My Nonprofit Reviews

I was a long time supporter and donor to Random Acts, the non-profit under the umbrella "The Art Department". Early this year (2014) I became concerned about the lack of development projects or details regarding the organization's expenditures. The annual reports on the website are years old and the few "funded acts" they started featuring this year were old. Digging into the available financial records on Guidestar, I discovered that the organization supports another non-profit called the Center for Cultural Evolution, which is apparently a bed and breakfast/meeting space and the primary residence of the founder's mother. This type of blurring of lines between appropriate use of donations and personal property/personal gain has led me to withdraw my support from Random Acts. The actor who founded the organization is quite charming, but both he and the organization as a whole seem to be without substance or merit.

Their original premise --helping the orphans in a ravaged Haiti--was duly supported and seems to have (mostly) come to fruition; after that project ended, the organization has floundered without a true mission or cause to support. A shame. The idea of paying it forward (and helping people to do so) still holds merit. However, having spent a great deal of time researching their activities over the past year, and speaking to a few staff members who seem wholly uninformed and inexperienced the the non-profit sector, I doubt they will ever be able to succeed. To be fair, the staff members I spoke with reiterated that they were "new" in their position; perhaps this is to be expected in what has always largely been a "fan run" charity.