Oh, No, Bono! U2 Singer’s Anti-Poverty ONE Foundation Has Given Only 1% of Money Raised to the Needy, 99% to Lavish Salaries, Gifts
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on September 23, 2010
White House Celebrity Parties: Bono and Sir Paul McCartney with The One
U2 singer and ONE co-founder Bono — who was granted a special Oval Office visit with Barack Obama, aka The One (adorably gag-worthy name coincidence) last April to discuss ONE’s (not to be confused with “The One”) development work in Africa and who knows what else — is again in the news.
And it’s not good news. Oh, no, Bono — say it ain’t so…
But if the purpose of ONE is not that of a reported anti-poverty charity, but rather that of an advocacy organization that promotes the organization (i.e., promotes ITSELF), then a big hip-hip-hooray is in order that a whopping 1 percent of the contributions made to ONE actually trickled down to the world’s poorest people.
Who cares that the Irish singer’s ONE foundation is registered in the United States as a “non-profit organization”?
Buying expensive swag to promote your organization isn’t cheap, doncha know…
From Mail Online, Bono’s ONE foundation under fire for giving little over 1% of funds to charity:
Bono’s anti-poverty foundation ONE is under pressure to explain its finances after it was revealed that only a small percentage of money it raises reaches the needy.
The non-profit organisation set up by the U2 frontman received almost £9.6million in donations in 2008 but handed out only £118,000 to good causes (1.2 per cent).
The figures published by the New York Post also show that £5.1million went towards paying salaries.
Friends in high places: U2 singer Bono meets French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris at the weekend ahead of the UN summit in NY
While the organisation’s gameplan has never been direct handouts on the ground, many who admire the Irish rock legend may be surprised by the figures.
Bono was playing Brussels last night with U2 as the world’s leaders – so many of whom he speaks to directly – were meeting at the UN assembly in New York to assess the progress, or lack of, in reaching the Millennium goals they set.
The Post revealed it had received a number of gifts from ONE in the run-up to the event, such as leather notebooks, bags of coffee and water bottles.
In the UK, the organisation has laid on a series of high-profile, celebrity-supported events since it launched in 2002 to fight poverty in Africa and Aids worldwide.
In 2009, the group campaigned to have enshrined in British law a commitment to development assistance abroad.
ONE spokesman Oliver Buston has now defended the way the organisation is run, insisting the money is used for promoting its campaign and raising awareness rather than being given straight to those who need help.
He said: ‘We don’t provide programmes on the ground. We’re an advocacy and campaigning organisation.’
Another spokesman in New York today dismissed the notion of lavish salaries being paid to its 120 members of staff and said the organisation was highly efficient in its raising of awareness.
ONE said it took no money from the public and that most of its funding came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
From The First Post, Bono under fire: where does all the ONE cash go?:
U2′s singer Bono is under fire from American commentators accusing him of hypocrisy. It’s just not fair: while other rock stars are content to sit around merely writing songs and recording albums, Bono is out there trying to make a real difference to the world – saving lives, fighting poverty, ending Aids.
The U2 man will do anything to get things done, whether it’s hugging George W Bush, staring meaningfully at Dmitry Medvedev, eating a bun that fell on the floor when he was having tea with the Pope, or wearing stack heels to make himself appear taller than Nelson Mandela.
Small sacrifices for a man who is much more than a singer or a celebrity.
Bono is the closest rock ‘n’ roll has to a superhero. He’s a noble saint in search of peace and justice. We should be grateful to him for his attempts to save our planet from starvation. But instead we attack him. Shame on us!
First, there were the petty complaints that moving his song catalogue from Ireland (where he would need to pay millions of pounds in tax) to the Netherlands (where he would have to pay next to zero) was tax evasion. Ridiculous!
Now the vultures are circling again and accusing his ONE Campaign of financial profligacy. Ridiculous!
Well, er, actually they may have a point.
On Tuesday, the New York Post ran a piece about a lavish gift package sent to them by ONE, the campaign set up by Bono to force governments to fund Aids and poverty programmes across the world.
The free swag was sent to newsrooms across New York in an effort to persuade journalists to get behind ONE’s latest drive to persuade President Obama to give billions to Africa to combat Aids.
The swag included Starbucks coffee, Moleskin leather notebooks, a syringe style pen and an over-sized chocolate chip cookie. Tat – but expensive tat. Expensive enough to get cynics questioning whether the money wouldn’t have been better spent on the people ONE proclaims to be campaigning for.
This is a pretty constant theme among ONE observers. The sting in the tail of the Post’s article was the analysis of ONE’s filed 2008 accounts. The analysis showed that while ONE brought in nearly $15 million in donations from philanthropists such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2008, just $184,732 was distributed to charities and more than $8 million went on salaries. We presume the rest was spent on cookies and sunglasses.
Bono needs those shades to help him ignore the bright, shining truth of his position. His offshore tax activities appear to expose him as a hypocrite – a man who pressures governments to put their house in order but is happy to exploit loopholes for his own financial gain.
With Ireland in recession, aid to developing countries has been cut. Perhaps Bono would like to make up the shortfall. Or perhaps not.
ONE says it is not a charity – it performs advocacy work, not charity work, said a spokesman. But it is registered in the US as a non-profit organisation and the wastage of its funds does a huge disservice to genuine charities less liberal with their budgets.
From Daily News & Analysis, Bono’s charity accused of spending more on wages than good causes:
U2 star Bono’s charity has come under fire after it allegedly gave only £118,000 to good causes despite receiving nearly 10 million pounds in donations.
The singer is behind the non-profit ‘One’ campaign, which has been accused of blowing £5.1 million on staff salaries whereas poverty-stricken children in Africa live on less than 80p a day.
Figures from 2008 show that ONE received £9.6 million in donations, yet it splashed out on expensive gifts in a bid to raise awareness of Aids victims.
American newspaper staff were handed free 13-pound water bottles, £10 leather notebooks and pricey bags of coffee.
The group, which aims to help the world’s hungry, also sent out giant cookies.
“There could be recipients, or donors, who might think the money could have been donated to help their cause,” the Daily Star quoted Daniel as saying.
However, the entourage of the organisation defended the spending and insisted its main objective was lobbying.
From New York Post, Poor idea, Bono – Nonprofit mails media $wag to ‘help’ hungry:
Nothing says, “Wipe out AIDS and poverty” like Band-Aids and a black-and-white cookie.
That’s what Bono’s $15 million nonprofit the ONE Campaign — which gives only a pittance of proceeds to its hunger and health causes — bombarded New York newsrooms with last week to get press for its push for billions in African AIDS funding from President Obama.
The items were part of a pricey pile of puzzling loot, which also included a $15 bag of Starbucks coffee, a $15 Moleskine leather notebook, a $20 water bottle and a plastic ruler.
The stash came in four, oversized shoe boxes, delivered one at a time via expensive messenger. The boxes were timed to arrive for the UN “Summit on the Millennium Development Goals,” which kicks off in Manhattan today.
Kimberly Hunter, spokeswoman for DC-based ONE, declined to say how much money the organization shelled out for the publicity blitz.
“Sometimes it’s pretty hard to get through to reporters with the information about the lives of the world’s poorest people,” Hunter said. “We think it’s important enough to try and break through the clutter . . . That’s why we sent the boxes.”
The boxes included a small tin of Band-Aids and two syringe-style pens — along with a pitch challenging Obama to fork over $6 billion to the UN’s Swiss-based Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa.
[...]
Charity watchdog Daniel Borochoff of the American Institute of Philanthropy in Chicago called the p.r. move a “risk.”
“There could be recipients — or donors — who might think that the money they spent could have instead been donated to help their cause,” he said.
Hunter countered that ONE “does advocacy work, not charity work.”
ONE gives only a pittance in direct charitable support to its causes — something Borochoff said the average donor might not realize.
Bono and Al Gore - 2008 World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland | Photo credit: World Economic Forum
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