My Nonprofit Reviews

TLDR: We will never be donating to this organization again.

My wife and I were strong supporters of Beagle Freedom Project for many years and have donated many thousands of dollars since 2012. However, starting in 2020, I began having reservations about their leadership culminating in the following letter I sent their president, Shannon Keith in January of 2023. I received zero response, and have since received confirmation that the stated concerns are completely justified. We will not be donating to Beagle Freedom Project ever again. If you share similar concerns, ask yourself if this is the kind of organization you want to support:

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Hello, Shannon, and other board members,

I don't have the email addresses of the board (which appears to include Valerie Kelly, Lily Blavin, Zoli Teglas, Jeremy Benard, Shannon Warner, Jane Stern, and possibly others), so I request that this message be forwarded to them.

As you may know, my wife and I have been donors to BFP for a number of years. We have enthusiastically supported BFP's stated mission. However, we've not donated within the past year for a number of reasons. I wanted to share those reasons with you.

Note, I do not expect a response. Nor will any response to this email affect our decision about whether to donate or not, or how much if we do. My rationale for sending this message is in hopes of prompting sincere introspection of the organization to identify areas which can be improved, and take whatever actions are needed to do so.

Here are my concerns:

First - When I previously shared a concern with Charity Navigator's scoring, I included several screenshots identifying several areas which could yield improvement through updates to the website or filings. Although CN's score for BFP has increased from 79 to 84 (2 to 3 stars), It appears none of these seem to have been implemented....which makes me concerned about the commitment to governance and transparency at BFP.

Items related to transparency like:
1. Board of Directors listed on website
2. Key staff listed on website
3. Audited financial statements on website

In the area of governance:
1. Identification of independent voting members of the board and that they number more than five.
2. From CN's webpage on BFP: The charity's audited financials were prepared by an independent accountant, but it did not have an audit oversight committee. In this case, we deduct 7 points from the charity's Accountability and Transparency score

Second - When the pandemic hit, there was a call to action to ask for foster or adoptive homes for beagles being housed in labs that were shutting down. I immediately filled out an application (3/17/2020). Having been laid off due to COVID, and planning to just transition directly into retirement, we had the time and resources to spend with a beagle coming from a lab. Combine that with the fact that we were already beagle owners would seemingly make us excellent candidates.

Yet, aside from the auto-response from completing the application, we received no response whatsoever. That lack of response made me wonder if the call for fosters and adoptive homes was intended to garner donations rather than to find foster / adoptive homes.

Third (and most concerning) - With those two prior concerns in the back of my mind, and this past year's (2022) Giving Tuesday coming around, I decided to do some additional research on BFP and ran across this page on glassdoor.com of employee reviews of BFP:

https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Beagle-Freedom-Project-Reviews-E2907234.htm

While there are some positive reviews (the veracity of which is questioned in other reviews), a consistent theme is present among those sharing a critical view:
1. Toxic / hostile / micro-managing work environment, particularly by the founder of the organization. Multiple recommendations for replacement of the founder are made.
2. A board which is not independent. It is stated that they are personal relations of the founder.
3. High turnover due to the prior two factors.

From my perspective as a donor, these are serious concerns. And, given these concerns, I find myself in a quandary about whether to continue our history of donations or apply our financial resources elsewhere. As I mentioned at the top, I am not requesting a response, nor will any response affect our donation decision process.

Critical feedback such as I am sharing can be difficult to receive without feeling attacked or becoming defensive. It's my hope that those kinds of (completely natural) human reactions can be set aside, and that deep introspection, learning, and subsequent improvement will result for the organization. If that improvement comes as a blow to one or more of our egos, so be it because...

...the mission of BFP is a great one. The animals need us all to step up and be the best we can be in order to help them. We're fighting entrenched industries and cultural norms that say it's OK to do whatever we want with these beings with whom we share the planet. It's not right. You know it, know it, and many others do as well. Yet, it will take the efforts of dedicated people (such as those working at BFP) to bring about a lasting change.

Thank you for your time, consideration, and the work you do.