WOW! These reviews encouraged me to search their tax compliance and discovered their tax exempt status has been frequently revoked, reinstated, and not every year has been allegedly filed.
What an odd pattern for an alleged nonprofit!
How difficult can it be to electronically timely file the requisite 990-N that only asks eight simple questions?
Thank you, Great Nonprofits. I believe you are an essential resource for donors in navigating charitable donations.
A Zero Rating Agreed! When the Beecher House Society Inc. DBA Documenting Venture Smith Project created the Peter Tillou -Venture Smith Book Prize, the individual who allegedly solicited the donations for this book prize allegedly failed to disclose to donors that the”creator” of the book prize had knowledge that the 501(c)3 tax status had been revoked (not the first time that happened) by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Additionally, and allegedly same individual proceeded to contact media and magazines in allegedly self-serving interviews to announce or promote this Annual Book Prize.
Typical! It allegedly never occurred after the initial award and we seriously question whether the initial award was even fully “awarded.”
How disrespectful of Mr. Tillou, who was a fine man and accomplished gentleman!
This organization has a detailed history of alleged failures or alleged abandoned projects for which it had raised funds:
Making the Harriet Beecher Stowe home in Litchfield, Connecticut a Museum and Teaching Facility;
Making a 90 acre parcel of land allegedly adjacent to the Torrington Connecticut UCONN campus the “home” for the Harriet Beecher Stowe House;
An alleged entity (though we can find no record of any current legal status) of the long-winded Beecher House Center for the Study of Equal Rights;
The “Voyage of the Sloop Venture”;
The Kufuor-Annan Center for Collaborative Learning in Kumasi;
The Annual Award of the Peter Tillou -Venture Smith Book Prize (stated alternate years would be awarded internationally).
Was it any wonder that for the ceremony at the Connecticut State Library in November 2018, the alleged creator of such book prize was not there, when the award was allegedly being awarded? There was some excuse circulated that the event would be live simulcast or the like from Ghana and England but, true to form, that never happened, blamed of course on “technical difficulties.”
Any donor should utilize the IRS Charity Search for this entity as well as a search in Connecticut.
Our donor experience with the Beecher House Society Inc. also utilizing the name Documenting Venture Smith Project is AVOID. It is apparent to us that our past donations allegedly failed to achieve their stated purpose, and we strongly feel this organization fails to respectfully honor donors.
This alleged entity rates zero stars.
In 2017 a RESTRICTED donation was made for an alleged multi-year “Voyage of the Sloop Venture” voyage. The restricted donation was never refunded, no explanation of the abandonment of the project was ever provided, such latter behavior which appears to be typical of the individual who solicited the donation, and the donation, we allege was misappropriated. Most of the verbal and written information for the “Voyage of the Sloop Venture” was discovered much later to be allegedly untrue.
Whether it uses the name Documenting Venture Smith Project, or the Beecher House Society Inc. or the alleged non-existent Beecher House Center for the Study of Equal Rights, based on our negative experience we cannot in good conscience or with any degree of integrity recommend anyone donating money, time or resources to this alleged organization(s).
Review from Guidestar
My experience with this nonprofit entity is unsatisfactory: there appears to be little, if any, financial transparency, alleged sketchy compliance with even the most basic tax information filing requirements; alleged boastful representations of what the organization has achieved; alleged frequently abandoned projects with no explanatory process to a donor, donors, or potential donors; alleged accuracy concerns and alleged batch filings of the organization’s CT annual filings;
These are some of the reasons why I, and we, no longer support in any manner this alleged non-profit entity. If one is interested in supporting this organization one would be well-advised to do even the most minimal homework in order to determine that one’s donated dollars achieve their charitable mission.
I, we, would have rated it zero stars but that was not an option on this platform.
This organization and EIN also uses the Doing Business As name “Documenting Venture Smith Project.”