Posts: 453
From: Texas Gulf Coast, USA
Registered: Jul 2005

posted February 06, 2007 04:49 PM         

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I stole that line from Mannu in Sue g's thread!
This hit me hard as I really really agree!!
I helped start a non-profit feeding and clothing station. We started out humble good intentioned friendly...we attracted some horrible volunteers after awhile who always seemed to try and be more and more "powerful" and who got away with terrible awful anti-soul and humananity abuse.
I left after 14 years as they were awful and accusatory- it doesn't mean all non-profits are this way. This one allowed the helpless to be used and abused when they were pretending to be a safe harbor.
anybody else notice?

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Posts: 294
From: SOFLA, USA
Registered: Oct 2006

posted February 07, 2007 10:48 PM         

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In my experience, non-profits seek funding from various public/private organizations via grants. I would venture to say 9/10ths of these funding sources are politically connected and/or supported. Between cronyism, nepotism and other forms of corruption it's no wonder non-profits have difficulty maintaining their altruistic principles for very long.

Just my 2 cents
M31

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Posts: 844
From: USA
Registered: Jul 2004

posted February 08, 2007 04:15 PM         

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funny story,
i worked for a "non-profit" organization via a catholic church, part-time. the people were great EXCEPT there was this one woman that i worked with (there were only 2 of us who did what we did) who helped people get assistance for rent, clothing, agency referrals, utility assistance, food - etc. the woman left for maternity leave and left myself and another young lady who had a bachelor's in social work that came to the place like a week before the woman left on maternity leave. that lady and myself got along great but when the woman who left on maternity leave came back - she laid me off on the spot. i was VERY upset which was to be expected since i enjoyed helping so many people - this was the first and only place of employment that broke my heart, i cried so much because of it. she never said why she laid me off and she was quite rude about it but she did. the funny thing is the young woman with the bachelor's and myself helped SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many people, so it was well worth the experience. The lady with the bachelor's quit (which i knew was going to happen but she laid me off so quick, we didn't have the chance to tell her the lady was going to leave!). i met so many wonderful people who worked for the church, the priest gave me a really beautiful card/recommendation for future employment, the rest of the priests were a joy to be around, the cook was the best, the secretary of the church who taught me how to do mass cards and the likes was stern but a wonderful lady. the woman who fired me had really really serious personal issues - i could tell from day one but i tried to brush it off as maybe her having some difficulty since it was her first pregnancy. i suppose she thought the church would let her go and let me and the lady with the bachelor's run the office. i don't know. what a shtook she was. sometimes it's not the organization but the people they put in charge of them that mess everything up. The End.

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Posts: 453
From: Texas Gulf Coast, USA
Registered: Jul 2005

posted February 10, 2007 09:40 PM         

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yes, these organizations start out wonderfully but some bad choices in people lead to their corruption...one i know of in Flour Bluff Texas picks "favorites" (usually gossip/snitches) and only they get the basic soap, shampoo, showers, second helpings...they openly and nastily call mentally ill people "loonies"...they smoke in the building, drink in the building, and at least two of the inner circle of workers steal donations to trade for drugs! the food pantry items like meat and cake are given to or stolen by paid workers. if someone crosses them they call the cops and have that person arrested. This is such an awful corrupt place yet the powers-that-be choose to ignore what is happening or are just as corrupt...It is extremely hard to get an investigation and extremely sad to see what should be a safe harbor turned into this terrible thing.

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