$212,000 Salary and They Call It Charity

Written by a friend of mine, I am reposting this here.

Friday, December 31, 2010

$212,000 Salary and They Call It Charity 

 

I'll Tell You What Is Wrong With Charity Outfits These DaysBy Cliff Harrison

Perhaps I close the year with this post because I vow to open next year with hard-hitting educational posts that are coupled with video and photo images.

One of the themes I'm going to incorporate into the blog entries for 2011 is a comparison of just what I can purchase for the homeless and what I can fed the hungry with if I had $212,000 to spend on the needy.

For $212,000 I can fed 600 hungry, homeless persons on the streets for 365 days.

For $212,000 I can make 5,435 complete turkey dinners with all of the trimming that each will feed 12 persons or a total of 65, 230 persons fed a complete turkey meal.

For $212,000 I can buy one hundred and twenty-one thousand one hundred and forty two (121,142) homeless persons triple-blade shavers and shaving creme.

For $212,000 I can buy 24-hours of private motel rooms night for 5,300 people, equipped with kitchenette. OR, I can house and shelter in fully equipped PRIVATE apartments 35 homeless persons for an entire year!

For $212,000 I can provide 26,500 homeless persons with haircuts. 3,533 homeless persons with 30-day bus passes. 3,533 homeless persons will cell phones. 42,400 homeless persons with complete personal care kits. 70,666 homeless persons with emergency winter kits, of knit hats, clean socks and gloves. Nearly 2 million homeless persons with bottled water.

For $212,000 yearly salary in a so-called charity, I would feel I was corrupt!!!!

I am so appalled at the people in the "non-profit" business who start an organization and call it charity and then assign themselves a fat salary that makes us who are in real charity sick to our stomachs.

Three Squares is a popular local charity that was started in the home of a Las Vegas woman. The idea was to feed the hungry. She drew donations from concerned citizens and that grew into a mammoth organization. But there are two major problems.

People give out of the kindness of their hearts only to have their gifts sold. Just like when people donate clothes to local homeless shelters thinking they are doing good, those clothes are placed in a thrift store and sold to the homeless, not given to them.

Three Square sells the food that is donated to them to smaller charities. Now, the local food bank is part of a larger, national charity that used to go by the name Second Harvest. They run a monopoly on food banks across the country since the control some 95% of the food banking going on in America.

And now, for the real shocker, this lovely, nice lady that we all respected and admired so has just announced her salary, $212,000 per year.

That's not charity. That's stealing from those who donate in the name of charity to fatten ones self.

In the bylaws of the RIVER Organization I wrote a locked in couldn't be changed salary for the highest-paid salary of any executive for the organization; $33,000 locked in for 5 years and then no more than the median American income, no matter if there were a thousand such organizations nationwide. Of course, I never got the charity off and running, YET, but if I ever do, that will be in the Constitution and Bylaws come hell or high water.

There is a reason I wrote it that way. I don't believe, no matter how good someone is or how big of an organization they are running should ever make more than the median American income. Not if you are in charity.

And I don't believe a food bank that monopolies a food supply that is intended to feed the poor and the hungry is a legitimate organization, nor are the ones who work with them. To me, this is the purest form of corruption.

I can't always stop purchasing food for the homeless at certain supermarkets that supply Three Square, I don't have much choice. I can not boycott everyone every time I disagree with someone. But I can show you how I make purchases, how I volunteer my time for free and I am in very poor health. I'll show in videos, photography, and articles just how simple it is in purchasing food for the poor. And if I can do it on a very low fixed income, then anyone with a job can do it too.

You'll need to make up your own mind rather or not this lady is worth $212,000 income when she could spend most of that on feeding the hungry, helping the needy and giving to the poor.

The Salvation Army lost $13,000 of donated money, obviously an inside job. The public is outraged and many say they will no longer donate to the Salvation Army because they blame the supervisors for the loss claiming they should have been more responsible. It's not the first time the local Salvation Army has been a victim of foul play.

Charities all across Clark County are run by over-fed people who are not worth what they are being paid to do their jobs. Volunteers and those in rehabilitation do most of the real work in charities, it's foolish to be paying the incompetent top staff excessive salaries.

Station Casinos promised to give the Salvation Army $13,000 replacement. They made a press release making it sound like they were doing a great deed to a charity that is suppose to be doing great deeds. All 18 Station Casinos are said to take part, that means just about $722 per casino to contribute. About what one person could loose in a slot machine, especially a tight one, in a single night.

There are many stories about the local charities that need to be brought up to the public. I'd rather be doing something else. But when I learn that it is nearly impossible to get help from a local supermarket where I do business with to help me feed the hungry on the streets, no in shelters, not in schools, not in someones homes, but on the streets, and I'm told no, "We give all of our products to Three Squares."

Three Squares CEO making $212,000 a year is no charity. The top person in any charity should make no more than $33,000, certainly no more than $49,000. If they do, they are not in it for charity, but to fatten themselves.

If they want to make money, then they ought to go work in the free enterprise system. In a private company. Not in non-profit and not in government. But we seem to thing non-profit workers and government workers should be compensated equally as well as those in the private sector, but that is not wise.

As we begin the New Year we're going to show you in show and tell style and how-to-do something style Direct-to-the-Streets humanitarian care. It's not new, Christian River is something which has been doing it for a time and more and more people are joining the effort. And not only are they gaining knowledge and satisfaction in helping others, they love the feeling that they accomplish in giving directly.

Eliminate the high rollers who run the charities that are bleeding America. Station Casinos and every casino in Las Vegas can give who they want to. Every charity in Las Vegas can spend the money donated to them as they like. They can even loose the money if they like. All the big supermarkets can keep their food for Three Squares. No problem. We who work in real charity and do so for nothing, volunteering our time and using our own money to buy the goods we give to the homeless, the hungry and the needy and poor will continue to do so. We will proudly pay our income taxes and our taxes on the items we purchase for donations. We will not tax exempt anything nor will we write off on our income taxes what we donated to charity.

That is because we are not corrupt. That is because we don't do it for ourselves. We don't even really do it for the needy. We do it for Jesus Christ, because we obey him.

Christian River is a movement that is growing in favor with common people who are sick and tired of being sick and tired with so-called Charities and "non-profits".

So, tonight, have an extra drink and bring in the New Year. For this New Year, 2011, I'm going to show you how easy it is to deal directly with the homeless and not through a charity. I call it Direct-to-the-Streets and it is the most rewarding thing you could ever do. You can do your alms in secret just as the Bible tells us to do. I'm going to show you how.

Good Night. God Bless and Happy New Year 2011!

Posted by Cliff Harrison at 11:50 PM