Helping Hands Initiative Inc

BEWARE OF THIS ORGANIZATION: Despite its well intentioned mission statement, I would not recommend donating or getting involved with this organization in any matter. OUR INVOLVEMENT IS AS FOLLOWS: My architectural firm was retained by HHI to design a new music school for autistic persons on Staten Island. We were originally matched by a design/non-profit service in October 2008. We completed a feasabilty study in mid-march 2009, where we spent a total of $35,500.00 in personnel time. This time was generously performed on a pro bono basis. We received a follow up email and phone call at the end of March '09 from the president of HHI indicating that an "angel donor" had granted $400k as seed money for the design services. We were directed by the president to author and initiate an Owner/Architect Agreement. We did so, and it was executed by both parties in early April. We requested a small 5-figure retainer check to be enclosed with the returned O/A Agreement. It bounced. According to the president it was due to a banking error based on a previous instance of identity theft. We continued work on the good faith that the banking issue would be resolved by the first invoice which was issued in mid-May. We were assured that the replacement retainer check, plus payment on the first invoice (a mid-5-figure dollar value) can be deposited and that there would be no problems. Both bounced; twice. An additional invoice was submitted for the remainder of the work, now totaling a mid-six figure dollar value. None of the monies that we have worked hard for in creating this beautiful structure have been paid to us. We have been given response, run-around, un-answered and un-returned phone calls. Email responses have been brief, evasive, deceptive, and blatantly untruthful. We are considering initiating both criminal and civil legal actions against the president and the organization; as the actions by the president are presumed to be fraudulent, but definitively breach of contract.