Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, Federal Tax Returns

Previously I wrote about how the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro seems to want to obscure who runs their organization so today I take a peak at their Federal Tax Returns. Turns out their board is listed in their tax returns. Interestingly, it's a lot of familiar faces.

Being I'm an avowed liberal I guess I could make a fuss over the $5,100 grant given the John Locke Foundation in 2010 or the big bucks they donate to mega churches all across the nation but I won't. Instead, I wonder if they'll match the $100,000.oo they gave to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2009 and again in 2008 and $50,000.oo in 2007 when it comes time to pay for the Greensboro Performing Arts Center? After all, it's not like the tix tax is going to happen anytime soon.

Do you think some big foundation in Arlington, Virginia might pitch in a cool quarter million to go towards building the Greensboro Performing Arts Center? Can we count on at least a quarter million from the Community Foundation? Cool, we've only got $69 Million and change to go.

Maybe you'd like to search to prove me wrong?

Continue to page 39. Grassroots Productions Limited, Federal Tax Returns.

Downtown Greensboro Inc. Caught In The Act

From GPAC2012:

"Charge to the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro:

The Greensboro City Council asked The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro to convene a task force that will study the benefits of constructing a new state-of-the-art performing arts center. The task force is a citywide body representing a number of groups including leaders and volunteers from the arts, business and foundation communities. The city has charged the task force with:

* Creating an open, candid and constructive dialogue around the needs of a performing arts center;
* Creating an economic impact report and a feasibility analysis of a downtown facility; and
* Exploring using private investment to complement public resources"

But the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro appears to have gone beyond their charge. According to Federal statute 501(c)(4) propaganda is an illegal activity for non profits. (I assume there's some sort of exception for non profit political action committees.) According to definition:

"Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. Propaganda is usually repeated and dispersed over a wide variety of media in order to create the desired result in audience attitudes."

So what did they do? The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro appears to have enlisted another Greensboro non profit, DGI, to start a propaganda campaign known as "Talk it up! to "enlist ambassadors to promote building a performing arts center in downtown." in what appears to be a violation of Federal non profit statutes.

Is Susan Schwartz unaware that she heads a non profit and that non profits are prohibited from engaging in propaganda? Or does she and Ed Wolverton simply believe the law does not pertain to them.

Continue to page 20. Bill Knight On The Greensboro Chamber Of Commerce.

Downtown Greensboro Foundation Board Of Directors

Perhaps you've never heard of the Downtown Greensboro Foundation? They were new to me until I began preparing this report and a friend sent me the links. They're the folks who manage the ice rink in Center City Park, a privately owned, tax exempt park belonging to former Mayor Jim Melvin's Bryan Foundation, managed by Action Greensboro and staffed and maintained with taxpayer dollars by the City of Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department. The Downtown Greensboro Foundation recently got a $4000 grant from The Community Foundation and was founded solely to provide services to Downtown Greensboro Inc.

Are you confused yet? Sorry, I'm learning as I go.

The 2011 Board of Directors of the Downtown Greensboro Foundation can be found here, reports here. It's the exact same board as that of Downtown Greensboro Inc., whose board can be found here. Wonder why that is?

Filings for DGI can be found here. My apologies for not being able to locate this information before posting Downtown Greensboro Incorporated Board of Directors.

Is this how money gets laundered squandered?

Continue tp page 16. Downtown Greensboro Improvement Corporation Board Of Directors.

Center for Creative Leadership Board Of Directors

The Center for Creative Leadership lists their mission as the following:

"Mission
We believe in putting our clients first. Our nonprofit heritage and educational mission give us unusual flexibility in a world where profit motives often drive or confine thinking. We have the freedom to be objective, wary of short-term trends and motivated foremost by our mission - to advance the understanding, practice and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide. We have the freedom to focus on your success.

Vision
To fully realize our mission, the Center will create new knowledge that advances our field and that positively transforms the way leaders, their organizations and their societies confront the most difficult challenges of the 21st century. These imperatives require that the Center become the preeminent global institution for leadership development and research.

To enact this vision, by 2015 we will grow in new ways and maximize the value of our unique assets. We will:

Explore and define new approaches to leadership through our research and, based on these lessons, innovate our portfolio of programs, products and services;

Expand our offerings in Europe, Asia and North America, while relying increasingly on partnerships, on-site engagements with leaders, e-learning and technology to extend our presence;

Invest in the skills and resources required to meet the demands of this vision, including integrated systems and processes that spur the development of new ideas and speed the exchange of knowledge.

Together, these efforts will allow us to attract the most accomplished faculty and staff and secure our position as the world's preferred resource on the understanding, practice and development of leadership."

Their board can be found here Their business is training leaders and through their Impact Greensboro project funded by the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro they promote projects like the Greensboro Performing Arts Center and other developer driven projects.

Not that there's anything wrong with....

Continue to page 13. Greensboro Partnership Lobbied To Eliminate RUCO?.

Grassroots Productions Limited Board Of Directors

Almost everyone knows that Betty Cone runs Grassroots Productions Limited, the 501(3)(c) non profit organization responsible for the Fun 4th Festival and the Festival of Lights. Betty's ancestors were the Cone Brothers who founded Cone Mills in the late 19th century and build much of what Greensboro is today. Betty married into the Cone family. So far I have been unable to determine who sits on Ms Cone's board of directors but Betty Cone does or did have a seat on the boards of the Carolina Theater, the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro, Downtown Greensboro Incorporated, the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro Inc. and other area non profits.

Is there a source available to the general public that tells us who sits on the boards of non profits? Most for profit corporations make this information very easy to locate and some non profits do as well but to date, the leadership of most of Greensboro's non profit organizations seems shrouded in mystery. I guess there are no laws requiring such things but given that these non profits are receive taxpayer dollars and/or tax free donations in one form or another it seems to me the public should have a right to know without having to jump through a bunch of hoops. Perhaps we should start lobbying North Carolina state legislators for ways and means to make such information public?

Continue to page 12. Center for Creative Leadership Board Of Directors.

Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro Board Of Directors

I'm sure some of you are wondering about my unusual approach to exposing the truth, lies and deceit of the Greensboro Partnership but trust me there is method to my madness. Besides, I'm not telling everything I've learned-- yet.

Here on page 10 of the book we concentrate on the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro. The Community Foundation solicits donations from the public and is said to spend those donations on public art, women's issues and other things of social value. In 2010 the foundation, chaired by Louise Brady, claims to have collected over $10 Million in donations and paid out $10 Million in grants to worthy nonprofits including the Interactive Resource Center, the Future Fund, the Public Art Endowment and Women to Women. Their 2010-2011 Annual Report lists the boards of 3 donating companies but doesn't tell us who sits on their own board of directors.

The articles of incorporation for Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro are not available at the NC Secretary of State website probably because their 1983 date of incorporation predates the Internet. They apparently changed the name of the corporation in 1995 but that is also pre Internet. Their previous name was the Foundation of Greater Greensboro, Inc. but they currently do business (dba) as the Guilford Nonprofit Consortium. Why two names? I haven't a clue.

From the Guilford Nonprofit Consortium:

"In 2003, Weaver Foundation and the Community Foundation were instrumental in the exploring the interest in and need for the Consortium. Facilitated by a Leadership Greensboro project team, nonprofit stakeholders in our community defined the need for and dimensions of a capacity building consortium. The question they sought to answer was: "How might nonprofits come together as a community and build capacities among and between nonprofits as a way to creatively meet some of these growing challenges?" In 2004, more than 100 nonprofit organizations stepped forward to form the initial membership of the Consortium and local foundations came together to fund the Consortium so that annual dues could be kept to a minimum."

The Consortium membership list appears to be a who's who of who wants a handout. Apparently they do the same thing as the United Way except on a smaller and more local scale. Apparently they are the go to people for local non profit organizations in need of money.

I find it strange that the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro and most of the local non profits I've discussed to date all have problems making known who their board members are as it's apparently not a problem for the non profit, Guilford 200 Club.

Continue to page 11. Grassroots Productions Limited Board Of Directors.

synerG Board Of Directors

From what I can determine, synerG neither has nor needs a board of directors as it is operated by and for Action Greensboro. Apparently, membership is restricted to 20 select young professionals who, for the most part, reside in Greensboro. According to their website, one of their goals is to promote connectedness. Considering that all the Greensboro organizations I've discussed thus far all seem to be one in the same they probably find meeting that goal to be rather easy. Since their inception in 2001, it appears their only claim to fame is the building of the downtown WIFI system that serves South Elm St. and City Center Park.

Only 1 of synerG's current members is actually from Greensboro. Is this not looking more and more like Greensboro is one big party town with only one party to go to? I know, I know, it's really about grooming young people to be leaders but considering the history of Greensboro I can't help but wonder what we're grooming them for.

Coming soon: the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro and the Guilford Nonprofit Consortium.

Continue to page 10. Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro Board Of Directors.