Board Director
Clarifies Position
Regarding
Wants Additional Documentation
From Sun City Anthem Board Director Carl Weinstein:
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I was pleased to see so many positive replies to my posting
about the Foundation Assisting Seniors.
As a result, I decided to elaborate a bit more on this
subject.
I do NOT question the good charitable work the Foundation does
for SCA and other seniors in the Valley.
I basically have two issues.
The first is that I believe, since their
charitable work is not limited to SCA and they are technically an outside
charity, they should pay rent for space they lease from us.
We should not be donating the rent
fees back to them.
After all they solicit thousands of dollars from us and we are
literally paying for the services they provide us with since donations to our
Community Service Group in the envelopes left by CSG volunteers go to the
Foundation.
The second issue is the secrecy regarding
their finances.
At Board Book I asked Mr Forgeron for a financial statement. He
invited us to "come and look at the statement in his "office".
The question is, why is that information
being hidden from all those residents instead of a full financial report being
issued?
(the last one was in year 2008---EIGHT YEARS
AGO)
It is not a question of how much we put in and how much they
gave back as grants.
The financial report of a charity should
cover their ENTIRE operation so that givers can determine what percentage of the
funds go to "administrative" expenses versus what percentage goes into reserves
or for charitable uses.
A good example of that is the annual fully Foundation paid
dinner banquet at Buchman's for trustees and members, including former trustees,
with an OPEN BAR.
I am certain that the lunch for Board members on Board meeting days doesn't come close to the banquet costs.
I also understand the Foundation pays a Public Relations
specialist for promotional services.
It also might be interesting to see what is
spent on the Foundation's national credit card.
(Only one Foundation member
has a card)
I intend to ask the Board to require The Foundation to submit a
COMPLETE annual report every year!
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Comments? Send them to us at:
scaopinions@gmail.com
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From Joe Mihalich...to...Anthem Opinions
The key thing to know is this.
The financial report of a charity should cover their ENTIRE operation so that givers can determine what percentage of the funds go to "administrative" expenses versus what percentage goes into reserves or for charitable uses. -
From Dorothy Yu...to...Anthem Opinions
As I understand, charter clubs also asked to donate to this foundation annually. The transparency of this foundation's financial report is so important for donors as well as for events organizers to choose which charitable organization to handle a disastrous situation.
I believe this is a very reasonable request.
We, a group of Chinese American residents, sponsored two major events right here at Sun City Anthem, (before Chinese Heritage Club was established).
An Ad Hoc Committee was formed and studied each charitable organization's administrative cost online before our decision to have Tzu Chi be the charitable organization to handle those two disastrous events.
One happened in Sichuan, an earthquake in 2008, and the other one happened in Taiwan's flood in 2009. Due to the administrative cost ,Tzu Chi was the lowest.
After we found out how much Red Cross pays it's Director, I never donated a dime to that organization again!
There were a lot individuals who contributed not only money, but time to those two events.
They were: Bob Chang, Wen-dar Cheng, Meisheng Chou, John Hsu, Shirley Shiuh, Peter Tu, Joe Wang, Kenneth Wu, Betty Yuan, and Emily Chu (Tzu Chi Representative)
We are caring, loving and retiring residents here at Sun City Anthem.
Most of us were privileged and be able to sustain and take care of ourselves, yet, we also want to extend our hands to other less privileged ones within our community and making this Sun City Anthem a true Heaven for retirees to spend our golden years.
Volunteering is just like Charitable, both respected words in my dictionary, unless people misuse them. -
From Keith Coffin...to...Anthem Opinions
I agree with carl..we shouldn’t donate the space for free to the foundation. He is correct in stating that since they do work for other than sca, then they should be treated like any other outside charity group. And, as all charities that get donations, they should reveal on an ongoing basis a full accounting of their income, income sources, and all expenditures.
Keep posting updates and how the responses are please.
Thanks for the good work you do. 
August 21, 2016 at 6:15 AM- From Robert Leclerc...to...Anthem Opinions
I believe Mr. Weinstein is on the right track. Why would we select one group, a Foundation about whose financial affairs we know nothing, and give them a free pass? More must be known. Foundations do not enjoy universally good reputations when it comes to financial stewardship. - August 21, 2016 at 4:22 PM
- From Robert N...to...Anthem Opinions
If F.A.S. has nothing to hide, it should readily submit the requested documents...and yes the rent could be returned to F.A.S. as a humanitarian gesture, but SCA should withhold any costs of occupying the SCA space (e.g. utilities, etc.). Anyone with any business experience understands that ... -
From Jerry Eisenberg...to...Anthem Opinions
If the foundation has moved on, to other communities,so should an equal cost of their expenses. Other communities should be responsible for costs i.e. rentals, maintenance of vehicles, cost of vehicles, etc. Communities benefiting should also provide volunteers from their own communities without pulling volunteers away from SCA. Volunteers from SCA should not leave the boundary of SCA.
The foundation should definitely provide financials. -
From Irv Prail...to...Anthem Opinions
Regarding the matter of The Foundation, I agree with Mr. Weinstein that there is no “legitimate” reason for the secrecy, but there is a reason.
The obviousness of the situation screams “Fraud!”, or at the very least, unethical/immoral activity.
If the obfuscation continues for longer than 89 days from notice, my vote would be to bar The Foundation from our property, and urge county/state and/or federal (due to TF’s special IRS non-profit status) investigators to take a very close look at this organization’s operation.
There is no doubt there is something very wrong with our association with this organization.
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We should keep the income generated, at least until we see their financials.
My guess is their administrative expenses are higher than some of the charities listed as not good for donating.
I totally agree that FSA needs to pay rent to SCA and SCA should NOT donate the rent received back to them since they are now an outside organization.
SCA can't and should not provide free rent to outside organizations. If we do, how is it different than any other organizations coming to SCA for free rent.
As a matter of fact since they are an outside organization, they should rent outside of SCA.
Yes they must provide a financial statement. We need to know what percentage is truly going to charitable causes versus administration expenses.
As a charitable organization I believe they must file with IRS and it should be made public.
I do not donate to charitable organizations if I don't know how much or what percentage is going for the true charitable causes.