[Rotorocious]

Too long didn't watch

[Pcemkr]

How about focus on fixing our US internal issues before worrying about an external, nonthreatening, guerilla leader?

[Templar]

The Kirkpatrick article that was posted raises a good question...

Why allow Invisible Children to essentially break the law (being tax exempt from the IRS while providing substantial funding for lobbying a political agenda is against the law) to help pass a bill that will essentially militarize an already unstable government? We know how well militarizing unstable governments/political groups has faired in the past (i.e. the Taliban).

[kyleb350]

My only contribution to this thread is posting memes.

[PiZauL]

[Bimmer84]

Is he running for President or something?

[Templar]

Originally Posted by Bimmer84

Is he running for President or something?

Not surprised at all...

[BMWinNorthdakota]

Shit like this makes me rage for reasons unknown to me, specially when it goes all viral and everyone goes

"guise its a good cause lets all get involved and make a difference" - alkfjslkjfkls fuuuuuuu stfu

Half of these sheep are spreading the word because its a social trend.


Im sucha hipster.

[Bimmer84]

Someone was asking me about it today. I broke it down like this:

"This viral video about Kony is the equivalent to making a video that a man named Osama Bin Laden is apparently running a terrorist organization, and they are suspected to be involved in the attack in NY in 2001. We need to find this guy know before this can continue!"

They decided not to share the video on their wall after my explanation. If this was 6 years ago, then sure, but a little too late on this one.

[1speedbike]

Invisible Children is a scam. It's not "fraud" in the legal sense, but only about 30% of the donated money goes to the cause they are behind, and even then, it is arguably not going to the "right" places.

The President of Uganda, Museveni, is much less and a president and more a dictator; some people put him on par with the likes of Saddam and Gaddafi. There is a reason why Kony and the LRA are trying to bring him down, despite their controversial methods. This filmmaker and the organization have their own agenda. It is not as simple as "Kony is a bad guy, let's go find him by spreading this video on facebook!". It's a 30 year struggle being trivialized and capitalized on by people who know that everyone jumps on the social media bandwagon.

[Templar]

Originally Posted by 1speedbike

Invisible Children is a scam. It's not "fraud" in the legal sense, but only about 30% of the donated money goes to the cause they are behind, and even then, it is arguably not going to the "right" places.

The President of Uganda, Museveni, is much less and a president and more a dictator; some people put him on par with the likes of Saddam and Gaddafi. There is a reason why Kony and the LRA are trying to bring him down, despite their controversial methods. This filmmaker and the organization have their own agenda. It is not as simple as "Kony is a bad guy, let's go find him by spreading this video on facebook!". It's a 30 year struggle being trivialized and capitalized on by people who know that everyone jumps on the social media bandwagon.

Without seeing how much of their budget was allocated for lobbying to pass that bill that Congress passed, they may very well have broken the law and their tax exempt status could be in jeopardy. There is a certain restriction on how much an organization that is claiming tax exemption can contribute to lobby for a political agenda. Not sure what the exact numbers are, but it is entirely possible that they did exceed those numbers.

Besides, like you mentioned, why are we not focused on the dictatorship and tyranny of the current president who slaughtered thousands upon thousands of people from other nations? I know why, because he helped the US a few times with Somalia...

[silvergray545]

Did anyone look at their financial statements?

http://c2052482.r82.cf0.rackcdn.com/...pdf?1320205055

Can somebody explain to me why they are showing a 6 million dollar CASH BALANCE when they have almost 5.5 millon dollars in unrestricted net assets? Shouldn't this money go towards the actual cause?

I'm finding it hard to understand how IC claims to be a NPO but they literally have 6 million dollars just chillin in the bank. Some thing is not right with this "NPO" since only 31% actually goes to the children in Africa.

Take a look at another NPO called Africare that also helps the people in Africa.

http://www.africare.org/about-us/ann...ments_2008.pdf

Let's take a look at the Statement of Activities and Change in Net Assets. Their total revenue in 2008 was just over 46 million dollars. Their total program services (money that is actually used in Africa) was just under 44 million dollars. What that means is 95% of every dollar in revenue that Africare received, actually went to Africa.

I support the Kony cause 100%. But I refuse to give a single dollar to Invisible Children. 31% of it actually goes to the people who need it. The rest is covering outrageous expenses or just sitting in their bank account. If you donate to Africare, 95% of the money is used to help people. Let me repeat that, 95%!!.

[BKV122]

The second side of the story

[Templar]

People are in a frenzy about this shit... It's nuts.

I mean, I donate to a few charitable causes, but I did quite a bit of research before I made my determination. The mass of people on Facebook and twitter posting about this aren't doing a lick of research, and are just handing over money.

Attached image describes pretty much 99% of the people sharing this thing on social media sites.

[Maestro]

Originally Posted by BKV122

The second side of the story

Okay that is also pretty good, I just love when people do this... You have to wonder about the guy who made the first video, He probably had good intentions at one point. He clearly stated he has seen this for many years, why now did he choose to make this video why not 10 yrs ago. Well I think we stated it in his video, it is an election years and it best time to invoke someone into action and get people to donate more money.

Besides the financials for the non-profit I would like to see the financials of this guy who made the video, how much of his personal living expenses are paid from his non-profit. I think you all would be surprised, I think he found a way to live off other people money and use suffering of others to make it happen.

[kudos]

[silvergray545]

Originally Posted by Maestro

Okay that is also pretty good, I just love when people do this... You have to wonder about the guy who made the first video, He probably had good intentions at one point. He clearly stated he has seen this for many years, who now did he choose to make this video why not 10 yrs ago. Well I think we stated it in his video, it is an election years and it best time to invoke someone into action and get people to donate more money.

Besides the financials for the non-profit I would like to see the financials of this guy who made the video, how much of his personal living expenses are paid from his no-profit. I think you all would be surprised, I think he found a way to live off other people money and use suffering of others to make it happen.

http://www.charitynavigator.org/inde...ry&orgid=12429

According to the website, supposedly the filmmakers make 89k a year.

I agree with you. With all the cash that IC has on tap, I can't help to think that they might be expensing what ever the hell they want.

[gun6slinger9]

^ They make 89k tax free per year, but I'm betting they add their own personal costs to their business as well

[Templar]

Originally Posted by silvergray545

http://www.charitynavigator.org/inde...ry&orgid=12429

According to the website, supposedly the filmmakers make 89k a year.

I agree with you. With all the cash that IC has on tap, I can't help to think that they might be expensing what ever the hell they want.

Reading this site, it says their program expenses are 80.5% of their revenue? What are those expenses, if you know? Like, is that the money that goes to Africa or is that just random charges they accrue over time? I'm just curious, because the other document showed, like you posted, only about 30% going back to those who need it. So I would think this contradicts that.

[silvergray545]

Originally Posted by Templar

Reading this site, it says their program expenses are 80.5% of their revenue? What are those expenses, if you know? Like, is that the money that goes to Africa or is that just random charges they accrue over time? I'm just curious, because the other document showed, like you posted, only about 30% going back to those who need it. So I would think this contradicts that.

It's all in the financial statements I posted.

http://c2052482.r82.cf0.rackcdn.com/...pdf?1320205055

Go to page 6 and look at the Statement of Functional Expenses.

It gives you the break down of the 8.9 million dollars in expenses. The row titled "Direct Servies" is what actually was used to help the people in Africa. The rest of the expenses are operating and marketing expenses. 2.8 million/8.9 million = 31% of their expenses were actually used in Africa.

The site doesn't go into details.

[GuyOh]

[Inspired]

http://tumblr.thedailywh.at/post/18909727859/on-kony-2012-i-honestly-wanted-to-stay-as-far