My Nonprofit Reviews
Ofridanielle
Review for Mercy Drive Inc, Forest Hills, NY, USA
Based on Mercy Drive Inc's 990's from 2010, 2011 and 2012 Part IX no one is being paid a salary. The lines are blank for 5)Compensation of Current officers, directors, trustees, and key employees, no salaries for 7)other salaries and wages nothing for 8)pension plan contributions and 9) other employee benefits. But there is line 10) payroll taxes of $83,055.
Trying to find out more about this non-profit is like pulling teeth since when you call the administration office at 718-725-9897 you get someone who is evasive and refuses to answer basic questions. They do not seem to know who their CEO is- Carol Jamabo ESQ. From my research there is no such lawyer registered in NYS by that name. Lot of billing of Medicaid to the tune of $2,000,000 a year for this fairly new non-profit that sprung out of no where in 2010. They do things like Medicaid coordination, Day rehab, community rehab and respite services. This is according to Gias Ahmed but he does not know how many clients that they serve or how many people actually work for the non-profit. So is this non-profit just taking advantage of the developmentally challenged individuals for the sake of billing medicaid millions for the past four years? Who knows but there web site is simply a bare bones page that provides little if any information. Based on their 990 they have over 110 employees. Seems like a hell of a lot less. Mercy Drive has moved to a temporary office from a tiny one off Yellowstone Blvd to one on 76rd in Forest Hills. Hey I don't blame non-profits from taking full advantage of the system because no one is watching and their is NO oversight of non-profits in NYS. US taxpayers just lose out!
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When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2014
Review for Alliance Of Guardian Angels Inc, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Trying to volunteer for this organization is quite difficult and impossible. Is this entire 501(3)c nonprofit a front corporation that is really a private piggy bank for Curtis Sliwa and friends? Curtis Sliwa confessed to being a fraud in 1992 according to a NYT's article which detailed his exploitation of the fears of NYC residents and staging fake crime events for PR purposes. During the 80's and 90's the Guardian Angels served as a private security group for Restaurant Row in Manhattan which patrolled a few blocks keeping prostitutes and drunks and drug addicts away from store front businesses. They did not do any real safety patrols for the public good in reality. So it was paid to patrol a small area while claiming to help secure NYC- which was a scam. Sliwa is continuing to conduct this scam on a grander scale by using this non-profit to enrich himself and family members.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/27/opinion/curtis-sliwa-s-confession.html
A nice slick website makes this organization look like it is active in the community and carrying out their mission statement. But go to the site and click on "safety patrol chapters" and you get listings of cities but they have no links to any active groups- they are dead links.
I called the telephone number and left my name three times and after a week someone (who refused to give his name) told me that if I wanted to join that they would pass my name to someone who dealt with the patrols. I asked about times of patrols and he said that it depends upon members time availability and it varies by day. No one got back to me ever again. I called many times only to recieve voice messages asking me to leave contact information. No calls were returned. So I went to the "International headquarters of the Guardian Angles" in Brooklyn at 982 East 89th Street in Canarsie. It is a old residential house and is owned by Sliwa's parents Chester and Frances Sliwa. I found no activity of any kind there and no one answered the doorbell. See ACRIS website block 08025 lot 0001.
Incorporated in 1980, is this organization a fraud? Well the mission statement says that it exists to "Promote community betterment by means of subway, street and park patrols, and elderly citizen escort service at a program expense of $616,669 according to their latest 2012 990. It also claims to "Promote Internet security and safety" for a program expense cost of $12,190. It lists six employees but only reveals one employee on the payroll earning $47,000- David Nides. Curtis Sliwa is listed as working 60 hours a week for no pay at all. I wonder how he is able to be a radio/media personality plus a father to two sons and a husband and make no money from his 501(3)c at all.
But this organization claims to have 3,000 volunteers? Really? Are these thousands of volunteers part of the same on going hoax that Sliwa perpetrated in the 80's and 90's? Look at the total expenses of $886,000. With a total revenue of $705,492 it has a deficit of -$180,830! The interesting part of the 990 is the expenses part IX and part VIII with $207,566 occupancy expenses, $40,667 travel expenses, and $44,060 insurance expenses, chapter transport $45,000, uniforms $37,069, funds sent to chapters $32,000, telephone- $14,046, and OTHER EXPENSES of $96,958! But the headquarters is owned by Chester and Francis Sliwa and I don't see the connection between this private residence of the his mom and pop having anything to do with the Guardian Angels. Insurance $44,060? So Sliwa is paying $17,300 a month for an office rent at this residence? Is that legal? UNIFORM EXPENSE is listed at $37,069! Do 3,000 t-shirts and caps even cost $37,069? and in one year alone.
Currently Sliwa's second wife is suing Curtis for fraud in Manhattan Supreme court. Based on the allegations in his past and over the years I find his organization quite suspicious. Could the Alliance of Guardian Angels simply be another of Sliwa's poorly concocted frauds funded by Fat cats and friends? How is Curtis able to dedicate 60 hours a week to this non-profit with zero pay? Is the public gaining anything in real terms by the IRS granting it a tax free status in order to move funds around?
Non-profits are supposed to serve the interests of the public at large and NOT the organizers, family, founders or employees of the non-profit. A sweet deal for Curtis Sliwa and his parents. And the plot thickens since according to ACRIS his parents got three huge mortgages since they bought the house in 1976. Two of them recently from the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development one for $795,000 and one for $239,250 as well as $900,000. Not a bad deal when you are getting over $200,000 a year for being the supposed international headquarters for a non-profit organization that has how many members? 5, 10, or 3,000- all who do not get paid? The house is assessed at only $470,000.
So this nonprofit is paying $17,297 a month for having an office? That is high rent even for Canarsie Brooklyn. Curtis Sliwa lives in Forest Hills Queens with Melinda Katz, is a father and caretaker of his two young boys, has radio and TV jobs in Manhattan, has a headquarters in Carnarsie Brooklyn and donates 60 hours for this organization for free? That "chapter transport" at $45,000 and travel expense of $46,667 must come in handy. I have lived in NYC for over 40 years and I have never seen any guardian angels since 1984.
According to their 990 Section C 18 it says that the public may inspect the books on request yet I called the telephone listed on the 990 and left messages to arrange a time to inspect the financials and I got no return call. Just curious about the listing of "other revenue" at $321,513. Where did they get that $321,513 ? Did they earn it or was it donated? They also list a fundraiser at $57,000 yet they had no fundraising expenses? Their main mission of the safety patrol program is listed as having expenses of $616,669. I wanted to see the patrol logs and schedules.
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If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
The NY Daily News should investigate this "non-profit" as well as the IRS.
Would you volunteer for this group again?
No
For the time you spent, how much of an impact did you feel your work or activity had?
None
Did the organization use your time wisely?
Badly
Would you recommend this group to a friend?
No
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2014
Review for National Council for Research on Women Inc, New York, NY, USA
Regender is a fraud and acts as a front organization for corporations. They removed my comments and my review on its Regender Facebook page! No more comments and no reviews anymore from August 29, 2014 on its Facebook page -just Likes and Share this or that article! They also refuse to answer any questions about their phony operation front for corporations. Call (212) 785-7335 and someone will take your name and say they will get back to you but they don't. The operator says no one is here to speak to you and it goes to voice messaging and you get no call back. They come to work after 10AM then lunch is next some meetings then as 4:30PM approaches it is time to scoot. They still do not have their current 990 financials on the Regender website and have one that is two years old!
I don't know why we need non-profits like DiversityInc, Catalyst, and Regender (NCRW) acting as fronts for corporations like Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs, Blackrock, Time Warner, Bank of America etc. and running defense for them while these companies refuse to reveal their employee diversity makeup of their workforce. Ebay, Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Google, Linkedin, Pandora, Pinterest, as well as other corporations have come clean so why not corporations that fund Regender? Regender is being hypocritical and deceitful since this runs counter to their mission statement of focusing on the sources of discrimination. As other reviewers have mentioned, all Regender has to do is look at its own corporate sponsors. All publicly traded companies must file their diversity information with the EEOC.gov but are not required to make them public. So what are they hiding?
The sad reality is that the people who run this non-profit have sold out for attractive paychecks. Where is the transparency here at guidestar? Regender has not posted their latest 990 financials. Nealy all their $ come from corporations. The executives at Regender are out of touch and out of mind and have little understanding with work- family balance issues that the average woman has to deal with. Most have no children and are not married and have little experience in the for profit dog eat dog world. If corporations published their diversity numbers and hired women of color then there would be no need for a Catalyst, Diversityinc or Regender.
NCRW AKA Regender has always been a corporate front claiming that it had 120 + member centers in the U.S.A, 3,000 affiliates, and 200+ international centers. Over the years they lost most corporate funding:
Past Institutional Funders Member Centers Affiliated Organizations Corporate Circle Presidents Circle
NCRW Funders
Aetna Life & Casualty Company
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
American Express Foundation
Apple Computers, Inc.
Arthur Ross Foundation
Asia Foundation
Ballantine/Del Ray/Fawcett/Ivy Books
Boehm Foundation
Steven H. & Alida Brill Foundation
Caritas Fund for the Tides Foundation
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Chevron U.S.A. Inc.
Clorox Foundation
Compton Foundation Inc.
Charles A. Dana Foundation
The James R. Dougherty Foundation, Jr. Foundation
Dover Fund
The Equitable Financial Companies
First Interstate Bank of California Foundation
The Ford Foundation
Girl's Best Friend Foundation
The Global Fund for Women
William T. Grant Foundation
Mary W. Harriman Foundation
Harper Collins Publishers
Mary W. Harriman Foundation
The Hygeia Foundation
International Business Machines (IBM)
James Irvine Foundation
Kellogg Foundation
Levi Strauss Foundation
Lilly Endowment Inc.
Lipper & Company,L.P.
Joyce Mertz -Gilmore Foundation
Metropolitan Life Foundation
Mobil Corporation
Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Foundation
Stewart R. Mott Charitable Trust
Ms. Foundation for Women
National Science Foundation
New York Community Trust
Nokomis Foundation
Norton & Company
Pacific Bell
Partnership for Democracy
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Philip Morris Companies, Inc.
Ploughshares Fund
Primerica Foundation
The Prudential Foundation
Remmer Family Foundation
Rockefeller Family Fund
Rockefeller Foundation
Russell Sage Foundation
Samuel Rubin Foundation
Sara Lee Foundation
Scheuer Foundation, Inc.
Sears Roebuck and Company
The Sister Fund
Stewart R. Mott Charitable Trust
Jules and Doris Stein Foundation
The L.J. Skaggs & Mary C. Skaggs Foundation
The Pew Charitable Trusts
The Prudential Insurance Company
Transamerica Leasing, Inc.
United Nations Development Programme
Valentine Foundation
Walter Laband Foundation
W.W. Norton & Inc.
Women's Bureau, United States Department of Labor
Women's Division, Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church
The Xerox Foundation
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If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
Force the Corporate circle of Regender to publish their diversity employee information so that all could see that they are NOT hiring minority women in any meaningful numbers and stop acting as PR for companies that talk the talk and don't walk the walk.
Would you volunteer for this group again?
No
For the time you spent, how much of an impact did you feel your work or activity had?
None
Did the organization use your time wisely?
Badly
Would you recommend this group to a friend?
No
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2013
