From Russia with Love……..A Nonprofit Story of Political Espionage

Just yesterday the upper house of the Russian parliament approved draft laws giving the Russian government greater power over the Internet and nonprofit organizations.

What kind of power you may ask? Well first of all, the government can now block websites it deems dangerous to children and requires all nonprofit groups that receive any money from outside Russia to describe themselves as "foreign agents" if deemed to be engaged in political activities. These new laws force Russian nonprofits to provide detailed accounts of their foreign financing.

This violates certain basic human rights….right? U.N. High Commisioner of Human Right Navi Pillay, would agree. Yesterday, after the passing of these new laws, he condemned them stating these laws "will have a detrimental effect on human rights in the country."

Others have taken up issue with these new laws, which included a one-day shutdown of Russian-language Wikipedia. Since then the bill's sponsors narrowed the law to limit the state's blocking authority to websites that offer child pornography, information about illicit drugs or instructions for committing suicide. Which are all popular subjects of the nonprofits crowd of course….

If you’d like to learn more click here

Why did Dr. Phil Give $600,000 to Anthony Charity?

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Dr. Phil got Cindy and George Anthony, the parents of Casey Anthony and the grandparents of Caylee Anthony, to appear on his eponymous television show last September. Were they paid? The Sentinel doesn’t say so, but it reports on a People magazine article that says that Dr. Phil McGraw did pay $600,000 to Caylee’s Fund. Was it a quid pro quo or did McGraw simply happen to feel motivated to contribute to the charity at around the same time that the elder Anthonys appeared on his show?

As of last month, the charity was dissolved, with $100,000 left in its coffers that was distributed to three other charities according to the grandparents’ attorney, Mark Lippman. People believes that the McGraw payment went to support Casey Anthony who, as everyone knows, was acquitted of her daughter’s murder.

Actually, papers [PDF] dissolving the entity known as Caylee’s Fund Foundation were filed with the Florida Secretary of State in May, signed by Lippman the attorney as its registered agent, based on a vote of the “members” of the corporation on May 22, 2012. The articles of incorporation for the fund, filed on July 19, 2011, establishing it as a “Florida not-for-profit” corporation are a little thin – just one page. The articles say the fund is “exclusively for charitable purposes that qualifies (sic) under IRC ss. 501(c)(3), including advocating for grandparents rights with regard to grandchildren and assisting grandparents of missing, neglected, or exploited grandchildren.”

If Casey Anthony received any money from the fund, it would violate Article VII in the amended articles of incorporation, filed August 2011, which disallowed any of the earnings of the fund to go “to its directors, officers, or other private persons, except that the Corporation shall be authorized and empowered to pay reasonable compensation for services rendered …”

A Misrepresentation of Nonprofits: A Local nonprofit "Hate Group"

A local non-profit – one classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center – based in Falls Church may find themselves in hot water for their use of a New Jersey couple’s wedding photo in a Colorado political attack ad. The photo, originally taken of Brian Edwards and Tom Privitere in New York, was photoshopped to move the couple from New York to a snowy idyll representing Colorado, to attack Republican State Senator Jean White, who voted for same sex marriage in the last legislative session. The photo was used entirely without permission, and the photographer and the subjects are currently seeking legal action.
Public Advocate of the United States (PA-USA) ran the ad in a couple different forms ahead of last Tuesday’s election in Colorado. Based in Falls Church, and run by Republican Loudoun County Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio, the group, despite its innocuous name, works to fight against LGBT issues throughout the US. Delgaudio has made a name for himself locally as the crusader-in-chief against gay rights. Delgaudio has made some fairly hilarious and peculiar statements in this vein, suggesting that TSA patdowns “promote the homosexual agenda“, and that anti-bullying laws threaten religious freedom, while also suggesting that a Tampa pirate festival has been overrun by militant homosexuals.
Delgaudio defended the use of the photograph to the Denver Post, “We are a non-profit and make no money from any photos, postings, references, parodies, street theater or educational materials.” That may not help them, but it also might. The photo that PA-USA used isn’t one that they had purchased the rights to use – they just downloaded it from a wedding site and started up photoshop. That doesn’t seem to be a legitimate application of the Fair Use Doctrine that encompasses the exception to copyright law. But, as we’re not lawyers here at We Love DC, we thought we’d look up a friend of ours who is.
As we’ve done in the past, we talked with our media law go-to attorney Kevin M. Goldberg of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth in Arlington:

In this case you have a noncommercial work being used in its entirety for what may or may not be a noncommercial purpose (more on that in a second). Since there was probably no real market for the photo in the first place, there’s no effect on the market or tarnishing of its economic value. We have to focus – and Public Advocate of the United States is focusing its justification on – the fact that this is a noncommercial use. They claim that they’re not making money off the photo and that they’re engaged in a “transformative” use by placing it in a difference context for commentary, criticism, parody, i.e., First Amendment protected purposes.
I think they’ve got a pretty decent argument in that regard. This is sort of a marriage (pun intended) of two major controversies we’ve seen in recent years: the Shepherd Fairey “Hope” poster and the use of songs by artists like Jackson Browne, Heart and David Byrne by the political campaigns of John McCain, Sarah Palin and Charlie Crist, respectively. Of course, we’ve never gotten a true ruling from any court in any of these cases and there are even slight differences here, because the original AP photo and songs in each of those instances were commercial in nature. So, even though those cases presented a much higher likelihood that the use was not fair, they weren’t cut or dried one way or the other (and there was a very good likelihood in my mind that Fairey would win if he hadn’t gone and done all sorts of unsavory things leading up to the actual litigation). The fact that the original photo was clearly noncommercial here tips this toward fair use.
Of course, all that goes out the window if the wedding website where the photo originally appears is commercial in nature, has any commercial overtones or explicitly contains licensing guidance in its terms of use or permissions among each picture. Not having seen the site in question or had the opportunity review its terms, or having seen the original photo on that site, I can’t do more than speculate at this time.

It seems unfair for Delgaudio and the PA-USA to just swoop in, take a couple’s engagement photo, and photoshop it to insult them, especially when they didn’t pay for the rights to use or alter the image, but it also appears that they may have a leg to stand on in regards to the legal issue.
Edwards & Privitere are retaining counsel, and this may yet be settled in the courts, and they may not even be the right people to bring the suit.
PA-USA may be correct that they don’t make any money from the posting of their materials, they’re certainly not a small organization, and somehow they still made $71,000+ in Royalties in 2010. According to their 2010 Form 990, required by the IRS, the organization received over $1.2M in grants and contributions, and paid Delgaudio – through his firm “Delgaudio & Associates” – over $150,000 in compensation.
Sleazy or not, this one could go either way..

Hey Buddy, Can You Spare A... Ski Resort?

I don't know if this is silly or great or a perfect example of misguided philanthropy in action.

But just think about it...when a ba-jillionaire (yes, they had to invent that world for Bruce after the "Diehard" movies) wants to divest himself of a (losing) business venture he decides to "donate" it to a nonprofit.

Isn't that nice?


Bruce Willis offers to donate Idaho ski area
Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Bruce-Willis-offers-to-donate-Idaho-ski-area-3458872.php#ixzz1rC5x0FbU

Nonprofits an obstacle to smaller government: aka those nonprofits are dragging us all down

Here is an "interesting" opinion piece from the Watertown Daily Times, which offers clearly a very qualified and well researched opinion about the nonprofit sector and the community in Northern NY (sense the sarcasm). This individual points to the nonprofit sector as the source of so many problems and offers his own "facts" for his case. Ironically, not one of the comments left after the article agree with his opinion. For anyone working in the nonprofit sector that reads any news online about nonprofits, there are always people making negative comments about the nonprofit sector. I guess people recognized these comments were a bit far fetched. Which brings us to the most important issue here: media due diligence. Really, we have to wonder about the media and highlighting comments like these for the general public? Clearly the Watertown Daily Times is working hard to bring the best opinions to their readers, and for this wonderful editorial, we thank you and Mr. Bonner:

A recent article in the Times stated that nonprofit organizations in the north country employ 12,000 people and spend $800 million yearly. As a fiscal conservative I was literally overwhelmed by this figure. When you realize that most of this money is taxpayer cash funded by various grants and contracts with local governments, it is easy to understand why our country is going bankrupt.

Over 90 percent of the people served by these nonprofits are also receiving benefits from the federal, state or local taxpayers. Seventy-five percent of Jefferson County’s budget is used to support the dependent classes, otherwise known as welfare recipients. Thousands of people are moving to the north country to take advantage of all these giveaways and services. Virtually all the crime in our area is committed by these very same people.

This is not the first time I have written about this problem, but now our country is rapidly heading for bankruptcy, and our political class is terrified about reducing the budget. How can any fiscally conservative politician win when 12,000 folks and their families plus tens of thousands of economic parasites all vote to steal other people’s money?

In the coming election, the most important since 1860, President Obama could well win a second term with the votes of the parasitic class. The Democratic Party has not put forth one single plan to reduce spending in any meaningful way. All they want is class warfare and more taxes on anyone they consider rich.

There are no easy solutions. All must sacrifice, all must give something to save our country from economic ruin. A very good place to start would be to get rid of all these worthless nonprofits that really do nothing but provide jobs, salaries, health benefits and pensions to left-wing liberal Democrats who couldn’t survive one day in the private sector. The year 2012 will be a very interesting one. As a nation we will either save ourselves or plant the seeds to another civil war.

Bart S. Bonner
Watertown

Nonprofit to launch porn site in name of animal rights

The headline says it all for this story, and makes the case for being featured here. Now to many (who fall into different camps regarding this recent action), this is not funny or silly, but you have to wonder what PETA is thinking? Like nonprofits across the US, they have an important cause that drives their efforts. This cause attracts passionate supporters and resources that enable their organization to carry out its mission. And like all nonprofits, PETA faces challenges getting their voices heard and cause acknowledged. But, following PETA's reasoning, all nonprofits can now benefit by starting their own porn sites featuring their causes and educational information intermixed with pornographic material (and maybe some recipes too- read the article). Because this is the audience and the type of business that makes sense for a charitable, tax exempt organization to carry out. So, thank you to PETA for your willingness to draw more much needed scrutiny and criticism to the nonprofit sector. Stay tuned for www.thenonprofittruth.xxx (please note, follow this link at your own risk).



As the article relates:
An animal rights group, which is no stranger to attention-grabbing campaigns featuring nude women, plans to launch a pornography website to raise awareness about veganism.

The nonprofit organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) whose controversial campaigns draw criticism from women's rights groups, said it hopes to publicize veganism through a mix of pornography and graphic footage of animal suffering.

"We're hoping to reach a whole new audience of people, some of whom will be shocked by graphic images that maybe they didn't anticipate seeing when they went to the PETA triple-X site," said Lindsay Rajt, PETA's associate director of campaigns.

PETA has been accused of campaigning for animal rights at the cost of exploiting women. A Facebook group, Real Women Against PETA, was launched after the organization paid for a billboard showing an obese woman with the message: "Save the Whales. Lose the Blubber. Go Vegetarian."

Another critical Facebook group is called, "Vegans (and Vegetarians) Against PETA."

"PETA is extremely disingenuous," said Jennifer Pozner, executive director of the New York-based advocacy group Women In Media & News. "They have consistently used active sexism as their marketing strategy to garner attention. Their use of sexism has gotten more extreme and more degrading.

"This may be in their minds the only thing left at their disposal to lower the bar," she said.

PETA has filed paperwork to launch its pornography site when the controversial new .xxx domain becomes active in early December. While many nonprofits and corporations are scrambling to protect their website names from being hijacked by a pornographer slapping on a .xxx domain, PETA is embracing the new domain as just another way to conduct business.

"We try to use every outlet that we can to speak up for animals," Rajt said. "We anticipated that this new triple-X domain name would be a hot topic and we immediately decided to use it and take advantage of it to try to promote the animal rights message."

Jill Dolan, director of the program in gender and sexuality studies at Princeton University, was critical of the PETA campaigns.

"Exploiting porn to get people's juices going seems lame; exploiting pornographic images only of women to make their point is retrograde and misogynist," Dolan said in an email. "Come on, PETA. Don't be Neanderthals."

Rajt denied that PETA has been insensitive to women.

"Our demonstrators, the models, all chose to participate in our campaigns . . . It's not a very feminist thing to do to turn to women and tell them whether or not they can use their voices, their bodies to express their voice."

Visitors to the X-rated site will initially be presented with pornographic content as well as images from PETA's salacious ads and campaigns, Rajt said. Those images will be followed by pictures and video shot undercover of the mistreatment of animals. The site will also include links to vegetarian and vegan — using no animal products — starter kits as well as recipes.

PETA's ad campaigns have featured adult film stars Sasha Grey, Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson. In 2008, the organization's YouTube account was temporarily shut down after showing racy videos of celebrities and others posing nude.

"When people first visit the site, it will be very enticing and once they go just a little bit deeper, that's when they'll be confronted with images that we hope will make them stop and think and get them talking and hopefully encourage them to make a lifestyle change to a plant-based diet," Rajt said.

Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/news/PETA+launch+porn+site+name+animal+rights/5424516/story.html#ixzz1YVNCq8aG

NY Appoints Task Force to Investigate How To Strengthen Nonprofits and Increase Compensation

That should have been the headline for the new task force. Instead, the Governor rolls out a new task force to "investigate the executive and administrator compensation levels at not-for-profits that receive taxpayer support from the state." All because of a few bad apples and an expose in the media, the nonprofit sector is bestowed with this helpful committee that will reform the apparent abuses across the sector. A sector where the majority of nonprofit directors make below $50,000. A sector that puts mission before profit and compensation. As NY Council of Nonprofits CEO Doug Sauer points out in the news interview below, what about a member of this very task force, who runs a nonprofit institution receiving NYS tax dollars, that is compensated at almost $2 million? Maybe the task force should look internally first. And what about for profit businesses who receive NYS tax dollar support and their employee compensation? That would keep the task force and the media very busy. It seems that the big picture was definitely missed here, including an opportunity to address these perceived longstanding compensation problems (like the small number nonprofit Execs who are being compensated at problematic and questionable levels). Let's look at these issues and address them, but let's look at the majority of the nonprofit sector and the low pay and other challenges (like NYS contract payments) that are the true problems. Let's strengthen our nonprofit sector with business operations support. Help them build better boards of directors, become entrepreneurial, attract the best and brightest people and provide the important services and programs we all depend on them for.