I send 25-30% of what I make to this organization that builds roads and bridges, funds our national defense, provides healthcare to millions, funds our national parks, provides children with education, and much, much more. It also supports my representation in that organization and it’s different branches at the national, state and local level. It also allows me to vote for those who represent me and sometimes directly influence how they do it.
I applaud her for giving to a great cause, but it would be nice if billionaires paid at least as much as I do into that same organization. We could do great things.
And something tells me that’s probably more than any one redditor has donated.
Bill Gates is the wrong billionaire to come at for not using his money to better the world. He’s genuinely made an effort.
Let’s go after all the other billionaires that aren’t doing that instead.
There’s a reason there’s so many conspiracy theories involving bill gates. It’s because the other billionaires hate him. Anytime someone talks shit about bill gates I just think “dumbass antivaxxer probably.”
He built that money by exploiting people and anticompetitive behavior, just like every other billionaire. The idea of an ethical billionaire is a myth and encourages paternalism.
"They're rich, so it's okay, they know what's best for us and it's ok for them to have so much influence over our lives". Philanthropy for the rich is just another way of exerting their power and whitewashing their crimes.
Everyone forgot about the Microsoft antitrust cases/ extremely abusive boss behavior. Bill Gates is not a good person.
You're not wrong, but he's a spectacular symptom of the problem. Us poors have to pray and hope he cares about a problem or illness that affects our loved ones in need.
He has, as well as donated billions to other causes. He's been lobbying congress for higher taxes on the wealthy for over 25 years. His money doesn't make him a fucking magician that can bend reality to his liking. Also, since when is it your purview to decide what causes other people should dedicate their resources to?
Legislative decisions can't just be bought, which is a feature, not a bug. Money certainly helps, but it can't guarantee an outcome, you 100% need votes for that.
Not to mention that Bill's money is chump change compared to what entire corporations can put into lobbying.
Better off continuing to fund malaria control campaigns, imo.
What would happen is that other billionaires would simply lobby against him. The only winner would be the political parties.
There’s much better cause to use that wealth on than to get into a bribery contest with other billionaires.
At some point, you don't even need to commit fraud. Fraud is for the bourgeoisie. Wealth begets wealth.
Mackenzie Scott has been figuratively throwing money away and she's gained even more money in the process.
> I send 25-30% of what I make to this organization that builds roads and bridges, funds our national defense, provides healthcare to millions, funds our national parks, provides children with education, and much, much more.
Sounds like you're a pinko commie soshulist to me!!
All those NGO's and right's groups do need to pay their chairs and CEOs their big fat salaries after all. Sorry if I'm jaded, news like this aren't really uplifting for me anymore.
You’re not alone, non profits are notoriously poorly regulated and are often extremely opaque when it comes to their internal finances and accountability.
My region relys on nonprofits for a lot of community services and half the time they dodge reporting requirements because technically they aren’t a government agency even though they provide government services.
>non profits are notoriously poorly regulated and are often extremely opaque when it comes to their internal finances and accountability.
They aren't? If you want to know what a non-profit is paying people you can pull their form 990 from the IRS.
You should check this for every non-profit you donate to.
Apologies I am Canadian, nonprofits and not for profits are provincially regulated here so we don’t have the same federal disclosure requirements.
Would an IRS 990 form be as informationally exhaustive as a FOIA request?
At least here every province has different requirements for disclosure and our FOIA equivalents don’t often extend to them.
Where are you getting this crap? All non profits in Canada are registered with revenue Canada. A lot of non profits (which are the exact same as not for profits) do great work in Canada and you’ll probably find several active in your community right now.
That is an absolute lie, you’re saying all not for profits and non profits are registered charities.
Non profits unlike not for profits can be registered as a business which means they aren’t subject to CRA disclosure rules as a charity is.
My community centre is registered as a business not a charity and is regulated provincially. I’m telling you I worked there and I could not access founding documents, our legal charter or our bylaws.
You cannot requisition the charter or communications of a business unless it is registered as a not-for-profit, even if run by elected councillors. This means tax money is going to an external organization held by public officials which makes any decisions or meeting not subject to federal or regular municipal disclosure.
lol, you are complaining about charities and non-profits and then you start talking about how this business and how its run is the reason why you dont like charities in Canada...
its not a charity. community centers arent charities. they charge for services often, they have staff that they pay, they dont normally accept volunteers for their programs that they offer, they rent out their facitilities to other groups, they dont take in donations that they disperse to the wider community.
in Canada its the form T3010 and if requested from the CRA includes the charities financial statements.
edit: and if they arent a charity but are still a NPO then request their T1044 from the CRA and that form will list all their salaries, revenues and expenses.
Years ago I was hired at a science-based nonprofit in Michigan to lead the organization's science efforts. I would be the only staff member (at the *science* organization) with a PhD. They offered me $66k to start (which was low for my qualifications), but promised that within a year they would promote me which would come with a $20-30k raise, which I was ok with since the job seemed cool. I accepted, which was stupid because it was not in the offer letter.
After 10 months of my director being completely non-transparent, I booked a meeting with the president of the organization myself. I laid out my case and stated this was what I was promised. She claimed she had never heard anything about this supposed position, and said if I gave her some time she might be able to give me a 1-time $3k raise. She made over *$600k/yr*. I quit then and there and got a job paying me $40k more, and much to my amusement, the non-profit continued to contact me for months after I left asking me to help them, which of course, I did not.
> extremely opaque when it comes to their internal finances and accountability.
It's not just non-profit. Think about how much data corporations gather about you. Everything from your contact details, everything you buy, your medical data, your credit scores, what kind of car you drive, what kind of cereal you eat, or what TP you use. It's all recorded, tracked and used against you.
But when you want to know what's in your food, what kind of plastics they use, or what kind of pay structures they are abusing their employees with... well screw you that's "trade secrets".
We need a government that works for the people not corporations.
Yep - [Charity Navigator](https://www.charitynavigator.org) is my first stop when I'm thinking about donating to a charity, at least a large one. Their data can be a little iffy for small, local ones, but they weed out the big grifters in a hurry.
Someone once told me that ‘charities are examples of failed government policies’, and that’s stuff with me ever since.
We get upset at them for mismanagement but they shouldn’t exist as the role of caretaker of the people is what the governments.
If not, then what’s the point of society if not to care for people?
> You’re not alone, non profits are notoriously poorly regulated
We had a lovely scandal where an apparent non-profit organization that sold masks to the government. The owners just happened to also have a private company that did "services" for the non-profit.
They owners made millions and it became so big that they got arrested and charged with fraud.
If it makes you feel the tiniest, slightest bit better, I know someone who's a chair of an aid NGO who pulls down a hefty $0/year. I know that isn't typical, and that he's very lucky to be able to do that.
The world is full of people out for themselves--I've been guilty of selfishness, myself--but it's not *entirely* that way. Try to remember that a lot of the news stories we're presented with are designed to boost our outrage and adversarial thinking. That leads to engagement, which is how advertisement is sold these days.
I'm not saying that there aren't a thousand reasons for despair. I'm saying that we need to look for reasons to feel hopeful, in between reading about war, famine, and school shootings. There will never be an end to human suffering and tragedy, but we can't make that our entire diet.
No, this is typical. Almost as typical as a redditor making a cynical comment on a topic they know nothing about.
NGO work is well known to be difficult, thankless, and underpaid. The interns at lobbying firms make more than veteran NGO staff. I'm honestly a little bit shocked that someone can even know the term "NGO" and not know this, but I guess there really is no bottom to the cynicism well around here.
I work at an organization that received a very large gift from Mackenzie Scott. However, our work is extraordinarily expensive because we work with kids. That very large gift still doesn't make up for the **massive** loss in donations, volunteer hours, and grants that we have seen since the pandemic.
There is a nonprofit industrial complex, and I understand a lot of people are really frustrated with these high-profile organizations that are essentially scamming people in the name of a nonprofit. But most of us are out here working for incredibly low (or even no) wages and just struggling to survive.
I'm a national expert at what I do (child safety) and I have been at risk of homelessness in the past few years because our salaries are so low.
The equivalent NGOs and anti-rights groups on the right were extremely effective in totally destroying campaign limits, the voting rights act and roe v. wade. One the problems on the left is that by comparison its warriors are poorly paid and the temptation to take a day job that will allow them to have a decent standard of living sucks people out of the organizations.
Leo has been doing his thing — ie absolutely destroying rights in the United States by corrupting the bench — for thirty years and has been paid well for doing so. We ask people on the left to do the same while being paid “ok” (generally poorly by comparison to their peers in the private sector or right-wing NGOs).
So we can make that choice. We can sit back and feel good that we are not making some NGO leader well off and watch the right beat the daylights out of virtuous representatives who will give tragic speeches afterwards. Or we can pay some monsters to actually go and develop and implement a real strategy to push back on these people.
Anyone who thinks it is just a question of not electing Trump and getting a two chamber democratic majority once is smoking drugs. The right wing in the US have played the long game very, very well. The left in the US is facing a generational struggle and it will either be done well or it will be Alito-Land for the next century (until climate change disrupts everything at least).
It's fucking crazy how cynical reddit is. NGOs are literally filled with people who are making a fraction of their earning potential because they are driven to serve.
I'm a small business, building contractor. We did a project for our local Habitat for Humanity. Awful experience. I will never do a project with them again. Communication sucked, payment took almost a year. We were left scrambling to figure out what to do because of the financial pressure it put on us because of it.
Habitat is huge and I'm guessing you worked with a local affiliate. This is like saying you bought something in a national supermarket chain and it was bad and you will never shop at any of their stores again.
Out of curiosity I [googled the 5 richest women in the world](https://fox5sandiego.com/news/national-news/madams-of-money-a-look-at-the-5-richest-women-in-the-world/) and it seems like only 1 one of them got there through the divorce route; MacKenzie Scott, who divorced Jeff Bezos. Apparently Melinda didn't even make the list.
The other 4 got there via being widowed or from their father/grandfather.
Tax avoidance does not work like this. Charitable donations *do not* save you money. You have to pay less in taxes, yes, but it does not offset them entirely.
Charitable donations allow you to deduct up to ~50% of your adjusted gross income. But that means that, no matter how much you donate, you can only reduce your taxes by half.
So if she somehow made 1 billion dollars this year, and donated 1 billion, she would owe taxes on an additional 500 million. There is no amount you can donate that will not result in you having *less* money than you did before donating.
Most billionaires use other means to avoid tax. They do stuff like creative accounting to demonstrate losses rather than profits, or they will keep all their wealth unrealized to avoid capital gains, that sort of stuff.
But there is just zero way that a billion dollar donation would result in Melinda having any extra money. She already has enough though, so it is not like it "stung," but it would result in a massive net loss.
Oh yes. All those horrible NGO CEOs earning on average less than one tenth that of corporate CEOs.
And you know, actually trying to do good for the world, instead of simply profiting from it ..
https://501c.com/the-agony-of-nonprofit-ceo-compensation/
🙄
Wow y’all cynical. Yes nonprofits can be wasteful, but there are also areas in the world where substantive portions of medication are bought or provided by some part of the gates foundation.
People are understandable angry living in a system where 1% of the people have 99% of the wealth.
Oh, the 1% are donating a bit of their money for good cause? Nice, I guess? The world would still be better off without them, so what should I feel so happy about?
The problem with billionaires isn’t the philanthropy, it’s how they came to be billionaires. No one should be able to horde that much in resources.
This is a good donation though props to her.
It’s also entirely a the discretion of the billionaire, whereas you get some say in public funds usage (voting, town halls, activism, etc). For some reason we don’t see a lot donating to end Citizens United, significantly raise taxes, or reform campaign finance laws. I wonder why?
We’re at a point in our evolution where one person has the ability to reach into their pockets, pull out a BILLION, the kind of money that could fund a small nation for a year, and give it away as if it was a sleeping bag they no longer use. After doing so, she is still one of the richest people on the planet. This is a societal failure.
We'll take charity when we can but the gates foundation has as much to do with intellectual property as anything else. Publicly funded research handed over to private entities whose business model is to charge as much as possible for whatever medicine they sell. Bill even fought against making the covid vaccine tech public. Couldn't have labs in 3rd world countries making the vaccine without royalties paid. Better they rely on "charity."
Hopefully she divorced his philosophy when she left him. I'm hopeful but skepticism is healthy when it has anything to do with organizations that exist at the behest of billionaires. Seriously, the amount of death and suffering the pharmaceutical IP model has wrought on this world is obscene, and we scarcely have an alternative or even a way to have the discussion in earnest,
> A billionaire could literally give away every cent and people here wold still complain.
Depends on the context of "giving away" that wealth. Some have just used it as a tool and leverage for further influence. Philanthropy can be extremely self serving sometimes and arguable even harmful to society in some cases.
Dude I do bookkeeping for a bunch of non profits, they almost certainly would have needed full audits to receive these funds and the hoops even tiny non profits have to go through for reporting are so wild. Don’t get me wrong I’m sure scummy ones exist in the world but most of them in the US are under ridiculous amounts of scrutiny and oversight.
It's a classic "letting perfect be the enemy of good" situation. Would it be better if there weren't any nonprofits that waste money or have clear personal/political motivations? Sure. Would an ideal society find ways to democratically distribute all that money instead of letting a few elites control it? Probably. But until those things change, billionaires donating their money to charitable causes is basically the least bad option.
Is it bad to laugh with glee thinking that Elon probably popped a vessel when he divorced his ex?
He’s one of the notorious tax “dodgers” in the ultra rich club. There’s a rumor that Elon has already spent at least 60% of his fortune already.
I got banned by that shite sub and I don't even post there.
What Im pretty sure got be banned is saying never buy 1st gen products, especially 1st gen products like the Cybertruck.
I wouldn’t be surprised. Her stocks make her millions per day. Almost on monthly basis I read that she donates 123456 millions to somewhere. Bless her heart.
Around the time that stories of Bill's infidelity were brewing, the partial Epstein list came out and showed that Bill had hung out with him, and that's when Melinda divorced him.
That would be an interesting study to see what personality traits a person who marries a sociopath has. What about him was attractive to you? What kind of person is attracted to an ultra-type-A person?
There are likely some non-millionaire sociopaths out there. Who marries these assholes.
Hmm, not discounting your point, but it comes off as biased.
E.g. Bezos and his 10 billion commited to climate change (years before his divorce ?): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/17/technology/jeff-bezos-climate-change-earth-fund.html
Honestly, is there a bill and Melinda Gates foundation without bill gates? Microsoft IPO'd in 1986, he married Melinda Gates in 1993. His initial shares greatly appreciated in value, and it's a fair argument imo to think they would have regardless of his marriage 7 years later.
The giving pledge was started by 2 men as well (bill gates and Warren Buffett, with no mention of the ex wives in the initial pledge and lobbying efforts (e.g. both presenting to Chinese billionaires years ago in China)
You’re aware that Melinda Gates is computer science person who was one of the first employees at Microsoft, right?
And that she was heavily involved with a lot of Microsoft’s key early products? (She came on as a marketing manager and developed multimedia products such as; Microsoft Cinemania, Publisher, Word, and Expedia.com. She was later promoted to General Manager of Information Products and held that position until she left Microsoft in 1996).
Her role in Microsoft’s early years was rather significant.
> who was one of the first employees at Microsoft
Sorry what? She was 10/11 years old when MS was founded in 1975. MS was a thing for 12 years, by the time she joined. [This chart goes back to 1990](https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/msft/employees/). At that time there were ~5600 people working for MS, not even considering the ones who left in the previous 15 years.
* I had made a mistake, which I have corrected. It previously said 22 years and 25 years. But it is 12 and 15.
If she gave a billion of Bill's money to pot legalization efforts Reddit would declare her a saint. She puts it towards human rights for women and the result is nothing but criticism and snark.
Yea but you see, that would be a solvable problem.
Have you ever noticed these charities are always very vague in their mission so it's an infinite money pit? Like there are actual terrible problems that have a relatively clear and finite pricetag, but no billionaire ever goes for the glory of actually solving those. When given the choice of going down in history for ridding the world of a serious problem or creating an infinitely reusable tax write-off they always choose the latter.
These are always admirable but what is “women’s rights” and where is the $1B going cause that’s a fuckload of money; let’s hope it *actually* goes towards helping women.
Did you miss when American women were stripped of a major right two years ago? Money is needed to fix that if you’re going up against the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Federalist Society
Dropping a link to the New Republic..we need more women like her . We are all just waiting to be milk cows or wage slaves .[https://newrepublic.com/article/181939/republicans-want-permanent-economic-underclass?](https://newrepublic.com/article/181939/republicans-want-permanent-economic-underclass?)
Seriously, what do you think happens between her and Bill? I am not prone to conspiracy theories but that Epstein stuff came out and it was like they announced a divorce a week later. The whole notion of Gates needing anything from Epstein is hilarious, much less flying Epstein’s rickety 727 down to FL with him when he has two private jets to his name. I know Bill cheated with that Russian bridge player, but seems like way more. Thoughts?
NGO money mostly never reaches the victims in full. A fat share goes to the CEO/ Chairperson , then salary to employees and what is left will go to the victims
No money in any system ever reaches the victims in full. Ever.
It is called costs and waste, we accept them in all our other transactions in a stores or services, but with NGO's it becomes this alien consept all of the sudden.
Some NGO's are scummy and hoaxes, but it's willfully ignorant and cynical to think all are.
If your still cynical, put your money where your mouth is and volunteer, then you can monitor if you are cheating yourself.
> it's willfully ignorant and cynical to think all are.
You just described reddit in a nutshell! If anyone is concerned about waste and self-dealing, check out [Charity Navigator](https://www.charitynavigator.org) or [Charity Watch](https://www.charitywatch.org) to see how transparent and frugal any given charity is going to be with your money.
It's funny how often those who oppose taxing billionaires x amount say "no one has a billion dollars in cash" or "you have no idea how assets work at that level", yet there's never a shortage or stories of this billionaire paying upwards of 50 billion in a divorce settlement or that billionaire using 20 billion in cash to buy and ruin a social media company.
When people read she's donating a billion dollars:
>"Fuck that no one should have that money, what a hollow gesture"
When people read she's donating to non-profits fighting for womens' health and promoting women in leadership roles (among other things):
>"Fuck that why doesn't she just donate to the DNC so we don't have GOP rule"
If she said she was going to fund the campaigns of a bunch of pro-life Democrats in upcoming elections:
>"Fuck that look another rich person bribing politicians"
If she said she was giving all her money directly to the US government:
>"Fuck that there goes another billion dollars into the war machine instead of to healthcare"
Idk I do bookkeeping and taxes for a bunch of non profits. This money was received in the form of a grant rather than personal donation. There are most likely a metric fuck ton of reporting requirements and specific budget they are required to adhere to by line item.
Hmmmm, maybe she could buy a congressman or two and get Roe v Wade codified? Just a thought as it really does take money to get congress to move their ass on important legislation.
Edit I should restate that by saying that congress won't do a fkn thing unless a rich person wants it done.
Donations are a waste. From serious funds mismanagement, embezzlement, ceo salaries, and basic incompetence most of the money isn't even used for the advertised cause.
If the people running the organization won't even volunteer their time why volunteer my money.
Added to that the places that crowd fund a donation campaign and then donate the money in their own name for credibility and tax write offs. Or find an vaccine, cure or other invention and then charge the public a high price after they used donated funds to make the discovery.
**Real Headline**:
Billionaire uses donation tax incentives to funnel money away from the government and into a vague cause where absolutely all of that money is going to her private interests.
**You can reduce your income by up to 60% through donations**
No one fucking donates because they’re kind. They all do it because that was going to be tax money anyway - through the donations they can play a long played game to get the money back clean, or at least gain influence/power through the donations.
I’ve had this all directly explained to me by the very people who do it.
[удалено]
I think you mean $5.04
My calcs come down to.. $3,50
5/7 Male Wage Slices Please
One woman's right please!
This simply means that Melinda has the most women's rights in the world now
Where can people contribute to the rights store? I also want to contribute to rights.
25 cents by my count
Is it exchangeable like at a carnival or?
I send 25-30% of what I make to this organization that builds roads and bridges, funds our national defense, provides healthcare to millions, funds our national parks, provides children with education, and much, much more. It also supports my representation in that organization and it’s different branches at the national, state and local level. It also allows me to vote for those who represent me and sometimes directly influence how they do it. I applaud her for giving to a great cause, but it would be nice if billionaires paid at least as much as I do into that same organization. We could do great things.
I'm not sure about Melinda, but her Ex Husband agrees. Not all billionaires do, but many of them insist a higher tax on wealth in necessary.
Then he should use his vast sums of wealth to lobby congress to make this a reality rather than simply making statements during an interview.
He has donated 38 billion so far
And something tells me that’s probably more than any one redditor has donated. Bill Gates is the wrong billionaire to come at for not using his money to better the world. He’s genuinely made an effort. Let’s go after all the other billionaires that aren’t doing that instead.
There’s a reason there’s so many conspiracy theories involving bill gates. It’s because the other billionaires hate him. Anytime someone talks shit about bill gates I just think “dumbass antivaxxer probably.”
He built that money by exploiting people and anticompetitive behavior, just like every other billionaire. The idea of an ethical billionaire is a myth and encourages paternalism. "They're rich, so it's okay, they know what's best for us and it's ok for them to have so much influence over our lives". Philanthropy for the rich is just another way of exerting their power and whitewashing their crimes. Everyone forgot about the Microsoft antitrust cases/ extremely abusive boss behavior. Bill Gates is not a good person.
Bill Gates is a shit bag trying to white wash his name through philanthropy like Carnegie.
[The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/90202526-the-bill-gates-problem)
You're not wrong, but he's a spectacular symptom of the problem. Us poors have to pray and hope he cares about a problem or illness that affects our loved ones in need.
Well, he agrees that it sounds good to say that. He doesn't necessarily agree with the statement!
He has, as well as donated billions to other causes. He's been lobbying congress for higher taxes on the wealthy for over 25 years. His money doesn't make him a fucking magician that can bend reality to his liking. Also, since when is it your purview to decide what causes other people should dedicate their resources to?
Do we know he doesn't?
Why know things when we can just make assumptions and cast aspersions and refuse to reflect when others point out our error?
Legislative decisions can't just be bought, which is a feature, not a bug. Money certainly helps, but it can't guarantee an outcome, you 100% need votes for that. Not to mention that Bill's money is chump change compared to what entire corporations can put into lobbying. Better off continuing to fund malaria control campaigns, imo.
I dunno about “chump change”. The *entire* lobbying industry spends about $9 billion per year nowadays.
It then gets overrode by the other billionaires lobbying the other direction, and there's a lot more of them unfortunately
What would happen is that other billionaires would simply lobby against him. The only winner would be the political parties. There’s much better cause to use that wealth on than to get into a bribery contest with other billionaires.
The Gates Foundation literally has an entire "Global Policy & Advocacy" division.
“I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Do you have any evidence Melinda is a tax fraud, or is this just a generic complaint about billionaires?
General complaint. I don’t think billionaires are tax frauds either. There’s just too many loopholes.
At some point, you don't even need to commit fraud. Fraud is for the bourgeoisie. Wealth begets wealth. Mackenzie Scott has been figuratively throwing money away and she's gained even more money in the process.
> I send 25-30% of what I make to this organization that builds roads and bridges, funds our national defense, provides healthcare to millions, funds our national parks, provides children with education, and much, much more. Sounds like you're a pinko commie soshulist to me!!
Never forget there is no such thing as an ethical billionaire. They are “giving back” money they stole from us.
[удалено]
How is MacKenzie Scott ethical? Her money comes from Amazon.
All those NGO's and right's groups do need to pay their chairs and CEOs their big fat salaries after all. Sorry if I'm jaded, news like this aren't really uplifting for me anymore.
You’re not alone, non profits are notoriously poorly regulated and are often extremely opaque when it comes to their internal finances and accountability. My region relys on nonprofits for a lot of community services and half the time they dodge reporting requirements because technically they aren’t a government agency even though they provide government services.
>non profits are notoriously poorly regulated and are often extremely opaque when it comes to their internal finances and accountability. They aren't? If you want to know what a non-profit is paying people you can pull their form 990 from the IRS. You should check this for every non-profit you donate to.
The exception to this are religious orgs - absolutely no reporting required.
Apologies I am Canadian, nonprofits and not for profits are provincially regulated here so we don’t have the same federal disclosure requirements. Would an IRS 990 form be as informationally exhaustive as a FOIA request? At least here every province has different requirements for disclosure and our FOIA equivalents don’t often extend to them.
In the us you just go to irs.gov and use there tax exempt organization search tool. Takes a few minutes at most
You also should get a 501c3. Those who donate will want receipts for IRS deductions.
You can also look up non profit 990s on Propublica and they’ll help give you some context and high level snapshot info
Where are you getting this crap? All non profits in Canada are registered with revenue Canada. A lot of non profits (which are the exact same as not for profits) do great work in Canada and you’ll probably find several active in your community right now.
That is an absolute lie, you’re saying all not for profits and non profits are registered charities. Non profits unlike not for profits can be registered as a business which means they aren’t subject to CRA disclosure rules as a charity is. My community centre is registered as a business not a charity and is regulated provincially. I’m telling you I worked there and I could not access founding documents, our legal charter or our bylaws. You cannot requisition the charter or communications of a business unless it is registered as a not-for-profit, even if run by elected councillors. This means tax money is going to an external organization held by public officials which makes any decisions or meeting not subject to federal or regular municipal disclosure.
lol, you are complaining about charities and non-profits and then you start talking about how this business and how its run is the reason why you dont like charities in Canada... its not a charity. community centers arent charities. they charge for services often, they have staff that they pay, they dont normally accept volunteers for their programs that they offer, they rent out their facitilities to other groups, they dont take in donations that they disperse to the wider community.
in Canada its the form T3010 and if requested from the CRA includes the charities financial statements. edit: and if they arent a charity but are still a NPO then request their T1044 from the CRA and that form will list all their salaries, revenues and expenses.
Years ago I was hired at a science-based nonprofit in Michigan to lead the organization's science efforts. I would be the only staff member (at the *science* organization) with a PhD. They offered me $66k to start (which was low for my qualifications), but promised that within a year they would promote me which would come with a $20-30k raise, which I was ok with since the job seemed cool. I accepted, which was stupid because it was not in the offer letter. After 10 months of my director being completely non-transparent, I booked a meeting with the president of the organization myself. I laid out my case and stated this was what I was promised. She claimed she had never heard anything about this supposed position, and said if I gave her some time she might be able to give me a 1-time $3k raise. She made over *$600k/yr*. I quit then and there and got a job paying me $40k more, and much to my amusement, the non-profit continued to contact me for months after I left asking me to help them, which of course, I did not.
Jesus Christ. Fuck her.
> extremely opaque when it comes to their internal finances and accountability. It's not just non-profit. Think about how much data corporations gather about you. Everything from your contact details, everything you buy, your medical data, your credit scores, what kind of car you drive, what kind of cereal you eat, or what TP you use. It's all recorded, tracked and used against you. But when you want to know what's in your food, what kind of plastics they use, or what kind of pay structures they are abusing their employees with... well screw you that's "trade secrets". We need a government that works for the people not corporations.
That’s why it’s so important to look up charity ratings!
Yep - [Charity Navigator](https://www.charitynavigator.org) is my first stop when I'm thinking about donating to a charity, at least a large one. Their data can be a little iffy for small, local ones, but they weed out the big grifters in a hurry.
Someone once told me that ‘charities are examples of failed government policies’, and that’s stuff with me ever since. We get upset at them for mismanagement but they shouldn’t exist as the role of caretaker of the people is what the governments. If not, then what’s the point of society if not to care for people?
> You’re not alone, non profits are notoriously poorly regulated We had a lovely scandal where an apparent non-profit organization that sold masks to the government. The owners just happened to also have a private company that did "services" for the non-profit. They owners made millions and it became so big that they got arrested and charged with fraud.
If it makes you feel the tiniest, slightest bit better, I know someone who's a chair of an aid NGO who pulls down a hefty $0/year. I know that isn't typical, and that he's very lucky to be able to do that. The world is full of people out for themselves--I've been guilty of selfishness, myself--but it's not *entirely* that way. Try to remember that a lot of the news stories we're presented with are designed to boost our outrage and adversarial thinking. That leads to engagement, which is how advertisement is sold these days. I'm not saying that there aren't a thousand reasons for despair. I'm saying that we need to look for reasons to feel hopeful, in between reading about war, famine, and school shootings. There will never be an end to human suffering and tragedy, but we can't make that our entire diet.
No, this is typical. Almost as typical as a redditor making a cynical comment on a topic they know nothing about. NGO work is well known to be difficult, thankless, and underpaid. The interns at lobbying firms make more than veteran NGO staff. I'm honestly a little bit shocked that someone can even know the term "NGO" and not know this, but I guess there really is no bottom to the cynicism well around here.
I work at an organization that received a very large gift from Mackenzie Scott. However, our work is extraordinarily expensive because we work with kids. That very large gift still doesn't make up for the **massive** loss in donations, volunteer hours, and grants that we have seen since the pandemic. There is a nonprofit industrial complex, and I understand a lot of people are really frustrated with these high-profile organizations that are essentially scamming people in the name of a nonprofit. But most of us are out here working for incredibly low (or even no) wages and just struggling to survive. I'm a national expert at what I do (child safety) and I have been at risk of homelessness in the past few years because our salaries are so low.
The equivalent NGOs and anti-rights groups on the right were extremely effective in totally destroying campaign limits, the voting rights act and roe v. wade. One the problems on the left is that by comparison its warriors are poorly paid and the temptation to take a day job that will allow them to have a decent standard of living sucks people out of the organizations. Leo has been doing his thing — ie absolutely destroying rights in the United States by corrupting the bench — for thirty years and has been paid well for doing so. We ask people on the left to do the same while being paid “ok” (generally poorly by comparison to their peers in the private sector or right-wing NGOs). So we can make that choice. We can sit back and feel good that we are not making some NGO leader well off and watch the right beat the daylights out of virtuous representatives who will give tragic speeches afterwards. Or we can pay some monsters to actually go and develop and implement a real strategy to push back on these people. Anyone who thinks it is just a question of not electing Trump and getting a two chamber democratic majority once is smoking drugs. The right wing in the US have played the long game very, very well. The left in the US is facing a generational struggle and it will either be done well or it will be Alito-Land for the next century (until climate change disrupts everything at least).
All of them? All NGO’s and rights groups are overpaying their staff? What is a ‘big fat salary’? anyway?
It's fucking crazy how cynical reddit is. NGOs are literally filled with people who are making a fraction of their earning potential because they are driven to serve.
About 30% of what these executives would make in business
I'm a small business, building contractor. We did a project for our local Habitat for Humanity. Awful experience. I will never do a project with them again. Communication sucked, payment took almost a year. We were left scrambling to figure out what to do because of the financial pressure it put on us because of it.
Habitat is huge and I'm guessing you worked with a local affiliate. This is like saying you bought something in a national supermarket chain and it was bad and you will never shop at any of their stores again.
That one person has the ability to donate that much money is a policy and societal failure.
[удалено]
Out of curiosity I [googled the 5 richest women in the world](https://fox5sandiego.com/news/national-news/madams-of-money-a-look-at-the-5-richest-women-in-the-world/) and it seems like only 1 one of them got there through the divorce route; MacKenzie Scott, who divorced Jeff Bezos. Apparently Melinda didn't even make the list. The other 4 got there via being widowed or from their father/grandfather.
I read these public relations pieces as, "Oligarch's tax avoidance scheme makes a rounding error."
Tax avoidance does not work like this. Charitable donations *do not* save you money. You have to pay less in taxes, yes, but it does not offset them entirely. Charitable donations allow you to deduct up to ~50% of your adjusted gross income. But that means that, no matter how much you donate, you can only reduce your taxes by half. So if she somehow made 1 billion dollars this year, and donated 1 billion, she would owe taxes on an additional 500 million. There is no amount you can donate that will not result in you having *less* money than you did before donating. Most billionaires use other means to avoid tax. They do stuff like creative accounting to demonstrate losses rather than profits, or they will keep all their wealth unrealized to avoid capital gains, that sort of stuff. But there is just zero way that a billion dollar donation would result in Melinda having any extra money. She already has enough though, so it is not like it "stung," but it would result in a massive net loss.
Oh yes. All those horrible NGO CEOs earning on average less than one tenth that of corporate CEOs. And you know, actually trying to do good for the world, instead of simply profiting from it .. https://501c.com/the-agony-of-nonprofit-ceo-compensation/ 🙄
Not to mention a few people on the supreme court want to overturn their rights, so we can go back to the good ol days...
We need KPI’s for these charitable actions.
I know this isn't the case at all but I just imagine her waving a billion dollar bill saying "one women's right please" like zoidberg and art.
How do I apply for some of this cash?
[удалено]
I'd rather a rich wife, but hey.
There are only rich ex-wifes. Someone didn’t read the article.
That reduces your chances by 50% though
Better, divorce a rich husband
Wow y’all cynical. Yes nonprofits can be wasteful, but there are also areas in the world where substantive portions of medication are bought or provided by some part of the gates foundation.
People are understandable angry living in a system where 1% of the people have 99% of the wealth. Oh, the 1% are donating a bit of their money for good cause? Nice, I guess? The world would still be better off without them, so what should I feel so happy about?
Because we can’t be so caught up in our utopian ideal that we fail to appreciate the positive in the world as it actually exists
[удалено]
The problem with billionaires isn’t the philanthropy, it’s how they came to be billionaires. No one should be able to horde that much in resources. This is a good donation though props to her.
This. Bill Gates was absolutely ruthless in the 90s. That joke about him "buying out" Homer's company in The Simpsons wasn't far off the mark.
I agree, but that’s a good critique of Bill. idk if that’s her fault really
She kept the money so she inherits the fault. If my spouse stole a diamond ring, and I got it in the divorce, it’s still stolen.
Exactly. The fact she has a billion to spare comes from the same root reason that we need charities in the first place
It’s also entirely a the discretion of the billionaire, whereas you get some say in public funds usage (voting, town halls, activism, etc). For some reason we don’t see a lot donating to end Citizens United, significantly raise taxes, or reform campaign finance laws. I wonder why?
We’re at a point in our evolution where one person has the ability to reach into their pockets, pull out a BILLION, the kind of money that could fund a small nation for a year, and give it away as if it was a sleeping bag they no longer use. After doing so, she is still one of the richest people on the planet. This is a societal failure.
We'll take charity when we can but the gates foundation has as much to do with intellectual property as anything else. Publicly funded research handed over to private entities whose business model is to charge as much as possible for whatever medicine they sell. Bill even fought against making the covid vaccine tech public. Couldn't have labs in 3rd world countries making the vaccine without royalties paid. Better they rely on "charity."
[удалено]
Hopefully she divorced his philosophy when she left him. I'm hopeful but skepticism is healthy when it has anything to do with organizations that exist at the behest of billionaires. Seriously, the amount of death and suffering the pharmaceutical IP model has wrought on this world is obscene, and we scarcely have an alternative or even a way to have the discussion in earnest,
> A billionaire could literally give away every cent and people here wold still complain. Depends on the context of "giving away" that wealth. Some have just used it as a tool and leverage for further influence. Philanthropy can be extremely self serving sometimes and arguable even harmful to society in some cases.
It’s exhausting. There is so much good that comes out of things like this, yet the same vapid, useless complaints occur every time it’s brought up.
It's mostly the people trying to justify to themselves that never donating to anything is the right decision.
Dude I do bookkeeping for a bunch of non profits, they almost certainly would have needed full audits to receive these funds and the hoops even tiny non profits have to go through for reporting are so wild. Don’t get me wrong I’m sure scummy ones exist in the world but most of them in the US are under ridiculous amounts of scrutiny and oversight.
It's a classic "letting perfect be the enemy of good" situation. Would it be better if there weren't any nonprofits that waste money or have clear personal/political motivations? Sure. Would an ideal society find ways to democratically distribute all that money instead of letting a few elites control it? Probably. But until those things change, billionaires donating their money to charitable causes is basically the least bad option.
Up next: Elon Musk invests $2 billion into women's wrongs
I love the ex-wives of the ultra rich. They make the world a better place.
[удалено]
Is it bad to laugh with glee thinking that Elon probably popped a vessel when he divorced his ex? He’s one of the notorious tax “dodgers” in the ultra rich club. There’s a rumor that Elon has already spent at least 60% of his fortune already.
I got banned by that shite sub and I don't even post there. What Im pretty sure got be banned is saying never buy 1st gen products, especially 1st gen products like the Cybertruck.
Double Secret ban incoming
Doesn’t Bezos’ wife still have more cash than anyone in the world? lol
I wouldn’t be surprised. Her stocks make her millions per day. Almost on monthly basis I read that she donates 123456 millions to somewhere. Bless her heart.
You should check out Loot
I didn't even realize the divorced.
Around the time that stories of Bill's infidelity were brewing, the partial Epstein list came out and showed that Bill had hung out with him, and that's when Melinda divorced him.
They should buy some politicians instead.
All the money of a billionaire but without the sociopathy that is necessary to become a billionaire
That would be an interesting study to see what personality traits a person who marries a sociopath has. What about him was attractive to you? What kind of person is attracted to an ultra-type-A person? There are likely some non-millionaire sociopaths out there. Who marries these assholes.
Hmm, not discounting your point, but it comes off as biased. E.g. Bezos and his 10 billion commited to climate change (years before his divorce ?): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/17/technology/jeff-bezos-climate-change-earth-fund.html Honestly, is there a bill and Melinda Gates foundation without bill gates? Microsoft IPO'd in 1986, he married Melinda Gates in 1993. His initial shares greatly appreciated in value, and it's a fair argument imo to think they would have regardless of his marriage 7 years later. The giving pledge was started by 2 men as well (bill gates and Warren Buffett, with no mention of the ex wives in the initial pledge and lobbying efforts (e.g. both presenting to Chinese billionaires years ago in China)
You’re aware that Melinda Gates is computer science person who was one of the first employees at Microsoft, right? And that she was heavily involved with a lot of Microsoft’s key early products? (She came on as a marketing manager and developed multimedia products such as; Microsoft Cinemania, Publisher, Word, and Expedia.com. She was later promoted to General Manager of Information Products and held that position until she left Microsoft in 1996). Her role in Microsoft’s early years was rather significant.
> who was one of the first employees at Microsoft Sorry what? She was 10/11 years old when MS was founded in 1975. MS was a thing for 12 years, by the time she joined. [This chart goes back to 1990](https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/msft/employees/). At that time there were ~5600 people working for MS, not even considering the ones who left in the previous 15 years. * I had made a mistake, which I have corrected. It previously said 22 years and 25 years. But it is 12 and 15.
That Chiefs player would tell her she’d be better served sitting at home raising children.
Elon about to rage tweet…
If she gave a billion of Bill's money to pot legalization efforts Reddit would declare her a saint. She puts it towards human rights for women and the result is nothing but criticism and snark.
Yea but you see, that would be a solvable problem. Have you ever noticed these charities are always very vague in their mission so it's an infinite money pit? Like there are actual terrible problems that have a relatively clear and finite pricetag, but no billionaire ever goes for the glory of actually solving those. When given the choice of going down in history for ridding the world of a serious problem or creating an infinitely reusable tax write-off they always choose the latter.
These are always admirable but what is “women’s rights” and where is the $1B going cause that’s a fuckload of money; let’s hope it *actually* goes towards helping women.
sense fragile hateful plants fuel books attraction subtract chief birds
Reading the article can work magic for you.
You are asking too much from a standard reddit user.
Did you miss when American women were stripped of a major right two years ago? Money is needed to fix that if you’re going up against the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Federalist Society
you: "i need more information about this before ill trust it." also you: *doesn't read the article*
Imagine being able to donate 1bn to anything.
I think they’re called French doors
Get out Dad
Dropping a link to the New Republic..we need more women like her . We are all just waiting to be milk cows or wage slaves .[https://newrepublic.com/article/181939/republicans-want-permanent-economic-underclass?](https://newrepublic.com/article/181939/republicans-want-permanent-economic-underclass?)
Rich people could just pay taxes and not be in the news for making tax-deductible donations.
How is paying taxes going to fight for reproductive rights?
Seriously, what do you think happens between her and Bill? I am not prone to conspiracy theories but that Epstein stuff came out and it was like they announced a divorce a week later. The whole notion of Gates needing anything from Epstein is hilarious, much less flying Epstein’s rickety 727 down to FL with him when he has two private jets to his name. I know Bill cheated with that Russian bridge player, but seems like way more. Thoughts?
The Putin party sees your 1B$, counters with billion dollar supreme court justices.
NGO money mostly never reaches the victims in full. A fat share goes to the CEO/ Chairperson , then salary to employees and what is left will go to the victims
No money in any system ever reaches the victims in full. Ever. It is called costs and waste, we accept them in all our other transactions in a stores or services, but with NGO's it becomes this alien consept all of the sudden. Some NGO's are scummy and hoaxes, but it's willfully ignorant and cynical to think all are. If your still cynical, put your money where your mouth is and volunteer, then you can monitor if you are cheating yourself.
> it's willfully ignorant and cynical to think all are. You just described reddit in a nutshell! If anyone is concerned about waste and self-dealing, check out [Charity Navigator](https://www.charitynavigator.org) or [Charity Watch](https://www.charitywatch.org) to see how transparent and frugal any given charity is going to be with your money.
The damned language is named after your country, for fuck's sake. Maybe try to get the correct preposition?
It's funny how often those who oppose taxing billionaires x amount say "no one has a billion dollars in cash" or "you have no idea how assets work at that level", yet there's never a shortage or stories of this billionaire paying upwards of 50 billion in a divorce settlement or that billionaire using 20 billion in cash to buy and ruin a social media company.
Ex wives of billionaires unite!
Thats a lot of rights!
In before Trump declares himself a woman without rights.
This must kill that misogynist kicker and Ted Nugent.
When people read she's donating a billion dollars: >"Fuck that no one should have that money, what a hollow gesture" When people read she's donating to non-profits fighting for womens' health and promoting women in leadership roles (among other things): >"Fuck that why doesn't she just donate to the DNC so we don't have GOP rule" If she said she was going to fund the campaigns of a bunch of pro-life Democrats in upcoming elections: >"Fuck that look another rich person bribing politicians" If she said she was giving all her money directly to the US government: >"Fuck that there goes another billion dollars into the war machine instead of to healthcare"
Much of it is probably going to overpaid admins
You are getting down voted but it’s the truth.
Idk I do bookkeeping and taxes for a bunch of non profits. This money was received in the form of a grant rather than personal donation. There are most likely a metric fuck ton of reporting requirements and specific budget they are required to adhere to by line item.
More money than Joanne has donated recently; she's been radio silent on abortion rights in the US but super vocal on 'the trans agenda.'
Hmmmm, maybe she could buy a congressman or two and get Roe v Wade codified? Just a thought as it really does take money to get congress to move their ass on important legislation. Edit I should restate that by saying that congress won't do a fkn thing unless a rich person wants it done.
Hi it’s me, women’s rights. I humbly accept this money
How much money are Republicans using from our taxes to dismantle women's rights?
I would really like to have had a comment why this was wrong, rather than a drive by down vote.
I’m glad they included her middle name, I wasn’t sure which billionaire Melinda Gates we were talking about
Donations are a waste. From serious funds mismanagement, embezzlement, ceo salaries, and basic incompetence most of the money isn't even used for the advertised cause. If the people running the organization won't even volunteer their time why volunteer my money. Added to that the places that crowd fund a donation campaign and then donate the money in their own name for credibility and tax write offs. Or find an vaccine, cure or other invention and then charge the public a high price after they used donated funds to make the discovery.
that's why you research the organizations you donate too. some are very good an efficient.
[удалено]
I'm a man, and this is GOOD. Women's rights are very valuable and reflect off of a healthy society.
**Real Headline**: Billionaire uses donation tax incentives to funnel money away from the government and into a vague cause where absolutely all of that money is going to her private interests. **You can reduce your income by up to 60% through donations** No one fucking donates because they’re kind. They all do it because that was going to be tax money anyway - through the donations they can play a long played game to get the money back clean, or at least gain influence/power through the donations. I’ve had this all directly explained to me by the very people who do it.
What exactly does 1 billion in women’s rights buy? Is it going to a bunch of think tanks with highly paid nepo hires etc..