AFT(AH) Responds to Allegations of Charity Fraud
Porno Pete responds to Jeremy over at G-A-Y.
“It’s a mistake, obviously. We had nothing to do with it, and don’t know how it happened. –pl”
Allow this writer to be the first one to say *cough*”bullsh*t”*cough*
h/t, Good-As-You
RSS 13. January 2007 (18:38)Filed under: Uncategorized
9 Comments»
Jody Wheeler
13. January 2007 | 19:03 hIs it wrong to be just a TAD skeptical until more information turns up? I mean. I can believe the Feds screwed up. I can just as easily believe that Pete himself made a slip of the pen when filling out a form. Pete never gives folks the benefit of the doubt. Personally? It’s really hard to extend the same sentiment in return.
Ugh.
Punted
13. January 2007 | 22:59 hYou’re right that we should be giving “Porno Pete” the benefit of the doubt about this. But we can’t let the “research” in the gay bars and bath houses go ;).
My first theory is that he couldn’t find an anti-equal-rights charity listing so he chose the closest thing possible. My second theory is from Dr. Kaatz that “A Guidestar service representative said “The codes are selected by either the organizations themselves or by the IRS.”" This would mean that the IRS could’ve made the flub confusing the name with a equal-rights org, since their name is very confusing and misleading. Which is very much entirely possible.
This would still make it Petey’s fault since the group chose the name and decided to make it misleading like that, and probably for that very reason.
I’ll be doing a bit more digging tho to see if I can find anything.
Nelson G.
14. January 2007 | 07:26 hThat’s odd, I started coughing as well when I read that, too…
James N
14. January 2007 | 10:03 hI’m involved with a charity, and have compiled our Guide Star entry. This is something that is controlled by the organization. When our organization got our 501(c)(3) status, the IRS did not classify our organization as anything but the type of charity we were. We then completed the Guide Star GIF (GuideStar Information Form), and chose the NEEE classifications. In fact I just updated our GIF this morning for the new year, and there was the NEEE code clearly editable within my form. Therefore, you can be pretty safe in claiming that AFTAH made this classification themselves (or at least the person that completed the form did this).
James N
14. January 2007 | 10:40 hJust a question.
Has anyone actually researched the AFTAH status on the IRS site? They appear to have a EIN, but in searching the IRS’s database of charities, they don’t exist. The online charity search is only up until June 2006 (http://apps.irs.gov/app/pub78), however the addendum (http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=96291,00.html) includes all the new charities (no date as to when this is up to).
At first I thought they may still be too new, but then I was reminded that they initially were formed in 1996, and have been dormant for a few years. So if they are not listed with the IRS, how can they be a charitable organization?
I’d be interested to know.
Kevin
14. January 2007 | 12:17 hJames N–many thanks for that! I’m glad we finally know what was going on.
I do have to say that I have edited my original post so that some information that I took from GuideStar is no longer visible. Anyone can, however, go to www.guidestar.org and see the exact same information.
Punted
14. January 2007 | 12:41 hI went to the site as well and didn’t need to register to view the info. Thanks for blogging this!
Jody
14. January 2007 | 13:55 hBased on the posts above, I’m going to call “Shenanigans” on AFTAH, their registration as a pro-gay group, and Pete’s explanation. At this point, I think it’s up to the AFTAH to come clean about their status.