[Let's not forget to thank Bill O'Reilly who shone the light on the big-name charity scams)

Left-Wing Groups Aided by 9-11 Funds; Critics Charge 'Abuse' By Marc Morano CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer November 19, 2001

(CNSNews.com) - One of the largest relief funds set up to help the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, has awarded grants totaling more than $1 million to a variety of left-wing political groups devoted to causes like hate crime legislation, expanded welfare, gun control and nationalized health care.

According to United Way CEO Brian Gallagher, the September 11th Fund has received donor pledges totaling $334 million, with $250 million already collected and $47 million distributed. The fund is a project of the United Way and the New York Community Trust.

But critics say many of the groups receiving charitable contributions from the fund have little or nothing to do with helping victims of the attacks, and records show contributions are used to pay for things including ethnic media, office equipment and massage therapy.

Victim Relief or Children's Defense?

In one case, the September 11th Fund awarded a grant of $31,000 to the Children's Defense Fund (CDF).

The CDF has been at the forefront of lobbying for "children's rights," gun control and expanded welfare programs.

According to the fund's financial documents, the grant to the CDF was "to get out information about subsidized health insurance expanded in response to September 11th."

But this and other grants are drawing criticism. "Giving money to organizations that have controversial political agendas like CDF's and not directly assisting victims' families is just flat out wrong," said John Carlisle of the Capital Research Center, a conservative charity watchdog group.

"Children's Defense Fund is a major advocate for the vast expansion of the federal welfare state and their affiliation with Hillary Clinton is well known," he added. Clinton served as a CDF board member between 1986 and 1992.

The CDF did not return repeated phone calls requesting comment on its grant from the September 11 Fund.

The Intersection of Disaster Relief and 'Hate Crime'

The September 11th Fund also awarded $30,000 to the Asian American Legal Defense & Educational Fund (AALDEF) to provide "legal help and preventative measures against hate violence."

The AALDEF's web site states the mission of the group is to "achieve social and economic justice for Asian Americans and all Americans."

It also states that AALDEF is "concerned about reports of harassment, intimidation and violence against South Asian Americans, particularly Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sikhs and other Indians in New York City."

The group's goals include stopping "racial profiling based on ... race, religion or national origin" and defending affirmative action programs.

The AALDEF is also a member of the Alliance for Justice, a consortium of left-of-center groups including the National Organization for Women Legal Defense Fund, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, Planned Parenthood, and the Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund.

Margaret Fung, executive director of AALDEF, told CNSNews.com the $30,000 grant was "to hire community organizers to assist in providing information and legal assistance to victims of hate violence, especially in the South Asian community here in New York City" and to fight "workplace discrimination."

Fung defended the use of the grant from the September 11th Fund for the hate crime program. "They are victims of the tragedy because the kinds of incidents that occurred had a direct impact on individuals. It would not have occurred but for the attacks on the WTC," she explained.

The Arab-American Family Support Center (AAFSC) also received a grant of $60,000 from the September 11th Fund "to provide emergency assistance" and combat "attacks on Arab-Americans."

AAFSC spokesperson Mahdis Keshavarz told CNSNews.com the grant money is going to a hotline to help fight "hate crime or biases" perpetrated against the Arab community of New York.

Keshavarz said the problem involves "women being afraid to go to the grocery store, to take their children to school, so the grant is basically targeted at furthering the programs and specifically the hotline."

Subsidizing Critics of 'Sympathetic' American Press

The September 11th Fund also gave a grant of $81,150 to the Independent Press Association (IPA) "to use community and ethnic newspapers to distribute information about victim assistance to immigrants and non-English speaking people and to prevent bias-related violence," according to the fund.

The IPA describes itself as supporting "independent publications committed to social justice... "

An undated statement issued after Sept. 11 by Abby Scher, director of the IPA, was headlined with the words "IPA wins relief," and referred to the grant's beneficiary as "New York's Endangered Ethnic Press." Scher called the grant from The September 11th Fund "only a drop in the bucket of what's needed... "

The IPA's Internet site features an article titled "Observers Cast Doubt on the Objectivity of the American Press."

The article criticizes the American media coverage of the terrorist attacks and military action in Afghanistan for being too pro-American. The article states that the American media "did not hide their sympathy for Americans and in particular New Yorkers in this difficult period."

A top official with the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a Washington, D.C.-based legal watchdog group, called it "a shame," that so much money was being disbursed to groups with a clear "political or ideological agenda."

"The real victims of September 11th are the victims of this politicized process," said NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm. "Every dollar spent for a group that has a political agenda is a dollar that can't be spent for the real need of the victims."

Miscellany - Phones, Massage Therapy and 'Environmental Justice'

Another beneficiary of the September 11 Fund is Legal Services of New York, which received a grant of $40,000 "to replace phones, computers and other office equipment destroyed in the attack."

According to spokeswoman Edwina Martin, the group has an annual operating budget of $33 million and gets its funding from federal, state and local governments as well as private grants.

Martin said the $40,000 grant was necessary because, "If we don't have our phones and computers, we can't do anything and people are left with nothing."

She noted that the offices were "fairly close" to the World Trade Center, and that "equipment wasn't functioning." Martin said Legal Services is providing civil legal help to individuals facing eviction because of unemployment.

Other grants given by the September 11th Fund include one for $57,575 to the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, a "disability rights" and "environmental justice" organization.

September 11 Fund documents show the money is "to help families of maintenance and restaurant workers who died at the WTC deal with rent, credit card debt and other legal and financial problems."

The New York Immigration Coalition collected a $450,000 grant to help "access relief assistance to immigrants harmed by the disaster." The group's stated purpose is to secure "immigrant rights."

Coalition Executive Director Margie McHugh has previously lobbied for expanded government welfare programs and penned a 1997 essay titled "Republican Proposals on Immigrants--A Windfall Profit for the Feds, a Disaster for New York."

Carlisle speculated that Americans would not have given so generously had they known that so much of the money raised for the Sept. 11 victims was going to be diverted to groups with sharply defined political causes.

"The public expects that the money that is given to these organizations goes to help the families, and clearly a lot of these organization are politically controversial organizations which are doing little or no real relief work on behalf of those victims' families," he said.

"It's an abuse of trust on the part of the September 11th Fund," Carlisle added.

Not all September 11 Fund grant recipients have such clearly defined political goals. The Olive Leaf Wholeness Center received a grant of $100,000 to provide "massage therapy to rescue workers, medical examiners, staff and victims' family members at various relief locations," according to the fund.

The Olive Leaf's goals include creating "an enriching, humane, and ecologically sound healing environment" to "start people on their journey toward wholeness." The September 11th Fund grant will go to "provide stress reduction bodywork" to rescue and relief personnel.

Carlisle believes this money was misspent as well. "If these rescue workers want a massage, I think they already know where to go. They don't need a $100,000 grant from the September 11th Fund," he said.

"When they start straying into massage therapy for rescue workers or getting involved in hate crimes, that is not what these people are giving for," Carlisle added. "It smacks of them using September 11 to advance their organization's agenda and that is, under the circumstances, shameful."

Ideology Not a Factor

But Jeanine Moss, spokeswoman for the September 11th Fund, told CNSNews.com the ideology of the non-profit groups receiving the grants is irrelevant

"People are concerned with the victims of the crimes. That is why millions of people opened their hearts and wallets to this cause. I don't think people are saying, 'Oh gosh, I don't want to help them if the person who is helping them might not have all the same values I have,'" she said.

"Our job is not to judge what an organization's opinions are. Our job is to help victims of the September 11th attack," Moss added.

Last week, the September 11th Fund was criticized for a $171,000 grant it gave to the Legal Aid Society (LAS), a group fighting for expanded government programs and welfare rights in New York City.

The LAS is also defending a number of detainees held on immigration charges in connection with the terror attacks.

Steven Banks, spokesman for the LAS, maintains the men are being held on civil violations and are not criminal suspects. He added that if any of the detainees were charged in connection with the terror attacks, the LAS would "withdraw from the case."

But the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) said just because a detainee has not been charged with a crime, it doesn't mean that person is not part of the government's investigation into the terror attacks.

"Individuals arrested on immigration charges in connection with the 9-11 investigation were charged because of the immigration violations, but clearly were arrested because of a lead developed from the investigation into the terrorist attacks," INS spokesman Russell Bergeron told CNSNews.com.

"The American people fully expect that if we have someone in custody, that we will not release that person until the investigation has determined that that person is not linked to the ongoing investigation," he added.

Officer Stephen Jacobson of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where the detainees are being held, said he could not provide any information about Legal Aid's clients without first knowing their names.

Legal Aid did not respond to repeated requests to release the names of the detainees they are defending.

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

Answers

Red Cross has Pattern of Diverting Donations Practice Was Used At Least 11 Years

By Mary Pat Flaherty and Gilbert M. Gaul Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, November 19, 2001; Page A01

In at least a half-dozen disasters over the past decade, local officials have had to pressure the American Red Cross to give victims the donations the public intended for them.

The Red Cross came under criticism months after the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing for spending only one-fourth of the $13 million it had collected for victims and their families.

When the Red River flooded parts of Minnesota and North Dakota in 1997, nearly $16 million was donated, yet the Minnesota attorney general had to resort to stinging public hearings and a 40-page report to prod the release of nearly $4 million in unspent victim funds.

In the San Diego area, a recent audit of collections for victims of a January wildfire found money improperly used for vehicles and a telephone system upgrade while burned-out families waited for money earmarked for them.

"They went out and raised money on the backs of fire victims here and put it to other uses," said Dianne Jacob, a San Diego County supervisor who has been battling the Red Cross over its handling of the disaster in Alpine, about 20 miles east of downtown San Diego. "They got caught big-time in New York because it was big-time money, but it was the same pattern."

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Red Cross collected $543 million in the Liberty Fund, saying the money would go to victims and emerging needs. Last week, responding to harsh criticism, the organization said it had not realized how strongly donors objected to allocating any of that money for long-term projects. The Red Cross backed off those plans and promised that donations would be used only for victim relief.

The pledge had a familiar ring to civic leaders in some cities. They say that in other major drives, the Red Cross has been equally unclear about how it will use donations. When disaster strikes, the Red Cross launches emotional appeals to tap into a huge charitable outpouring. But if a donor does not specify that a contribution must stay in a community, the Red Cross might put it into a fund for other relief efforts.

Chastened by the public outcry over its management of the Liberty Fund, the Red Cross will be more direct in its appeals and be explicit about intentions for contributions, said Harold Decker, interim head of the American Red Cross.

"There was a breakdown in communications both inside and outside the organization" about how the money should and would be used, he said.

Red Cross appeals are supposed to say money will be used for "this disaster or similar disasters," Decker said. He intends to look at whether that message is clear enough, prominent enough and followed consistently.

Decker said the Red Cross and many other charities with a broad mission find themselves in a "straitjacket," trying to follow the wishes of donors who often want every penny to go to a specific need.

Decker said nonprofits need latitude to be able "to service more than the event that gets lots of media attention" and build financial reserves to respond -- in the case of the Red Cross -- to 60,000 smaller emergencies each year.

The Red Cross's earlier problems across the country foreshadowed the conflicts over the Liberty Fund and highlight questions about how forthcoming charities are in their solicitations, charity experts say.

The demands on many large charities cause them to operate as businesses, with millions and even billions in annual revenue and executives pulling down six-figure incomes -- a situation that can mean "donors are viewed as just another source of capital," said Harvard University professor Peter Dobkin Hall, an expert on charities.

Executive salaries at the Red Cross topped $2 million in fiscal 2000, according to federal filings. However, the organization has said it will hold overhead costs for the Liberty Fund at 9 percent, which is considered modest.

Important -- yet largely unnoticed -- shifts in laws and regulations governing charitable giving have placed charities and donors on a collision course over how contributions are used. In numerous cases, courts have sided with a charity's executives, saying they have the final say because they are professionals. But while the changed laws shield charities legally, "changing people's expectations is a lot harder," Hall said.

Red Cross use of large national disasters to subsidize other relief efforts is "fine. But if they are going to do that, they have to say so explicitly. It can't be in the fine print," said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, a watchdog group.

Criticism of Red Cross disaster relief efforts date to at least October 1989, when a devastating earthquake toppled sections of San Francisco. Within an hour, Mayor Art Agnos (D) was visited by a Red Cross representative.

But he "wasn't talking about disaster relief," Agnos recalled recently. "He asked me to cut a commercial to raise money." Agnos said he declined.

The Red Cross advertised for donations for earthquake victims, noting in small print that some funds could be used for other disasters. The charity raised about $55 million, with about $12 million going to the relief effort.

To Agnos, the public outpouring seemed like an opportunity to help rebuild. He asked the Red Cross for $7 million for homeless shelters but was turned down, he said.

"I asked, 'Where the hell are you putting all of this money?' When I asked, they gave me some generalities" similar to the explanations initially offered over the Liberty Fund, Agnos said. "Finally, it dawned on me they were stonewalling me."

Agnos decided to complain publicly while the news media were focused on the earthquake. He accused the Red Cross of using bait-and-switch tactics -- soliciting earthquake donations, then putting the money in its general disaster relief fund.

The charity reacted to the criticism by announcing that it would increase spending in Northern California and provide Agnos with $5.4 million for homeless shelters.

The effort in Minnesota for Red River flood victims had similar problems. The Red Cross collected $16 million, but more than a year later, about $4 million was unspent, according to a critical review of the effort by then-Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III (D).

"You don't have someone who is outright trying to defraud people in this process," Humphrey said. "But when you make appeals at a time of great emotion and stress, you have a significant responsibility to see to it that you use the funds for the purpose you state."

Bobbi Cordano, a former assistant attorney general who worked on the Minnesota report, said she understands that the Red Cross needs the funding boost that major disasters attract to help support its larger mission. "My problem is how they do the fundraising and how they explain what the benefits will be to the public and victims -- and what the benefits will be to Red Cross," she said.

The charity is "very, very difficult" to deal with, she said, and it would not have cooperated if the state had not increased scrutiny through public hearings and its report.

In Oklahoma City, after terrorists bombed the federal building, the Red Cross knew within two days that it had collected more money than it would need. It took in more than $13 million and had $3 million in expenses.

A Red Cross spokeswoman said that donors had earmarked only about $2.6 million of the money. The rest would help address less-publicized disasters, she said.

A recent controversy in San Diego has local officials berating the Red Cross over collections taken after the January wildfire across 11,000 acres in Alpine.

Thirteen families that lost homes, equipment and other property did not receive most of the money donated for them, an audit of the fire account showed.

Mary Fritz was among the victims. Her garage and machine shop were embers, as were her guest house and the clothing and jewelry she stored there. "The tires on the tractor were still smoldering" when the Red Cross arrived at her door, Fritz recalled.

The charity promptly solicited donations and within two weeks told its board and San Diego news media that $400,000 had been collected.

"I knew something was off," said Fritz, a retired bank employee. The Red Cross had given her a $110 voucher for clothing at Kmart and $365 toward a new shed, she said. In talking with neighbors, she found no one who had received a large stipend.

In response to complaints, Red Cross headquarters conducted a confidential audit. It showed that as of September, the San Diego chapter had spent $123,000 on fire relief. Less than $10,000 of that amount had gone directly to victims. Yet donors had designated nearly $188,000 in donations for the Alpine victims, the audit showed.

The chapter's use of fundraising language that "may appear misleading to donors" -- because it failed to say donations might be used elsewhere -- leaves unclear whether even more of the announced $400,000 total was intended for Alpine aid.

A copy of the audit provided to The Washington Post shows that Red Cross headquarters questioned or disallowed $112,000 in local expenses charged to the Alpine fund, including vehicle use and a telephone system upgrade.

The local chapter did not open a service center, appeared not to have contacted everyone with major home damage and did not supervise services to ensure that needs were adequately met, the audit said.

San Diego chapter staff did not respond to specific questions and requests for interviews from The Post.

Despite its limited assistance to victims, the chapter quickly wrote to one major donor -- San Diego Padres owner John Moores -- asking whether it could move the $100,000 he designated for the Alpine fire into the local disaster fund for other emergencies. The Jan. 23 letter to Moores said the charity had already addressed the Alpine victims' immediate needs.

Moores's office "told them to use it for what we gave it for -- the Alpine fire," said Beverly Stengel, Moores's executive assistant. "I was really angry."

Responding to local demands for an accounting of the fire money, the San Diego chapter released an edited version of the headquarters audit that omitted several critical passages, only to have the full version later provided anonymously to the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper.

Said the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, a Native American tribe that donated $50,000, "It appears [the local Red Cross chapter] has at best mismanaged the funds collected and at worst exploited a tragic situation."

The local furor erupted the same week that the Liberty Fund came under heavy attack.

The San Diego board chairman has since apologized and said more money will be set aside for victims such as Fritz, who said she has an appointment tomorrow with Red Cross staff. As part of those reviews, Fritz and another victim said, they have been asked to document not just their losses but their financial worth.

The day she received the clothing voucher, "I said thank you and didn't think any more about it until they started patting themselves on the back and bragging. That's what tore it," Fritz said.

Decker, the interim head of the charity, said he recently became aware of the San Diego problems. "It was plain foolishness to edit the audit. . . . I'll say this: I'm not done with that situation in San Diego."

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

Seems to me it would be very easy to monitor.

Make a list of all the people who were made jobless, homeless, parentless, and then take the total of the money on hand, divide by number of names, and write checks.

If checks from that fund go to someone who is not on the list, and I don't consider businesses to be victims, then United Way must pay those amounta back to the fund from their other accounts.

Of course, if we can get our hands on Ossama's millions, those should be distributed to everyone in the country. If there is anything left over, it could be used to help Afghanistan. Like maybe trucking water into the drought ravished areas. Oh wait, that would be the entire country, huh? Well, we could fly water in and dump it on them like we do for fires, right? Maybe fill some of those bomb craters to make little ponds?

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

The Red Cross has been in the charity business since at least World War II. You would think that in all those years they would have a system set up. Certainly, by now, you would think they would have a data base program to keep track. They've had enough practice--you would think.

You would think wrong, apparently. But I bet the Red Cross has a good system to keep track of how much interest their unspent donations earns and when their execs are due for a raise or bonus.

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

"Make a list of all the people who were made jobless, homeless, parentless, and then take the total of the money on hand, divide by number of names, and write checks."

I believe that is exactly how the Twin Towers Fund donations are being distributed. So much for the widow, so much for each kid under about 24, so much for each kid over about 24. Doesn't address relative need, but it was one way to handle it and get it moving.

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

But I bet the Red Cross has a good system to keep track of how much interest their unspent donations earns and when their execs are due for a raise or bonus.

Yep. And don't kid yourself that they don't have some sort of way to identify past contributors who were very generous, whom they can solicit again when they want.

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2001

Brooke, you and OG have it right: give to the Salvation Army. They are one of the few groups who aren't top-heavy with well paid administrators. I know that locally, very little of the money that they take in goes to supporting their organization. Most of it goes directly to those in need.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

Absolutely--Salvation Army. Also your local soup kitchen. Ours encourages visits--it's an eye-opener. Donate some of your older stash; they don't mind stale-dated cans and sealed boxes. Also please donate pet food to the food bank for poor people's pets. Sometimes, when they get an excess, they call The Hungarian to pick it up and she feeds it to her feral cat colonies. It doesn't go to waste.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001