May 7th 2008
Sting’s Rainforest Charity Rated One Of New York’s City’s Worst
Filed under: campaigns, donations — michael @ 10:03 am
Could Sting’s evil Captain Planet character be coming to life?
On the Eve of the Rainforest Foundation’s Annual Benefit (something for which the Empire State Building will be lit green for), new information regarding the “giving” side of Sting’s organization has us less than stoked.
According to the New York Post, the Rainforest Foundation has been rated one of the worst charities in New York City. The slap comes from Charity Navigator, a watchdog that rates 5,000 charities nationally based on management and fund-raising-to-giving ratios. Sting’s org has been given a “0″ the last four years because they’ve doled out less than half — 41% — of their donations to tree initiatives. From the article,
“The 2006 concert - which drew Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow and Will Ferrell to the landmark stage - raised $2,156,989, according to the latest available IRS tax filing. Yet only $887,374 of the money raised, 41 percent, was divided among the charity’s eight programs that support native-land claims and forest preservation in Latin America and Africa - a paltry percentage, according to agencies that monitor nonprofits.
A well-run charity, they said, typically spends 75 percent of revenues on programs. ‘This one would fall to the bottom of the bucket,’ said Sandra Miniutti, a spokeswoman for Charity Navigator.”
For reasons not explained, the charity is also hoarding their money — with $10 million in assets (including $5 million in cash) reported to the IRS.
As stated on the foundation’s website, over 93,000 acres of rainforest are lost each day. Money is desperately needed to secure vast tracts of undisturbed, ancient trees and habitat. So, we just have one, small question for the organization:
“WHAT THE F**K ARE YOU WAITING FOR?”
via Newsbusters
[UPDATE] Trudi Styler has responded to the criticism saying, “The Rainforest Foundation is celebrating its 20th year. We wouldn’t still be in business or have given out millions of dollars over the years if we’d spent everything we made immediately after it came in.” However, Bennett Weiner, the director of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, still thinks the hoarding is excessive. “What are they doing with the money?,” he said. “They have more than five times what they would normally spend in a year in reserves.”
“Two days before Wyatt came, I finished a Stop Global Warming college tour. When a baby comes into your life, the environment becomes so personal. Having him around, this little innocent spirit, really made me fearless about writing what I wanted to write and about not being afraid of who I was going to piss off. It created a lot of urgency about that.”
“Someone created this spin that I had been pulling for legislation that would say we were only allowed to use one-square of toilet paper. So you can see how spin works. That story, which from the get-go was part of our comedy routine, and even stated-so in the Huffington Post article, was picked out, taken out of context, and used to discredit me. And I truly believe that it was no accident, that it was spun that way, and suddenly I was discredited for being some airhead from Hollywood who was picking on the administration. And that’s what spin is, a way of spinning the attention off of one and over to another.”
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Not a lot of people like Heather Mills — even after appearing on Dancing with the Stars — and I’m not sure if it’s because she seems a little cold, is the center of a media-fueled hate-campaign, or both. Either way, there’s no denying her passion for supporting the rights of animals and a vegan lifestyle. But let’s get to the rats…
