On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 01:31:42PM +0530, Ingrid Srinath wrote: > On 22 Mar 2013, at 17:46, Pranesh Prakash <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 6:56 AM, Ingrid Srinath > > <[email protected]> wrote: > >> This TED Talk touches on some of the perverse disincentives non-profits > >> face that hamper scale, innovation, sustainability and impact ... > >> http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong.html
My knee-jerk reaction is that anything that hampers Dan Pallotta is probably a good thing. My ex-wife bicycled from San Francisco to Los Angeles twice to raise money for AIDS charities in the California AIDSRide, which was organized using Pallotta Teamworks at the time. When she saw Dan Pallotta taking credit for the fundraising she, and thousands of other people, had accomplished, she was disgusted, and she resolved never to participate in the AIDSRide again. Many, many other people felt the same way, and Pallotta was diverting the majority of the money raised to his own organization, so the charities decided to organize the next year's event without Pallotta. In response, Dan Pallotta launched a lawsuit against them. He used the money my ex-wife raised to benefit AIDS charities to SUE those very charities to prevent them from raising further funds! In the end, they had to change the name of the event, but fortunately they destroyed Pallotta Teamworks (which laid off all its employees), and they were able to continue the event under the name "AIDS/LifeCycle". Today the AIDS/LifeCycle includes some 2200 riders and raises some US$12M per year --- slightly more money than the $11.5M Pallotta's AIDSRide did in its peak year of 2001, when it had 2800 riders, but providing some four times the funding to the charities themselves. How much money was Pallotta diverting to himself and his own 300+ employees? Well, it varied from event to event, in the heist Pallotta pulled off in Florida in 1998, where less than 12% of the money --- one eighth --- went to the Florida AIDS charities that were the nominal beneficiaries of the Florida AIDSRide. That was the last year he did business in Florida. He was also unceremoniously ejected from Pennsylvania, and had to fork over a fine for his misconduct there. So, don't trust Dan Pallotta. He's a scammer. And definitely don't listen to him when he tells you how non-profits ought to be run. <http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2002/03/01/319484/index.htm>
