproved and historically inaccurate changes in the facades of homes in the city's many historic districts. As a result, easement donors largely are agreeing not to change something that they cannot change anyway." The paper identified about 900 residences with such easements in Washington, with the average assessed value of the property at more than $1 million. The Web presentation includes an interactive map.
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Charity has links to global terror group
Mark Morris of The Kansas City Star, working with Jaimi Dowdell and Aaron Kessler, used documents from the Treasury Department and other agencies to compile a list of organizations and individuals connected to a Columbia, Mo., charity that federal officials allege is "part of the Islamic African Relief Agency, a global charity whose officers had raised at least $5 million for terrorists." The reporters used social network analysis software to produce a visual representation of the network. "The analysis showed that IARA officials allegedly performed services or favors for bin Laden and his organizations. Other times, IARA was alleged to have teamed with bin Laden to support other terrorists." The story includes a graphic representation of the IARA connections around the world. (Warning: Large PDF)
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Shelter violates own policy on pet euthanization
Kim Bell, Michael D. Sorkin and Elizabethe Holland of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reviewed state records to find that "the kill rate at the Humane Society of Missouri is the highest for any major shelter in the region that's not operated by a city or county." Fifty-five percent of the animals brought to the society's St. Louis facility are euthanized, and the paper found that the Humane Society has violated its own policy on waiting 24 hours to kill animals dropped off in case owners change their minds.
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Nonprofit group has close ties to railroads
Walt Bogdanich of The New York Times, in his continuing look at the nation's railroads, finds that a nonprofit rail-safety group has close ties to the railroad industry. "Not only did a railroad help found Operation Lifesaver; rail industry officials make up half the organization's national board and provide much of the financing for its state chapters."
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71% of nonprofit's money goes to overhead
Carrie Levine and Adam Bell of The Charlotte Observer examined the IRS filings of the The Jesse Helms Center Foundation, finding that it "spent far more on overhead and less on programs than recommended by organizations that monitor nonprofits." After questions from the paper, the nonprofit "filed amended tax returns for the past three years. The new returns reduce the amount attributed to overhead nearly to the recommended level, largely by reallocating the costs of its building from overhead to programs, the nonprofit's mission."
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Fire-relief donations spent in variety of ways
Jennifer Vigil of the San Diego Union-Tribune examined donations totaling $30 million to nonprofit organizations and faith-based groups after fires devastated San Diego County in 2003. "One-third went directly to the more than 2,600 families and individuals whose homes were destroyed." Some controversy surrounds what has been done with the rest. "In effect, disaster relief is a well-coordinated industry." But some of the key players have been plagued by problems. The local Red Cross has suffered a decrease in donations after a recent scandal and several charities that haven't met their fund-raising goals. One worker who has experience in rebuilding efforts after disasters, said "he left the fire-relief effort because he believed the current community recovery team leadership is unwilling to listen to those who have more experience with recoveries."
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Agency overcharged low-income people for homes
Dan Stockman of The (Fort Wayne, Ind.) Journal Gazette looked at sales records and found that a defunct nonprofit agency intended to help low-income people buy homes actually "overcharged 25 home buyers by about $559,000, leaving them with mortgages for thousands of dollars more than the homes are worth." Projects Editor Ron Shawgo explains that Stockman "linked a database of home sales with one listing assessed values. The analysis was possible because Indiana only recently switched to assessments that must reflect market value." The paper published an explanation of its methodology.
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Nonprofit, company share CEO, business
Randy Ludlow of The Columbus Dispatch looked into the relationship between the nonprofit Ohio Association of County Boards of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities and the privately owned Leadership First Academy for Executive Development. The training and consulting company is owned by the nonprofit's CEO, Charles H. Arndt. "A two-month investigation by The Dispatch found that Arndt's company has received more than $1.4 million in state and county tax funds since 2001 while the nonprofit organization shouldered many of the company's expenses." After The Dispatch detailed the nonprofit association's dealings with a business owned by CEO Charles H. Arndt, the organization's board revoked the authority of its chief executive officer to sign checks.
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Local nonprofit salaries increase 7 percent
Laura Lorek examines the pay of local nonprofit executives for the San Antonio Express-News and finds the average wage at $386,759. That's more than triple the $119,580 average annual wage for chief executives in both private and public industries in the metropolitan area.
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Number of Ohioans lining up for donated food on the rise
Alan Johnson, Catherine Candisky and Jonathan Riskind of The Columbus Dispatch spent a week with people who line up for donated food in Ohio. "In that one week, from April 26 to May 1, the number of Ohioans served by food pantries statewide — more than 150,000 — would have filled Ohio Stadium one and a half times. Nearly 2 million pounds of food were distributed — enough to fill 70 tractor-trailers. The number of people seeking help at food pantries statewide has risen three straight years." The paper's seven-day series, Lines of Despair, documents how hunger has reached into suburbs as well as cities.
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Fundraiser's property deals raise suspicions
Jennifer Dixon of the Detroit Free Press has a two-part series on suspicious real estate deals involving a firm called Donate Real Estate, which helps charities sell unwanted properties. "Records show that Donate Real Estate oversaw the sale of donated properties to insiders and close business associates who cashed in by re-selling the properties — often the same day — for more than they paid and for more than the property was worth." Habitat for Humanity, among the nonprofits that had business with Donate Real Estate, halted its involvement in the deals after the paper began asking questions.
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For-profit telemarketers get bulk of donations
Michael Baker of The Oklahoman reviewed state records to find that "on average, telemarketers pocket nearly 80 cents of every donated dollar they collect for Oklahoma charities." The charities defend the practice, saying that the telemarketing firms do not charge for their employees and facilities. One official called it a "necessary evil" of fundraising. The paper also detailed some unusual findings in the paperwork, which is rarely scrutinized.
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67 percent of Red Cross money went to victims
Jennifer Vigil of The San Diego Union-Tribune analyzed records from the local Red Cross chapter to find that its response to victims of wildfires in October 2003 was much stronger than it had been three years ago. "At least 67 percent of funds spent by the local chapter of the American Red Cross during October's wildfires went to fire victims," compared to an audit of the 2001 spending which showed that 10 percent went to victims. Nearly $4 million of the $5.8 million spent was in the form of direct cash assistance or temporary housing. "Development director Bob Morris said the percentage of aid reaching local victims is 85 percent if more than $2 million in noncash donations — such as clothing, food and toiletries — are factored in."
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Charity's leader failed to reimburse for home repairs
David Kidwell of The Miami Herald reports that the executive director of a Miami homeless services charity "used his employees and homeless clients to renovate his own homes with thousands of dollars in labor and materials bought on the charity's credit cards." The official, Dale A. Simpson, resigned but denied any improper conduct. "But interviews and records — including receipts and canceled checks provided by Simpson — indicate that the Miami-based charity's $182,000-a-year director reimbursed Camillus House for only about half of nearly $4,500 in materials that The Herald could trace to work at his home." (Registration required to view story.)
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IRE awards three medals
An astonishing story of brutal war crimes by The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade and a book on the American tax system by David Cay Johnston took top honors in the 2003 IRE Awards. In addition, the Freedom of Information Award went to a team from the (Sioux Falls, S.D.) Argus Leader for exposing a massive secret pardons program rife with questions and conflicts for the governor.
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Phily museum director gets top dollar, house
Craig R. McCoy, Marcia Gelbart, Mario F. Cattabiani and Patricia Horn of The Philadelphia Inquirer investigated the finances of the city's Independence Seaport Museum, using public records to show that increased spending has forced the nonprofit to dig into its endowment. "The most recent public figures put its director's salary at $220,416, more than that paid to officials running much larger maritime museums. The director, John S. Carter, lives in a house that the museum owns. It bought the home for $665,000 — and then expanded it at a cost of $800,000 and furnished for an additional $210,000. The museum also invested heavily in a vintage yacht, the Enticer. It lost $2.4 million trying to charter out the vessel."
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Charities make millions of dollars in loans to officials
Harvy Lipman and Grant Williams of the Chronicle of Philanthropy reviewed information from more than 10,000 nonprofit tax forms covering 1998 through 2002 to determine that charities reported at least $142 million in debts due to loans made to officers and directors. Private foundations cannot make such loans, but charities can. Some filings contained less than complete information on loan debts: "4,756 groups reported loans to top officials, but failed, as required by the Internal Revenue Service, to say how much the debt totaled."
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Wealthiest nonprofits get bulk of foundation money
Marcella Bombardieri and Walter V. Robinson of The Boston Globe have a follow-up to their earlier pieces on nonprofits, finding that "the largest foundations parcel out a surprisingly high proportion of their grants to already well-endowed colleges and universities and other elite institutions." The paper commissioned a study by the Foundation Center to track patterns of grantmaking by 1,000 of the largest foundations between 1992 and 2001. Sixteen of the top 20 grant recipients were "elite universities" including Harvard, Stanford and Columbia. "By contrast, nonprofits identified in the study as human service providers received about 1 in 10 foundation dollars in 2001."
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Bingo parlors fail to pass income to charities
Kristina Buchthal of The Indianapolis Star analyzed state records to find that "twenty-five Indiana bingo parlors collectively took in more than $52 million last year, but gave only $1.6 million to the charities they were established to support." One operation earned more than $1.5 million but gave just $677 to charity, triggering a state investigation. Indiana is the fourth-largest bingo state in the nation, but rules requiring large bingo parlors to give 10 percent of their revenues to charity don't go into effect until May.
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Memphis Habitat homeowners filing for bankruptcy
Marc Perrusquia of The (Memphis, Tenn.) Commercial Appeal found that 40 percent of Greater Memphis recipients of Habitat for Humanity housing have filed for bankruptcy after getting their homes. An eight-month investigation found that the city's rate is highest among the 20 largest Habitat affiliates. "Nowhere is the comparison more stark than between Memphis and Jacksonville, Fla., the nation's largest Habitat affiliate. Volunteers in Jacksonville have built 1,200 homes — nearly five times the number here — yet more bankruptcies and foreclosures have resulted in Memphis."
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Welfare car program goes without oversight
Eric Eyre and Scott Finn of the Charleston Gazette investigate a West Virginia program that uses $23 million in federal welfare money to purchase and sell used cars to aid recipients, finding that "nonprofit groups have sold clunker cars to welfare recipients while used-car dealers made millions on sales and repairs." Less than half of the recipients of the cars ending up owning them, and the program bought more than 300 cars than it needed. State officials didn't begin auditing the nonprofits until the program was two years old.
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Foundation trustees get lavish perks
Beth Healy, Francie Latour, Sacha Pfeiffer, Michael Rezendes and Walter V. Robinson of The Boston Globe's Spotlight Team reviewed tax records from some of the nation's wealthiest private foundations to find that the kinds of perks that corporate executives have been criticized for enjoying are not uncommon among foundation trustees. "Yet private planes and other big-ticket expenses go virtually unnoticed in the world of philanthropy, even though foundations are publicly subsidized through huge tax breaks for the wealthy donors who set them up. A Globe review of foundation tax returns revealed numerous instances of money earmarked for charity being used to fund travel and lavish perks for foundation trustees — the people charged with protecting foundation assets."
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Little to show for redevelopment effort in Miami
Oscar Corral of The Miami Herald studied the impact of $70 million in spending to improve Miami's Overtown neighborhood, finding that "the community has little to show for it." Nearly half of the amount spent went to Miami's Community Redevelopment Agency, which has finished just five of its 36 proposed projects in the past decade, none of which is a major housing development. "Almost every investor who got a city loan to rehabilitate multifamily housing in the past 20 years went into default. Some of those rehabilitated buildings have now been demolished, and the city has had mixed results in recovering its money." A nonprofit builder that owns land in Overtown "has not completed a single new housing project in the area in 10 years, despite receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding through the city of Miami." The FBI and prosecutors are looking into the money trail.
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Public television suffering from decline in funding
Paul Farhi of The Washington Post reveals the difficult situation "many of the nation's 349 public TV stations" are facing. "With pledge week donations lagging, corporate contributions flagging and state support drying up, public stations are growing increasingly threadbare. Layoffs are rampant, and cutbacks in local news, public affairs and cultural programming have become commonplace."
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Fla. church not all that it seems
A three-month investigation by the Tampa Tribune and WFLA-Tampa finds that a central Florida church is actually "an elaborate money-making machine that generates revenue three ways." According to the report, the Deeper Life Christian Church sends people seeking food and shelter out on dangerous fund-raising missions, pushes its congregants to donate heavily and receives money from satellite churches in other states. Some church watchdog organizations have compare the organization to a cult. "The bulk of the reporting and research was done by John W. Allman, Michelle Bearden, Michael Fechter and Angie Drobnic Holan of the Tribune, and Rod Carter of WFLA."
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Museums have gotten artifacts from grave looting
Anne C. Mulkern of The Denver Post used little-noticed government reports to find that some of America's most prestigious museums have been "more involved in the looting of Native American burial grounds than they have previously admitted." A 1990 law requires federally funded museums to list Indian items and to describe how they ended up in the collection. "Documents indicate that some of the most vaunted museums — the Field Museum, the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. — bought Native American items, including human remains, from collectors who had just dug them up from graves." A second story reports that "national parks and federal agencies hold the remains of more than 2,000 native people, often stolen from graves during a century of tomb raiding."
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Charlotte doing little to stem pet population
Michelle Crouch and Scott Dodd of The Charlotte Observer examined the plight of animals in the Carolinas and found that "dogs and cats are being killed in shelters throughout the Carolinas at rates that far surpass the average across the country." The series also finds that Charlotte does very little to stem the increasing pet population and that the Humane Society "spends more than half its budget on overhead." After the three-part series was published, the North Carolina legislature and the Charlotte City Council pledged to help change things.
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Museum runs up millions in debt
Bruce Murphy of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has a two-part series on the finances of the Milwaukee Art Museum, which has millions in debt and has run up $9 million in yearly expenses since the opening of a new wing in 2001. "Rarely has a major non-profit in Milwaukee faced so dire a financial situation, or needed such a rapid rescue, to judge by a review of the museum's annual audit, loan documents and tax filings." Donors are being asked to make planned contributions as a lump sum instead of as annual installments, but some have declined. The second part of the series asks, given the museum's financial situation, whether the 2001 addition was worth the cost.
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Some foundations spend more for salaries than for donations
Kate Shatzkin of The (Baltimore) Sun reviewed tax records of local foundations to find that many paid their trustees "to do what many of their peers consider volunteer work." Six of the state's ten largest paid their trustees in 2001, a practice that occasionally has attracted IRS attention. Several Maryland foundations spend more on salaries and other expenses than they do in donations to charities.
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In the first of a three-part series on the Nature Conservancy, David B. Ottaway and Joe Stephens of The Washington Post report that even as the environmental group has amassed $3 billion in assets, it has "logged forests, engineered a $64 million deal paving the way for opulent houses on fragile grasslands and drilled for natural gas under the last breeding ground of an endangered bird species." The charity acknowledged making mistakes in several of its ventures, but defends its philosophy of "compatible development." A sidebar explores the compensation package for Steven J. McCormick, the group's president.
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Detroit residents most generous to charitable causes
Debra E. Blum and Harvy Lipman of the Chronicle of Philanthropy analyzed 1997 tax data to find that residents of Detroit, New York and Fort Worth are among the most generous donors to charitable causes. "The study, which was based on 1997 data from taxpayers who earn at least $50,000 and who itemized their deductions, found that people in Detroit donated 12.1 percent of their discretionary income, followed by residents of New York City and Fort Worth, who donated 10.9 percent." People living the Salt Lake City-Odgen region were tops among the largest metropolitan areas, giving away 14.9 percent of their discretionary income. In addition, charitable giving rates tended to be higher among blacks than whites of similar income levels. A note of caution, provided by the reporters: Because of the limitations of the IRS data, only small segments of the population were included in the study.
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Foundation president makes $717,000 as organizations loses 25 percent of assets
Eric Nalder of the San Jose Mercury News reports that even as the James Irvine Foundation lost 25 percent of its assets and laid off staff, it "spent millions of dollars on its longtime president, Dennis Collins -- from a compensation package that reached $717,000 one year to lavish retirement fetes and gifts." Collins' 1999 compensation "was so high that he could face sanctions if the IRS audited the foundation." It didn't. Collins stepped down last year but was retained as a paid consultant.
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Bay Area arts organizations strained by drop in contributions
Joshua Kosman, Erin McCormick, Steven Winn and Todd Wallack of the San Francisco Chronicle report on the anemic financial state of leading Bay Area cultural organizations, which are "straining to cope with dwindling donations, volatile endowment funds, cuts in government grants and smaller, choosier audiences." The paper used the groups' annual financial statements to show a drop in contributions and investment losses. A second part deals with the impact on midsize groups.
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Legislators live in house subsidized by church
Lara Jakes Jordan of The Associated Press delves into the housing arrangement for six members of Congress who share a Capitol Hill townhouse "that is subsidized by a secretive religious organization," according to tax records. The building is owned by a group known as the "Fellowship," which puts on the annual National Prayer Breakfast and is registered with the IRS as a church. Rent for the lawmakers is $600 a month.
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Fingers pointing to leader of public TV station
Cheryl Phillips and Kay McFadden at The Seattle Times looked into the woes of public-television station KCTS to find that while the station's president, Burnill "Burnie" Clark, blamed problems on a poor economy, many insiders blame him. "Employees, former executives and the station's own paid consultants say Clark runs the public entity like a private fiefdom." Clark, who knew the investigation was about to be published, resigned April 17. The Web site carries supporting documents, a timeline and the executive editors' column about the investigation.
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