Civil Liberties Group Loses $20 Million Donor

Source: New York Times

A longtime anonymous donor to the American Civil Liberties Union has withdrawn his annual gift of more than $20 million, punching a 25 percent hole in its annual operating budget and forcing cutbacks in operations.

Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the A.C.L.U., acknowledged in a written statement that a “family” had told the organization in September that it could not make its annual gifts, at least for next year.

“This family, that has sought to protect its privacy by arranging its gifts anonymously, notified us last month that due to market conditions it will be unable to make its expected sizable donations of over $20 million,” Mr. Romero said.

A.C.L.U. board members, who insisted on anonymity because the loss of the gift was reported in an executive session of their meeting, identified the donor as David Gelbaum, who made a fortune as a hedge fund manager and is now better known as a major investor in clean technology.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09aclu.html?hp

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I can't believe someone came out and divulged this guy's name. I guess the ACLU can kiss any future donations from him bye-bye.

may cost them all future donations from this man, as well as donations from anyone who prefers to remain anonymous.

Sounds like a destructive move by the leaking board members. Moles?

unforgivable breach. What the fuck was that person thinking?

I know my piddly-ass contribution isn't going to offset that kind of loss, but I'll try to donate a few more $$$ to an organization that helps to protect us all from the fascists.

was a bad idea.

But then the Constitution is just "a god dammed piece of paper" anyway.

What a breach of trust.

I'm stunned that so much of its operating budget came from one person. I wonder what percent of the Sierra Club budget he supplied.

Also if you read the article, it looks like the irresponsible blabbermouth board members (note plural) guessed at the name from loose lips Romero giving them clues. I would expect more judgment from the executive director when talking to a group of eighty people, even if he is struggling along on $302,048 a year :eyes:

I don't donate to the ACLU, reserving my donations for a few causes like the environment, but if I had been, I think the mention of that salary would have shut off my own donations promptly. I scrape up every nickel to make donations, so having management of a charity being a pig at the trough is a turnoff for me. There are plenty of worthy causes where the management takes a salary that can support a family comfortably without luxurious excess.

Say, grubbing around on the web looking for info about the donor and the Sierra Club, apparently he told the latter that if they came out against immigration or in favor of population control, they wouldn't get a dime from him, and that determined the subsequent Sierra Club policies. I have mixed feelings about the details of immigration policy, but what looney tune doesn't recognize that overpopulation is the number one environmental problem?

Maybe this is a blessing in disguise, although it reads like the Sierra Club already has his handpicked board in place. It says he also is a board member of the Wildlands Conservancy.

Tricky.

It would have come out.

"Mr. Romero told the organization’s national board about the loss of Mr. Gelbaum’s money at its last board meeting in October, breaking the news in executive session. Mr. Romero did not reveal Mr. Gelbaum’s name, describing him only as “a donor,” board members said

Still, it is hard to keep secrets with a board of more than 80 members, most of whom report to state affiliates. “As soon as he started telling us, anyone who had a laptop with them was busy Googling” and figured out who the donor was, a national board member said."

An anonymous board member. Uh huh. This is the Times, the pro-war Times. Would the paper of the Bush Wars support the ACLU, or fuck with the ACLU given the chance?

would consider donating again. It's a wonderful organization and good lawyers do not come cheap. I am definitely upping my donation this year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/us/10aclu.html

David Gelbaum, a wealthy investor in clean technology, confirmed on Wednesday that, because of financial constraints, he had been forced to sharply reduce his donations to the American Civil Liberties Union and two other organizations.

I'm not trusting the Times a whole lot lately. Call me crazy if you wish.

Fiduciary duty ring any bells with you? Privacy? What did divulging that information gain them, except a little thrill about being in the know and being known as being in the know?

This will probably hurt the organization for a long time. Hope they can identify that or those board members and let them know their term has come to an early end.

And they may actually be disgruntled former board members.

Really nice.

Source: MSNBC

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union has lost a quarter of its yearly donations after a major donor cut off $19 million in annual donations because of economic difficulties.

David Gelbaum, a wealthy California conservationist, said he was indefinitely stopping the donations that had made him the New York-based group's largest anonymous donor.

"For a number of years, your organization has received very substantial charitable contributions from me," Gelbaum said in a statement. "My investments in alternative, clean energy companies have placed me in a highly illiquid position as a result of the general credit crisis in the American and world financial systems."

Gelbaum also announced he was halting some $12 million in yearly gifts to the Sierra Club Foundation and about $50 million a year that he's been giving to an organization serving veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gelbaum has given a total of $389 million to the groups from 2005 to 2009.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34364175/ns/us_news-giving

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Gelbaum, a native of Minnesota, made his fortune working for hedge funds, where he used mathematical formulas to pick stocks and bonds.

He runs an investment firm called Quercus Trust, based in Newport Beach, Calif.

My investments have tanked since 2008 also, but I'm still OK. It's time to increase my contribution to the ACLU. It won't make up for Mr. Gelbaum's 19 million, but if all members chip in an extra ?????, it will help.

two foundations that were wiped out by Bernie Madoff.

I hope he gets back in the black soon and can continue to support these groups.

ACLU is a very worthy cause.

He should be hung, his body quartered, and then burned.

:sarcasm: for the impaired

like the Koch Brothers/Moon and the others "shadow donors" who keep themselves secret.

Sad thing is...there's not enough money out there from Dems on the edges of bankruptcy to make up in small donations of a few dollars to make up for these Big Donors.

We've already lost most of the Progressive Funding (DLC Cut them out) so we better get used to FOX NEWS 24/7 because only Ruppert Murdoch/Koch Brothers/Amway/Domino's Pizza Guy/Moon and the rest have any of the big bucks left.

and sent them a check earlier this month.

Unfortunately, my means are much lower league.

From defending corporate "speech" to attaching their name to many questionable causes, the ACLU gave up the core issues of the First Amendment long ago and were reduced to effete posturing and serving as a way station for careerists.

So, they lost the sugar daddy who allowed them to carry on like that? Let me find a crying towel...there must be a fresh one left somewhere after the wakening Obamatrons raided the linen closet.