Free Republic

'A Saudi Arabian billionaire is planning on giving his entire $32billion (£20bn) fortune to charity. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the richest men in the world, said he wants to donate to groups that promote health and help with disaster relief. The 60-year-old will also support women's charities and those that look towards eradicating disease. He did not say whether the generous move would have any impact on his holdings. Mr bin Talal is the grandson of Saudi Arabia's founder Ibn Saud. He is said to have started his business empire with a $30,000 (£19,000) gift from his father...

The Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage settled little. It merely launched a bigger struggle over the definition of marriage. Now, resistance to Obergefell v. Hodges will join Roe v. Wade in becoming another, long-tailed comet moving across the socio-political skies of America. A third, landmark Supreme Court initiative waits over the horizon. It will involve the 2nd Amendment. Perhaps not soon, but coming. Following Obergefell v. Hodges, much discussion now centers on the potential loss of tax-exempt status to churches that resist. Same-sex marriage zealots will look for opportunities to cement the Court’s decision by forcing churches, through the...

So the organization gave the money back. And now they want your help. A $50,000 donation is cause for celebration at the Queen Anne offices of the Girl Scouts of Western Washington. “We have these little clapper thingies, and the clappers go mad when we get that kind of gift,” says the council’s CEO, Megan Ferland. So when Ferland came back to the office earlier this spring and announced that she’d just landed a $100,000 donation, the place went mad. Not only did it represent nearly a quarter of the council’s annual fundraising goal, it would pay to send 500...

According to the New York Times, Bill Clinton was willing to show up at the Petra Nemcova gala commemorating the 10th anniversary of the tsunami to accept an award only after the skids were greased with an invoiced $500,000 donation. Pictures at link:

So I'm in a checkout line the other day, and the clerk asks me if I want to donate to this well-known charity. Sure, I say, and the donation is added to my bill. Then, out of curiosity, I look this charity up on Charity Navigator. The charity's president makes quite a bit over $500,000 a year. Well, that just doesn't sit right. Your thoughts?

- The $200,000 honorarium was the largest the Long Beach, California, organization had ever paid a public figure for an appearance - Normally, speakers donate much of that money back to the small, non-profit that has an annual operating budget of just $3 million - Former secretary of state redirected her check to the Clinton Foundation - which spends $8.1 million a year on travel alone - In 2007, when Bill Clinton headlined the event, he charged the group $150,000 and kept the money for himself Hillary Clinton reportedly charged a Boys and Girls Club chapter $200,000 for an appearance,...

I want to thank everyone for their well wishes and prayers in the last 2 weeks. My Mom passed on May 24 and we laid her to rest on May 29. Driving up to CT, my car started to fail, the air suspension system was tired, not knowing where it was failing, but on the way home, the warning alarm went off every 25 miles. When I got to Church the day after my mom's funeral, I got a flat tire on the highway that for some reason (THE GRACE OF GOD!) held out until I was safely in the...

Extend yourselves My Children , extend yourselves for as I love, you to must love even to the ends of the Earth. Give and it shall be given unto you, share in all I have blessed you with in an unending manner for My Love in you knows no boundaries and remembers no wrongs for as much as you allow My Grace in you to overcome all obstacles I then pour out My Storehouses upon you. So do not segregate your hearts from one another but give and not sparingly but lavishly for in this same way I shall give...

How do Warren Buffett and Bill Gates convince the world's wealthiest people to give away most of their fortunes? The billionaires have organized the "Giving Pledge,” an initiative launched five years ago to convince others to donate at least half of their wealth to charitable causes around the world.

Bill Clinton has a message to all those autocrats, petro-billionaires, compromised television journalists, and corporate titans who have been tied to a series of devastating exposes about the Clinton Foundation and its finances: I feel your pain. And we still need your money. [Snip] At times, the letter reads like a Clinton State of the Union speech of old, with him citing example after example of people who have been helped by the foundation’s work. One can almost imagine the “smallholder farmers in Africa” or the “women entrepreneurs in Latin America” or Wazia Chawala, a farmer and single mother in...

Beware the Strangest Idol of All – A Reflection on How Even Works of Charity Cannot Eclipse Obedience to Christ By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere is a passage in the gospels that breaks conventions and cuts to the core of what has come to be called the “Social Gospel.”  Before looking at the passage we need to define “Social Gospel.” The phrase “Social Gospel” emerged in the Protestant denominations but has also come to be used in Catholic circles as well. The Social Gospel is an intellectual movement that was most prominent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The...

The Clinton Foundation said Thursday it received as much as $26.4 million in previously undisclosed payments from foreign sources, universities, large corporations. South Korea, Thailand and Nigeria. Etc. This after “forgetting” to disclose 1,100 foreign donors. This after the Clinton Foundation failed to report $$tens of millions in foreign donations on their taxes, forcing them to refile at least five years’ worth of returns. I’m sure the IRS is cool with that – after all, they don’t have “Tea Party”, “Conservative” , “Christian” or “Palin” in the name of their organization – Friend me on Facebook – no one turned...

Washington (CNN)In a rare joint action with attorneys general for each of the 50 states, the Federal Trade Commission says four cancer charities run by extended members of the same family conned donors out of $187 million from 2008 through 2012 and spent almost nothing to help actual cancer patients. Federal Trade Commission: Four cancer charities a sham Federal Trade Commission: Four cancer charities a sham Each of the charities charged were the subject of extensive reporting by CNN in 2013. And in each instance, none of the four charities would comment. We were ordered out of the building at...

The federal government has charged four sham cancer charities for bilking more than $187 million from consumers for cars, trips, luxury cruises and even dating site memberships. All 50 states and the District of Columbia joined federal officials to charge in federal court the Cancer Fund of America, Cancer Support Services, Children's Cancer Fund of America and the Breast Cancer Society, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The four charities and various executives were charged with using telemarketing calls, direct mail, websites and other materials to raise money. The money was supposed to provide cancer patients in the U.S. with...

Much has been made of the recent Pew poll that highlights America’s religious landscape. What has drawn the most attention is the apparent decline of Christianity in the U.S. “The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining,” began the piece. Many liberals took gleeful notice. The Institute on Religion and Democracy’s Mark Tooley noted, “Secularists and their fellow travelers are ecstatic. The secular utopia about which John Lennon crooned is impending. Christianity is finally dying!” Of course, this is far from the case, as Tooley later reveals. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the...

A young Alabama boy brought a group of Waffle House diners to tears when he asked his mother to buy dinner for a homeless man he saw outside - and then sang a blessing with him at the table. Ava Faulk said her son Josiah Duncan, 5, wouldn't stop asking her questions when he spotted a disheveled man holding a bag with his bike outside the restaurant in Prattville. When Faulk explained the man was homeless, little Josiah asked 'What does that mean?' Faulk told Josiah that it meant he didn't have a home, to which her son responded, 'Where...

Within two weeks of Haiti’s January 2010 earthquake, the word had already gone out from the State Department that Bill Clinton would be in charge of U.S. reconstruction efforts. “That means,” one individual told me and I reported in a Jan. 25, 2010 column, “if you don’t have Clinton connections, you won’t be in the game.” The “game,” as my source called it, meant securing hundreds of millions of dollars in no-bid contracts from the State Department’s U.S. Agency for International Development and grants from multilateral institutions like the InterAmerican Development Bank, which gets the bulk of its funding from...

Mitt Romney and Evander Holyfield had a charity boxing match last night:-snip- Holyfield was declared the victor, but perhaps only because Romney saved his best jabs for Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid and Candy Crowley.-snip-Mitt Romney with the joke about wanting his fight against @holyfield to be "as clean as Hillary Clinton's server"-snip-Romney after Holyfield fight: "I'm ready to take on Harry Reid's exercise equipment now.-snip-Romney, with some bite post-fight: "I'm happy to fight anybody so long as Candy Crowley isn't the referee."-snip- Mitt Romney, winner by TKO.

Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, and boxing legend Evander Holyfield entered the ring in Salt Lake City on Friday for a bout to raise money for charity. Politics found its way into the charity bout, with one fan playfully shouting: 'Put Hillary in there,' referring to Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

In a pilot program designed to reduce GHG emissions and safety risks and provide better clean food preparation in mobile food vending, the Big Apple will be home to the next generation of eco-friendly food carts.Food carts, while being convenient for consumers and a good small business venture for foodies and entrepreneurs, are also a source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollution, as well as being potential public safety hazards from their onboard propane tanks. And in a metropolis like New York City, with some 8000 mobile food carts on the streets, the environmental and health effects of...