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Archive for the 'Nonprofits' Category

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Trinity Broadcasting’s jet plane: Nearer, My God, to Thee!

October 23rd, 2009, 5:00 am by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

global“Bombardier Global* aircraft are truly exceptional in every sense of the word,” the jetmaker says (breathlessly) on its web site. “ The consummate business jet, they out-class others in one majestic sweep of beauty and performance, designed and created to allow world and business leaders alike to convene at the highest level. These extraordinary long- and ultra long-range business aircraft incorporate their advanced technologies with an uncommon elegance and synergy, while their handling ability is legendary - the fusion of grace and power.”

It’s logical that fusing grace and power would be high on the list for the world’s largest religious broadcaster, OC’s own Trinity Broadcasting Network. A shot of Trinity’s graceful, powerful plane was snapped earlier this year by photographer Michael D. Davis, who captioned it this way:

Paul and Jan Crouch’s personal chariot awaits their return on the ramp at Nashville. Lord, literally, only knows what they are doing here. Well, they do have their massive “Trinity City” just crouchesnorth of town where Conway Twitty used to live. TV Studios, Performance Hall’s, Offices, and even a Gift Shop are all located on the grounds. Amen.

The aircraft is owned by a Trinity affiliate - Trinity Broadcasting of Florida, Inc. It was built in 2000, and was registered to Trinity with the Federal Aviation Administration on May 15, 2008. Its price tag runs some $26 million. 

Trinity spent $332,237 on pilots, according to Trinity of Florida’s last federal tax return (posted on guidestar.org):

  • Martin Aviation of Santa Ana, which was paid $140,002,
  • John Hylton Jr. of Seattle, who was paid $100,572,
  • and Flightsong of Seattle, which was paid $91,663.

So, why does a nonprofit religious broadcasting company need an uber-jet?

We put that question to Trinity attorney and spokesman John Casoria (who we thank for not immediately hanging up on us). Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Nonprofits | 193 Comments »

SAT folks slap down free, top-tier tutoring for the masses

October 19th, 2009, 5:00 am by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

julian-smollerAnd this from the “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” file:

Julian Smoller, math wiz and all-around nice guy, helped pay his way through UCLA by tutoring kids on the West Side as they crammed for The Most Important Test of their Lives - the SAT.

It struck Smoller that just about every student struggled with the same questions on the practice tests. He’d explain the same problems over and over and over again…. It was getting a bit tedious.

And then the bolt from the blue: If he taped the solutions to the most problematic math problems, and posted them online, anyone who needed help could watch them - as many times as needed - until it all clicked.

Eureka! That would not only help kids struggling with math, but could save them time and trouble and money as well - and give them a real leg up on their futures, since so very much rides on SAT scores.

Over the summer, Smoller - an OC boy who’s dad teaches at Chapman University - got his roommate on board, and they made a couple of test videos (see a sample below). And - as Smoller was heading to Harvard Law School in the fall - he knew enough to write a letter to the folks who run the SAT, asking for permission - and appealing to their sense of fair play, as well as their own self-interest.

“The price of SAT tutoring ranges from $20 to $100 an hour - well beyond the reach of the poorest high school students, students who often attend below average schools and are most in need of tutoring,” Smoller’s letter says. “With all the resources of technology at our disposal, there is no reason why poorer students should be further disadvantaged by a lack of quality tutoring. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Consumer stuff • Nonprofits | 49 Comments »

Which charities would you like us to check on?

October 8th, 2009, 12:07 pm by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

salvation-army-bellWe’re heading full steam into giving season, when many folks open their wallets for good causes.

We may not be opening those wallets quite as wide this season as we have in past years, but they will open nonetheless.

Curious about a charity that you may donate money to? Post the name of that charity in the comments section below, and we’ll put it on our list for “Charity Checkups” this holiday season.

More Watchdog:

Posted in: Charity checkup • Giving wisely • Nonprofits | 9 Comments »

Komen funds Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening, not abortions

October 8th, 2009, 5:00 am by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

PD*10078069We received several phone calls from readers angry that many Susan G. Komen for the Cure affiliates - including Orange County’s - provide money to Planned Parenthood affiliates.

“I don’t want my donations to pay for abortions!” one irate woman told us.

So let’s set the record straight:

“The bottom line is that all of our community grants are restricted and closely monitored to provide vital breast health education, screening and treatment services for underserved women,” said Sonia Aujla, spokeswoman for OC’s Komen, in an email.

The Watchdog’s recent story on Komen’s finances did not list the Planned Parenthood grant because it’s small, and does not rank among the top grants given. In the tax returns we examined, OC’s Komen gave nearly $1 million to community groups for breast cancer screening, education and treatment; Planned Parenthood got the aforementioned $32,749 - about 3 percent of the total.

This sort of controversy is not new to Komen, and Aujla pointed us to a rather exhaustive treatment of the prickly Planned Parenthood topic on Komen’s national web site.

“Susan G. Komen for the Cure exists for only one reason: to save lives and to end breast cancer forever,” wrote Eric Winer, M.D., Komen’s chief scientific advisor, in an open letter to critics. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Charity checkup • Kick The Watchdog • Nonprofits • Public health • • • • • | 39 Comments »

Charity checkup: Race for the Cure pumps millions into breast cancer research

October 6th, 2009, 5:00 am by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

race-1There was a lot of pink at the 18th annual Susan G. Komen Orange County Race for the Cure, which drew some 30,000 people to  Newport Beach last week, and raised $2.5 million to battle breast cancer. (Hats off to the survivors and their senses of humor, including the woman who wore the ”Saving the TaTa One Step at a Time” T-shirt.)

An editor at The Orange County Register - which is a sponsor of the race - wondered aloud to us at The Watchdog about how Komen handles its money. And every reporter knows that if an editor wonders something, it’s a story.

So we spent some time with the organization’s tax returns and learned that Komen has two main branches that  funneled more than $300 million into breast cancer research, screening and treatment in the last fiscal year. The Komens get high marks from charity watchdogs - four out of four possible stars from Charity Navigator. Meet:

  • The national office in Texas, which distributed $100 million in 2008 for medical research;
  • And 122 affiliates (including OC’s), which funded much of that research through the national office (some $33.4 million) and  provided $106.9 million for local cancer screening and education. 

Orange County’s Komen is fundraising until October 16, to meet its $3 million Race goal.

NATIONAL

The national office, in Texas, hands out the research grants - including $3.2 million for California researchers at the likes of UC San Diego, UC San Francisco and the University of Southern California. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Charity checkup • Nonprofits • Public health • • • | 9 Comments »

OC’s ‘rationally-selfish’ Ayn Rand Institute thrives despite recession

October 5th, 2009, 5:00 am by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

ayn_randShe was the high priestess of profit, preaching “rational selfishness” and “laissez-faire capitalism.” So it’s fitting, perhaps, that the Irvine nonprofit devoted to Ayn Rand’s work is defying economic gravity - enjoying boom times despite the nation’s worst recession in decades (while charities preaching “help-others” get squeezed).

The Ayn Rand Institute, the largest of the Rand think tanks and perhaps Orange County’s most eclectic nonprofit (because how many nonprofits dedicated to profit are there, really?), has seen revenues shoot up 26 percent over the past three years (to $6.3 million), while net assets jumped 30 percent (to $1.3 million).

“And we might have our best year ever this year,” said a clearly-pleased Yaron Brook, the foundation’s president.

Why? “Something is going on,” he said. “People are frustrated. They don’t like what this administration is doing, they want answers, and she is viewed as having answers. The result is people are willing to write checks right now. It’s viewed as an antidote to where the culture is heading.”

 The Ayn Rand Institute has thrived in Orange County soil, tripling in size since moving here from Marina del Rey in 2002.

BY THE NUMBERS

The chart below shows the growth of the institutes’s revenues, expenses and net assets over the past three years, based on tax returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service. These numbers show a drop in revenue in 2008 from 2007; Brook said that’s because of how the IRS requires it to record the paper value of some planned gifts.    Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Charity checkup • Nonprofits • • • • • • | 39 Comments »

Segerstrom’s Festival of Children is more than $200,000 in the red

September 28th, 2009, 5:00 am by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

festivalThe Festival of Children Foundation - brainchild of Sandra Segerstrom Daniels of South Coast Plaza fame - has deficit-spent in three of the past four years, and was $205,413 in the hole, according to tax returns.

The Festival’s  mission is to “improve the lives of children by strengthening the charities that serve them,” it says. It just wrapped up a month’s worth of free kid-centered activities at the Segerstrom super-mall.  

  • Revenues peaked in 2005, when the Festival took in $1.3 million. But by 2008, the money coming in had nose-dived  nearly 50 percent, to $676,200.
  • Expenses, meanwhile, dropped 36 percent  - but that was not enough to make ends meet.
  • Net assets - essentially, its rainy-day cushion - went from plus-$53,235 to minus-$205,413.
  • Direct grants to children’s charities fluctuated quite a bit, rising to$180,707 in 2008, despite the lack of revenue.

Much of its spending was on event coordination and advertising; Daniels serves as unpaid executive director.

In the interest of full disclosure, the Festival advertises in the Register and supports Register charities. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Charity checkup • Nonprofits • • • | 26 Comments »

Is ACORN pimp/prostitute scandal a local story?

September 18th, 2009, 2:51 pm by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer

acorn-videoJust about all of us who cover government and politics for The Orange County Register have gotten emails and phone calls from folks who arer incensed that we’re not covering the ACORN mess as a local story.

“Why are you and your so called journalists not covering what is happening with the ACORN (Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now) scandal?!” says an email from one Susan Fink, of Ventura County.  ”This is an unfolding story which is tied to both LOCAL, STATE and FEDERAL CORRUPTION on an unbelieveable scale, with TAXPAYER FUNDS! - with video evidence … Two young journalists have laid their lives on the line to get this corruption exposed to the public! Do you not care about the future of our country?”

In case you’ve been under a rock, a few employees for ACORN advised a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute about how to launder earnings, how to get a loan for a house that would be used as a brothel peopled by underage girls, and whether Tijuana is the best place to slip such underage girls into the country (to which an employee said yes, and offered friends who could assist).

These heinous things occurred in Baltimore, Washington, D.C.,  Brooklyn, San Diego and San Bernardino. (You can watch video of these encounters at biggovernment.com.) Since none of it happened in Orange County, your local journalists did as they usually do with national stories - we let the national media handle things. The Register has run several Associated Press  stories in the paper, and online (see for example,  “House votes to take funds away from ACORN.”) We do confess, however, that FOX News has been A LOT more interested in this than we are.

But still, or maybe, because, the emails and phone calls keep coming. “Can you please explain to me why there has been no coverage or reporting regarding the ACORN videos that have been released last week?” said an email from Jenna Shimabuku.

Our editors are feeling a bit sensitive about all this, so when a caller reached The Register switchboard today and said 1,000 people would be protesting outside ACORN’s Santa Ana office at noon, well, we at The Watchdog were on it. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Charity checkup • Federal spending • Kick The Watchdog • Nonprofits | 88 Comments »

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