Raising Money for Acres of Hope?

Many of you have been reading this blog since it began. Others of you have followed our journey from the time we left for Africa and may have wondered why we felt the need to travel. It is because of this that we feel the NEED to correct a few things. If you read back through my old posts, you will notice that I was Acres of Hope's biggest fan. I raved about the agency we had chosen and wrote lists about how it was the best agency ever. I also spoke a LOT of their humanitarian work. In fact, this was the reason we choose Acres. I published over and over what we had been told about their work in Liberia. This is even why I started, "Fasting for Feeding" to raise money for their feeding program which read on the website, "we are presently feeding 8,000 children each day".

It is because of my, oh so public accolades that I feel corrections are in order. Over the last few months, we have learned many things that have caused us great concern. Unfortunatly, we have unknowingly misled you. Many (not all) of the things that I have posted here re: our agency and its relief work in Liberia were not true. For this I am very sorry. I especially apologize to those of you who have been sacrificially saving your hard earned money to send to Africa. We appreciate your heart so much and are dilligently looking for an organization that we can place our trust (and money!) in. We will let you know as we learn.

Notes to the reader: First of all, I must state that we are NOT disgruntled adoptive parents. In fact, our adoption went great. It was fast, we got TONS of pics (thank you Donna!) and our son is Amazing! We were, as I stated before, Acres biggest fans. . until we began to do some in-depth research. Second, for those grammar fanatics out there: I am going to drive you crazy! Throughout this post, I will use the terms we and I kind of interchangably! I know this is bad grammar. . .however, WE learned things because of emails I sent. Therefore, I think it's a bit misleading to say "we talked on the phone" when "I" was the one doing it! So, just try your hardest not to be annoyed! Ok. on to more important topics!

The MAJOR issue that I need to clear up, is in regards to the feeding program. We first heard of the feeding program through Acres website, the one that their office voicemail told us to check for all the info we needed. The website claimed (and I often repeated) that they "were presently feeding 8,000 children per day" through their feeding programs. This is the main reason we chose Acres (see my very first blog). A couple of months ago, though, we began to hear from others that there was no feeding program. This shocked us, to say the least! I doubted that it could be true. I had not only read it on the website, but had spoken to the founder of Acres about it. I told her this was something we were passionate about and told her we were raising money for this program. We even talked multiple times about me wanting very much to tour this feeding program when I got to Liberia. I even received an update on the program from the founder that seemed to indicate that everything was going as planned.* We often directed people to the website to see this very fact and spoke of it often (most of my friends here were tired of hearing about it!). Note: this information was on the "Acres Projects" page from 2005 until being removed in December of 2007. It was located in the section entitled, "Project Grow" and had a DONATE NOW button right below it. Upon hearing this disturbing information, we did not take one person's opinion on this, but emailed again asking for references within the organization they were working with and how this relationship worked. We never received a response with answers to those questions and were confused that the bare bones budget we had been emailed made no reference to this. We realized that feeding 8,000 children is a HUGE thing. This would require a fulltime staff member to oversee and deliver. Most of the schools or even orphanages that would take the food do not have adequate (or safe) housing for it, so it would have to be delivered often! I asked, via email, what staff member was in charge of this as well. . and never got a response other than the founder re-emailing me her proposal for me to raise funds for a future project. So, at the same time, we began to ask others, families that had travelled before us. We called at least 3 other families who had travelled to Liberia in the last year and had stayed for 3 weeks or longer and were involved in the work there while in Liberia. All answered that they had never seen a feeding program and didn't think it existed. I emailed a number of former staff, including the former adoption coordinator and former orphanage director who both said that there was not currently a feeding program. We even went as far as to ask Eric, the Country Director, upon entering Liberia. Present at that meeting, were also Buster and Daikou (other Acres employees). "No, there is no feeding program," they answered. Upon emailing Acres re: this issue the response was that, "Unfortunately, there was some outdated information on the website. Earlier this spring I asked my office staff at the time to have that information changed (to what it is now). I apologize for notfollowing up to see that that was done. I realize now that some of you felt misled by that. I was deeply disturbed to learn that this was not done and never intended for anyone to be deceived. In fact, I did what I thought was necessary to avoid that very thing."*** We were also told that there used to be a feeding program of that magnitude, but the food ran out. I will say, that I understand outdated websites. However, this information was first posted on the website in 2005 and has been "outdated" since it's inception. I, personally, do not believe that they ever fed 8,000 children per day for ANY length of time. This is also the website that WAS updated to reflect price increases while the "misinformation" remained. After reading that it was "outdated information", I called the organization that was supplying the food to see how much food had actually been delivered. This was the organization that the founder had mentioned in my "update"*. Kids Against Hunger, a ministry of Feeding Children International told me (via phone while checking their records) that in:

• 2005, Acres of Hope Liberia was sent 489,960 meals. Their records did not indicate exact dates or number of shipments, just total meals
  This would feed 8,000 children ONE meal per day for 61 days
• 2006, Acres of Hope Liberia was sent 142,560 Meals. This shipment was on Jan. 7th
  This would feed 8,000 children ONE meal per day for 17 days
• 2007, Acres of Hope Liberia was sent 285,120 meals. This shipment was on August 6th.
  This would feed 8,000 children ONE meal per day for 35 days
  

Also, in an email from Kids Against Hunger, they told me that Patty (the founder) had said that the food would be used for the kids in the orphanage and then some in surrounding areas.** The Acres staff in Liberia confirmed this saying that they tried to give the food to the kids at the orphanage, but those kids did not like it. Now, they are giving it out to various orphanages around town when shipments come. This disturbed us (especially Greg) even more because we paid $1,200 (current families pay $1,500 - $2,000) for an "orphan fee" which would cover our child's needs. Kids Against Hunger usually asks the various organizations to cover their expenses by paying at least for the food, but ended up donating all of the food they have sent because they were told that there was no money for this. Unless there is a mystery organization that has been supplying food that the organization is refusing to tell me about (I say refusing because of the number of times I have asked in the past. . also, I sent an email mentioning these very facts (minus the information from the past 3 years b/c I just got that today) and asked for them to please respond with any proof to the contrary and received none).

There were other aspects of their humanitarian work that caused us concern, but because I was so outspoken about the feeding program and you were so graciously and sacrificially saving your money for this program, I felt this was the only one I needed to truly expound upon. . .Needless to say again, the feeding program doesn't exist and I am so sorry that I ever advertised it as such. I promise that we WILL find one that does and will continue "Fasting for Feeding"!

All of this really threw us for a loop! We wondereed where that left us as far as Liberia is concerned. However, we do have a passion for raising money and awareness for Liberia. Now, though, we feel the need to VERY carefully check out every organization. This is so hard when the bulk of their work and staff exist in Liberia. . .you know it's not an easy place to just jet on over to! So, here are a few areas that we will be looking for and questioning the new organiztions in. . .please feel free to add some good questions!

#1: Their Mission / Vision: This is an easy one. It's pretty easy to check. This is one of the reasons we loved Acres in the beginning. The stated mission and vision were awesome and we were excited about working towards that end. I also think, personally, that I felt relieved to be able to find an organization that "did it all". Now, I think that finding good organizations that specialize in each area is a great thing and that the very pursuit of these organizations is a wonderful thing in and of itself because it forces us to do more than just write a check!

# 2: Their Fiscal Responsiblity and Grasp of its Importance: We are still trying to figure out the exact questions to ask here. . .If you have any suggestions, we would love to hear them. We know now that we should ask for their tax info filed as their 501(c)3. We will also ask lots of questions on procedures and talk to multiple people to find out if these procedures are followed. We know there are a few websites here in the states that rate non-profits, but think this is harder when you are working with a non-profit here which is funding an NGO (non-governmental organization) there. After starting "Fasting for Feeding", as many of you know, we began to discuss raising more money for Acres and their expansion projects. In our initial conversation with the founder of Acres about fundraising for their expansion projects, she pretty easily threw around numbers. Asking us to raise more money than the project demanded (we had a number figured and she suggested raising $500,000 - 1 million more than that). This is the first thing that concerned us. However, as we began to put things together for fundraising, we had to get much more specific. We began to ask for more specific information with which to persuade our donors that the organization was one of integrity and honor and that they were fiscally responsible and transparent. To raise funds for a project, one of the first things that needs to happen is proving what the organization has done in the past. This goes along with the Biblical concept of being faithful in little so that you may be entrusted much. So, I emailed and talked to her asking for financial documents that would prove fiscal responsibility. After many emails, we finally received a bare bones budget. This budget concerned us as it did not come close to accounting for the actual number that the organization had to have dealt with based on the numbers of adoptive families that we had discussed and made no mention of the funds in savings Ishe had told us that there was $800,000 in the bank) or the funds being spent on humanitarian work.

#3: The Board of Directors: For non-profits especially, the Board of Directors is an important aspect of an organization. You see, we are HUGE believers in accountability. We believe that our hearts are deceitful (Jer. 17:9) and we can be easily led astray without even really realizing it and must have great accountability in place. This is even more important in positions of leadership! Therefore, we will ask lots of questions about who is on the board and how they got that position. As well as asking about the various relationships among board members. Unfortunately, we later found out that the Acres board is made up of the founder (naturally), her husband, her nanny, her carpenter and one lawyer. Obviously, even if the husband, nanny and carpenter have amazing credentials, they are not in a position of unbiased ability to hold the organization accountable. This would have caused us great concern from the very beginning had I thought to ask this question.

#4: How Money is Raised: Many organizations have different projects that raise money for the same thing. This is great, however, they must be very careful to not be rasing double money. . .basically, double dipping. Does that make sense? For instance, we pay an orphan fee to Acres for the support of the child we adopt and are told that the remaining money goes to cover the cost of kids who won't be adopted or will remain in the orphanage for an extended period. We think this is great and had no problem paying it. However, the website also advertises "orphanage sponsorship" in the form of "$25 a month to provide food, clothing and medical care for one of our precious angels". So, which of these is the way that the orphans are cared for?

#5: Well planned out Vision and/or Plans for the Future: We LOVE to see vision. However, there must be "feet" put to these visions. Planned out budgets including staffing, building, and other costs associated. Grant propsals even with benchmarks to be reached and qualitative goals. Also, this vision / plan must be laid out in advance with a reputation of sticking to what they propose and actually seeing it through. For instance, the proposal we were given that 3 million dollars needed to be raised f included 2 compounds 1 for missionary housing that would be rented out and 1 for an orphanage, school, medical center and elderly center****. However, a few short months later 2 adoptive families were given a tour of the facilities in process and were given a different explanation (Click HERE for their story). Then, a couple of weeks after that, the founder sent out an email saying explaining the building project now.***** This was now proposed as just 1 building and not the 2 that were shown to the visiting families OR the plans that we were to raise money for. I don't know if the plans changed 3 times over the last 6 months or what happened. . However, in the future, we will look for well thought out and proposed plans that the organization will see to fruition.

#6: Money well-spent: This will mean many things in different organizations. First, money is tracked specifically. For instance, if an organization allows you to donate to specific causes, they should have procedures outlining how that money is followed. Also, and this is a no-brainer. . making sure that money is not wasted. This is that same as it would be for a local church not wanting to see the pastor drive around in a gold rolls royce (sound familiar?!). The last point in this area may be a bit contested by others. . but, hey, these are our guidelines for projects we'll get involved in! This one involves paid in-country employees. First, let me say that we totally understand that people "in the ministry" don't make great money. We are not asking for that. However, we do think it is wrong to just pay someone what they'll work for, if that amount will not feed their family or provide for their needs. Now, if the ministry has no money and is asking people to sacrificially serve, knowing they cannot pay what that person is worth or deserves, that is another matter all together. You see, this is one of the most disheartening things that we saw in Liberia. Acres is not one of those organizations that has no money. In fact, the founder herself told me earlier this year that they had $800,000 in the bank and would have close to a million by the end of the year. I have since been told by another staff member that the number has shrunken a bit instead of grown, but is still well over $500,000. In fact, while we were there we rode in their brand new $40,000 LandRovers. They had just picked up 3 brand new LandRovers with leather interior and cd players which brought the total of working vehicles to 6! They have less than 20 employees (way less, but I'm overestimating!) who would need them. All of this, when their nannies that watch the kids at the orphanage make less than $0.50 an hour. These same nannies are literally living on garbage dumps (I was going to have you click here to see pics of one of their homes, but the lady who posted them felt her blog needed to "go private"). The highest paid staff member is the only one who can afford to live in a place with power (a generator) and running water and he lives at the offices! One of the guys offered to make us dinner one night which is an offer we excitedly took him up on! Little did I realize that this same employee (one of the top 3 guys) had to walk for water and cook this dinner over an open fire. I personally think it is slap in a man's face to pay him $2 an hour and have him drive around town in a brand new $40,000 vehicle. (note: we do believe that these types of vehicles are needed for the roads there, but this is excess). We know that Liberia does not have a competitive job market right now and people WILL work for mere pennies and be glad for the job that they have. That does NOT make it right! These people should be able to at least support their families while working full time for this organization.

#7: More to come: Yep, I'm sure that I will be adding to this list of guidelines as we go. We are in no way saying that this is a comprehensive list and are actively looking for how it can be improved and exactly what questions to ask! Personally, I hope to not have to learn the hard way again, but I'm sure I will in some capacity. Sometimes, when you are being deceived there is not much you can do about it. . .At some point, I'll have to let go and proceed with specific organizations. But, I want to have done my research too!

I think this whole situation has actually caused me to have a hard time trusting organizations. I think there will be a definite "living in the tension" (as my pastor so eloquently puts it!) of researching like crazy and haviing good guidelines laid out and then following my heart as well. If an organization can prove themselves by these standards, at some point, I'm going to have to trust them a bit. I think this may be hard for me for a while. Part of me felt really dumb when I learned all of this. I so wish that I had put this list in place before now. . I wish I known what questions to ask. I feel a bit like an idiot for touting so loudly programs that never existed. And yet, I know that the Lord is in control. He used those times in my life to stir up an excitement for reaching people for His Kingdom through meeting their needs. He used even those lies to cause me to research even more the plight of the people of Liberia. I pray that I will continue to be refined through this process. I'm now looking forward to the journey of researching different organizations. I can't wait to uncover every organization I can find that is working in Liberia. I'm also excited about just praying about where God is calling us to be involved. The need is great and harvest is ready. . now we just have to figure out exactly what our job is in the harvesting process! Please stay tuned as I'll share as I learn. . .though, you know that now if you've been reading for any length of time!

For those of you who may be offended by this post: Please know that I share with a hesitant and hurting heart. I hurt knowing that any of this has gone on. I am hesitant b/c I hate when people are upset with me, which I'm sure some will be. I'll admit to you now that I am not perfect. If I have worded things too harshly or didn't make sense in some area, I apologize. Please feel free to read the files I have posted on the Left hand side of my blog. . then, begin your own research. With any organization, I think it's important to know #1 what you value in an organization, #2 What's really going on. Just like you'd use a consumer's digest. . .call up the consumers! Don't take just one person's word, but do your own research.

PS: Check back early next week, because I think I may have already found some projects that I'm ready to support!

Brandi and Greg
NOTE: the Astericks (*) are used to indicate files uploaded. Please see the LEFT column for a listing of these documents
* indicates PROJECT UPDATE received from Patty, Acres Founder
** Indicates email from Kids Against Hunger
***Patty's Response Letter
****Village Proposal
*****Patty's Building Propsal Revised