The Daily Swarm

NY Post:

Rock star Sting’s celebrity-studded Carnegie Hall charity concert in 2006 to save the world’s rainforests raked in millions, but less than half the riches actually funded tree-saving programs, according to charity watchdogs and a Post review of tax records.

It’s one of the prime reasons the local arm of Sting’s Rainforest Foundation is rated one of New York City’s worst charities, according to Charity Navigator.

Fox News:

The gist of the Post story — which was designed to embarrass Sting and Styler on the eve of the biannual Rainforest concert and fundraising dinner — was that the $2.7 million in gross receipts collected by the U.S. fund from the last concert and dinner should have gone directly to distribution.

This doesn’t even make sense. It would kill any long term objectives of the foundation. The concerts, Styler points out, are not like “Live Aid,” a one-time event, or the 9/11 Concert for New York. In those instances, the money is collected and immediately distributed.

“The Rainforest Foundation is celebrating its 20th year,” says Styler. “We wouldn’t still be in business or have given out millions of dollars over the years if we’d spent everything we made immediately after it came in.”

Several things the Post article did not comprehend properly: there is an overall Rainforest Foundation Fund that has satellite branches in the U.S., Norway and Great Britain.

Last year, the Rainforest Foundation Fund, Inc, the parent group, gave away $887,000 to a variety of needy groups in Africa and South America.

It’s the U.S. foundation that puts on the Carnegie Hall concerts. That money is then sent to the main foundation after minimal expenses for the U.S. office. Reporter Isabel Vincent didn’t report this at all.

Total revenue in 2006 for the U.S. office was $672,013; Of that, $376, 177 — or 55 percent — went to Rainforest programs.

EARLIER:

Humans tortured to save rainforest…