Posted on 03/18/2010 12:54:44 PM PDT by TRY ONE
For the last several years, Sean Hannity and the Freedom Alliance “charity” have conducted “Freedom Concerts” across America. They’ve told you that they are raising money to pay for the college tuition of the children of fallen soldiers and to pay severely wounded war vets. And on Friday Night, Hannity will be honored with an award for this “Outstanding Community Service by a Radio Talk Show Host” at Talkers Magazine’s convention.
But it’s all a huge scam.
(Excerpt) Read more at debbieschlussel.com ...
OK, I went to Freedom Alliance 2007 Form 990. Their balance sheet shows investments of $10,898,500 at the beginning of the year and $13,673,700 at end of year, an increase of about $2.8 million for the year in invested assets.
They made actual program payments of $895,300.
So, they either paid out or invested about $3.7 million
Their total income was $10,770,000.
So, if the money invested is a fund for future scholarships, the payout in 2007 was $3.7/$10.8 x 100 = 34%
That means that 66% of their income went somewhere else.
For comparison, my non profit put 86% of our income into the target in 2009; 14% of our income went somewhere else.
The difference is probably that my nonprofit doesn’t put on shows.
The Charity Navigator rating was noted in the article. For what it is worth.
I don't give a crap about Hannity, but this misunderstanding about how stuff works is alarming to me. His concerts and speaking engagements are business activities, not charity gigs. He makes plenty of bucks so he is charitable enough to donate his profits. His profits are in line with what he does.
Hannity is a jerk ping
Hopefully soon this will be addressed.
Are you talking about his making a profit on the charity?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VqsmPbFapg
Schlussel is a liar and a liberal hack.
Even if the numbers are correct, which I doubt, they are not all that out of line for many charities. Do you have any idea how little is actually given to the recipients of most charities? Taken a look at Red Cross or United Way lately? Most money goes into the pockets of administrators.
Levin is a brilliant constitutional lawyer who happens to enjoy Hannity’s friendship. Since you obviously do not hold Levin in high regard, “largely ignoring” him, I guess you WOULD miss the point of my post.
Ya know, I thought I was at DU reading this thread. Then I saw a few, very few, replies like yours and so I checked and dangit, I was indeed at Freerepublic.com.
But hell yeah, let’s all get together and destroy Hannity so the kids will get much more money, right?
Looking for a sarcasm smiley now....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VqsmPbFapg
Schlussel is a liar and a liberal hack.
Absolutely. I am not big fan of DS but that tax return if true and not doctored is damning.
The CFC (Combined Federal Campaign) won't allow a charity into its group unless it publishes the percentage spent on overhead and the percentage that actually funds the cause. I'm sorry if this sounds negative, I don't mean it to be so.
I don’t want this to be true, but if it is, this group of people should have known better.
He has said BOTH:
a) he pays for his own expenses, and
b) net profits go to FA
I have heard him mention several times that he pays for his and his family’s travel.
Maybe you missed the point of my reply to you. This article has nothing to do with my calling Hannity a whore. I’ve been calling him a whore for year based on my observation of his behavior.
I don’t care if Levin is the pope, what he is is irrelevant to my evaluation of Hannity’s behavior.
Thank-you!
Doing what he does, concerts, entertainment etc, he is a regular corporation who employs probably hundreds of people along the tour. I'm sure he tries to keep ticket prices low, but if you want him to donate more you will have to pay higher prices to attend.
Farm-aid for example, failed to donate a damn thing because they lost money at almost every event they ever did. It is not easy to make a profit of these things, and I must hand it to Hannity for getting it right and not losing money.
“Is she misstating the figures from their 990 filings? If not, it sure sounds problematic to me.”
She is purposely misrepresenting what the figures mean. For instance, she pretends that the education grants and the checks to wounded soldiers are the only or main programs...Freedom Alliance has more programs.
Charity Navigator Rating, an independent charity rating organization rates Freedom Alliance four stars out of a possible four stars. About 80% of the money they spend is on program costs. This is very good and efficient. Here is the URL for Charity Navigator:
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=6590
Please try to have some faith in good Americans who work hard to do good things.
Debbie S is dumb as a stump, folks. I highly doubt she can “follow the money” in a multimillion-dollar charity operation without making horribly wrong conclusions. Let’s give Hannity the benefit of the doubt and await his response.
As for his support of McCain, he carried a lot of water for the GOP in 2008, and given the alternative, how can anyone blame him? I voted for McCain, and did my best to convince undecideds to do so too; you think I enjoyed that?
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