Invisible Children

[CashforStash]

The more I'm reading on this, the more it seems like a scam.

Most of the Invisible Children's donations go to admin, salaries, lobbyists, expenses (like making the films).

Yeah. This is where my anger sprouts from.

 

[Paroxysm]

Yeah it does but that doesn't change how I feel. I know Africa has been in turmoil for a long time but ivalways thought, "meh" but i dunno something about hearing that kid say he'd rather be dead than alive really hit me hard. He was so young and was already giving up on life.......So I made a personal promise to actually do something for once instead of just ignoring it.

I just wanna help, anyway I can.

Okay, did some more reading and yeah it's official, IC is pretty corrupt, I wanna focus on ways I can help.

We can all agree that forcing kids to kill people is wrong. So how can we as members of the Hype stop that?

 

[CashforStash]

Yeah it does but that doesn't change how I feel. I know Africa has been in turmoil for a long time but ivalways thought, "meh" but i dunno something about hearing that kid say he'd rather be dead than alive really hit me hard. He was so young and was already giving up on life.......So I made a personal promise to actually do something for once instead of just ignoring it.

I just wanna help, anyway I can.

Okay, did some more reading and yeah it's official, IC is pretty corrupt, I wanna focus on ways I can help.

We can all agree that forcing kids to kill people is wrong. So how can we as members of the Hype stop that?

Yeah this is what I'm saying. If we want to get Kony, let's use a different campaign. I really don't like IC.

 

[Nell2ThaIzzay]

Yea, I watched the first 10 minutes of that video, and it seemed like a lot of pretentious, self righteous bull crap that was more worried about it's own hype than educating about Joseph Kony.

 

[The Apocalypse]

Yeah, I started to read up more about their little organization. I support their cause 100% and I'm going to try to spread the word about this guy but I will damn sure not give them any money (I was about to as well). Are there any actual groups out there that make this kind of money and end up not donating 1/4 of it to their actual cause? This whole thing kind of reminds me of all the people who wanted to kill Bin-Laden. There was a reason for it but the underlying problem sure as hell wasn't fixed.

 

[Paroxysm]

Yeah, I started to read up more about their little organization. I support their cause 100% and I'm going to try to spread the word about this guy but I will damn sure not give them any money (I was about to as well). Are there any actual groups out there that make this kind of money and end up not donating 1/4 of it to their actual cause? This whole thing kind of reminds me of all the people who wanted to kill Bin-Laden. There was a reason for it but the underlying problem sure as hell wasn't fixed.

If he's killed instead of captured imagine the effects that would have on everyone that supported the campaign, social media would be responsible for someones death.

 

[CashforStash]

If he's killed instead of captured imagine the effects that would have on everyone that supported the campaign, social media would be responsible for someones death.

You do also understand that even if Kony is still "capturing kids" (which I bet my money he isn't, he is hiding in Congo dying apperently), the peacekeepers would have to kill/shoot down the army he has of children, which would start a ****storm of the masses between our Government and theirs.

This honestly screams bad idea.

 

[Paroxysm]

I stil can't get over how quickly this whole thing spread, i think it's pretty amazing and at least Africa is getting some much needed attention.

 

[The Spawn]

I'm glad this isn't blowing up here at least.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

I'm of two minds about this. I just watched the mini documentary. On the one hand, I thought the documentary was pretty bad as far as docs go in the sense the guy inserted himself into it way too much and tried to elevate his own rep and make him out to be a hero. A bit self-serving to say the least. Why couldn't he have taken the approach of using the disembodied voice-over and used the extra screen time to document more of Kony's atrocities, instead of patting himself on the back? Also, there's the issue of this charity being generally shady. There's probably better charities to donate to if you desire to hurt the LRA.

On the flip-side, without this documentary, no one (outside of certain foreign policy circles of course) would be talking about Joseph Kony today. For that reason, it's good it was made because it brought mainstream awareness to the situation (even if it was made for undefined or shady reasons).

 

[WildcatNC]

Yeah, I started to read up more about their little organization. I support their cause 100% and I'm going to try to spread the word about this guy but I will damn sure not give them any money (I was about to as well). Are there any actual groups out there that make this kind of money and end up not donating 1/4 of it to their actual cause? This whole thing kind of reminds me of all the people who wanted to kill Bin-Laden. There was a reason for it but the underlying problem sure as hell wasn't fixed.

I like the core idea. To make him famous. A good tactic.

I'm not giving them any money either.

 

[obin_gam]

Here they have respodned to the critisism that have been frequent: http://invisible.tumblr.com/

RE: FINANCIALS
Invisible Children’s financial statements are online for everyone to see. Financial statements from the last 5 years, including our 990, are available at http://www.invisiblechildren.com/financials The organization spent 80.46% on our programs that further our three fold mission, 16.24% on administration and management costs and 3.22% on direct fundraising in FY2011. Invisible Children is independently audited every year and in full compliance with our 501 c 3 status.

Below is a screen-shot from pages 35 and 36 of the 2011 Invisible Children annual report that detail our total expenses for Fiscal Year 2011. An expense statement by class is the way nonprofits present their expenses to the public because it’s the clearest way to show the purpose of different organizational expenses vs. a line item expense statement such as the one on Page 6 of our Audited Financial Report.



RE: CHARITY NAVIGATOR RATING
Charity Navigator gives our Programs its highest rating of 4 stars. Our Accountability and Transparency score is currently at 2 stars due primarily to the single fact that Invisible Children does not have 5 independent voting members on our board of directors—we currently have 4. We are in the process of interviewing potential board members, and we will add an additional independent member this year in order to regain our 4-star rating by 2013. We have been independently audited by Considine and Considine, since the fiscal year end of June 30, 2006 and all of our audits have resulted in unqualified opinions on the audit reports.

RE: BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU (BBB)
Participation in BBB’s program is voluntary— we are choosing to wait until we have expanded our Board of Directors, as some questions hinge on the size of our Board. The current Board is small in size and reflects Invisible Children’s grassroots foundation. Invisible Children has now reached a juncture of success that has astonished even its greatest supporters. While it is important to retain a presence on the Board that reflects Invisible Children’s early beginnings, we also are working to realign the structure this year.

The best researched paper supporting the policy position of the KONY 2012 campaign can be found here, drafted by Paul Ronan of Resolve: http://www.theresolve.org/peace-can-be—3

more in the link

Internet is always too quick to react to anything before hearing more than one sides argument :P

 

[DBryan]

There's a response to that online, too.

http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/qk0pd/kony_2012_help_raise_awareness_and_stop_joseph/c3ycvhb

Wait, some of this isn't true...
Saying you only spent 16.24% on admin isn't really fair. Here's the real breakdown from page 6 of your own financials...
Of the $8.9 million you spent in 2011:
$1.7 million in US employee salaries
$357,000 in Film costs
$850,000 in Production costs
$244,000 in "professional services" (DC lobbyists)
$1.07 million in travel expenses
$400,000 in office rent in San Diego
$16,000 in Entertainment
etc...
Only $2.8 million (31%) made it to your charity program (which is presumably further whittled down by local Ugandan officials and local management overhead) - what do the children actually get in goods & services?
Also, your rating on Charity Navigator isn't because you don't have an independent board (which is indeed a problem) - you lost 7 points because you haven't had your financial book independently audited. ...which is not a surprising given the use of cash noted above.
There are also some general criticisms of your organization of putting a little too much spin on the facts...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Children_Inc#Criticisms
http://ilto.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/the-visible-problem-with-invisible-children/
http://www.blackstarnews.com/news/122/ARTICLE/6586/2010-06-02.html

People need to be more skeptical.

Don't just swallow Invisible Children's official word on the matter.

 

[craigdbfan]

DBryan is right.

Apparently only 32% of donations are used to "directly" help these people and apparently a good chunk of that is given to the official military but they're no better than the LRA seeing as they've also shed bloods of millions.

Be wary when donating to organizations like this.

 

[DBryan]

Yeah there's no way in hell I'm donating a single penny to a 'charity' that arms military.

 

[Franklin Richards]

What's 100% of nothing?

 

[Paroxysm]

Yeah there's no way in hell I'm donating a single penny to a 'charity' that arms military.

You pay taxes right? Just sayin...

 

[roach]

paying taxes that go to a host of other things including the military is not the same thing as giving to a charity to arm a military to go kill someone

 

[SuperFerret]

Taxes are like rent. You pay them to live where you live, and hope your landlord uses the money to keep the building up to code.

That picture totally needs a "LOL White People" caption.


Also, if the charity isn't arming militia, how do you expect them to take out this Kony guy?

 

[roach]

wait I thought all we had to do was know about the dude and he'd like be caught and stuff

 

[craigdbfan]

They're giving money to a military that has been complacent/sold out to Kony so they're just playing these "white fools" for their money and taking whatever they can get. If they didn't go after him before they certainly aren't now.

The only ones who lose are the people suffering from Connie and the ones who win no matter what happens are these college scammers and this "official" military that isn't exactly great with its own people either to begin with.

 

[SuperFerret]

Well, I'm not advocating giving to the charity, but I'm just saying that the goal here is to end this guy, so obviously giving to this charity is arming people. It shouldn't be surprising that they're doing this.

 

[roach]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...children-jason-russell-backlash-uganda-297674

found this interesting.....Don Cheadle, who has been actively involved in the refugee crisis left in Kony's wake, aired his thoughts in a late night Twitter session.
"Still cycling through the info. Firsthand: I have been to the night commuters camps, world vision and the like. No Q Kony is a bad guy," he wrote. "But divergent perspectives I find informative and the truth often lies somewhere betwixt and between what's proffered. You must use your.. critical minds and innate instincts to decide for yourselves while leaving open the possibility to understand more as more is understood.
"I never swallow the whole hook of the stated goals of ANY government, ours included, but their possible 'hidden agenda' notwithstanding," he continued. "Kony is on the ICC's list for a reason and his deeds are well documented. I believe in Ugandans solving Ugandan's problems. Tricky situ. Assisting the Ugandan government and letting them ultimately resolve and solve their internal issues are not mutually exclusive acts. we need to be wary of traditionally paternalistic attitudes toward other nations and make sure we are acting as 'helpers' not encroachers.

 

[WildcatNC]

I don't see the problem with the money distribution at first glance. All the money is NOT supposed to go straight to africa. Their stated, up front goal, is to make this dude so famous and get the outcry so loud that someone will do something because the people demand it. Whether you agree or not they clearly state that.

That means most of the money is going to go to organizational, media, and lobbying endeavors. This isn't a charity to feed the kids, or buy shoes. The point is an ever expanding media/social media campaign that they hope will reach critical mass at some point and boil over to results. MOST of the money needs to go to expanding the organizations efforts. Thats the stated goal, they are not lying to anyone.

Its ambitious and if nothing else I approve as a social experiment. I agree with others that we should always keep an open but wary mind about ANY organizations agenda.

 

[chamber-music]

I know this sounds silly and unrealistic but I'm surprised these dictators and warlords don't get snipered or poisoned or bobytrap their car with explosives or something. Plenty of ways to kill someone without using a army and in the past people were killed with those methods easily.

That Ukrainian presidential candidate was poisioned a few years ago.