Have you ever emailed MoveOn, and received a personalized reply? nt

[Eric J in MN]

nt

[NMDemDist2]

1. nope n/t

[Eric J in MN]

2. Do you mean you've emailed MoveOn, but didn't get a reply?

I've emailed them on various topics over the years, but never receieved a reply.

[NMDemDist2]

23. yes i've emailed them, never gotten a reply n/t

[VivaKerry]

3. Never, ever.

And that's my beef with them. I LOVE their work... but it's THEIR work, and has nothing at all to do with a grassroots movement. I see a big problem with that. Activists fighting for democracy in the most non-democratic manner imaginable. Oh sure, they let their 'members' vote on ads and stuff. Sure.

I can only imagine what their salaries are... the cars that they drive (perhaps bought as assets of the non-profit?) with all the donations they get. Not saying they are soaking anyone, but no one knows diddly about anything re the organization. It is not a grassroots organization.

I was surprised to get their post election letter of thanks, and noticed that they had added to their 'staff' ...

[Eric J in MN]

6. Are you against MoveOn adding staff?

My point is that they need MORE staff to answer our emails.

[VivaKerry]

18. It isn't that they don't have time to answer emails...

they just choose not to. Or they would have an auto reply or something or something on the site. For the longest time last year, you couldn't even find an email address to write to them.

I didn't say I didn't think they shouldn't add staff, just that I was surprised. It was like 4 or 5 people for a few YEARS. Now it is like 15.

I am not against moveon at all. I just wonder how wise it is to have any powerful organization that has a one way street. Seems very unwise.

[Eric J in MN]

7. I'm not aware of any evidence

of the directors of MoveOn having excessive salaries.

[PrisonerLazy8]

9. Is there a link to the distribution of staff salaries?

I must have sent them 800+ dollars this election cycle. There must be a public report of where the money goes. Right?

[newyawker99]

16. Hi PrisonerLazy8!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[VivaKerry]

19. The point is, I am not aware of ANYTHING

about the moveon organization, period. I have a problem with that. No faces. No real human interaction between them and millions of activists. Activists who send quite a bit of money. No public view of the people behind moveon.

The org is locked down.

But you sound like you are on the inside. Interesting. Share more. Please.

[Ms. Toad]

22. Guess you weren't directly involved

in the No Voter Left Behind drive...plenty of contact between staff and grass roots organizers there.

Although I do agree their general response system leaves something to be desired, and it did take them a while to get direct contact information for the NVLB staff so I could get out of the general (lack of) response system.

[VivaKerry]

26. I don't need them to 'chat' back at me.

about anything.

I desire grassroots movements.... not one way relationships. Could care less if they 'respond back'. The point is, it isn't a movement. It's a very close knit group of individuals who have millions of people and millions of dollars at their disposal... with NO INPUT from the people. Or, rather, no REQUIRED input from the people. Gee, it's A LOT like congress, now that I think about how corporations control congress.

[PrisonerLazy8]

24. Please do tell

Whatever information you have on the salaries of the moveon staff please share it with us that have given upward of a grand to help while restricting ourselves of many luxuries we could have partaken.

[VivaKerry]

28. delete

the lack of punctuation made me mis=read your post... never mind (as gilda would say).

I don't know anything about their salaries. And that's the point. Everything is hidden at moveon, and regardless of the good they do, I feel very uncomfortable with any political work that is not transparent. Could be the the fact that I have endured bushco for 4 years.

[SmileMaker]

4. Yes, I got replies when doing phone banking w/MoveOnPac

I was having trouble getting the system to work.

[Eric J in MN]

5. That's good (nt)

nt

[newyawker99]

17. Hi SmileMaker!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[PrisonerLazy8]

8. I have sent them hundreds of dollars and NEVER received a personal reply

I have written them with specific questions and only received canned replies. Do they have a staff audit report that we can see where our money is going?

[Eric J in MN]

10. I've never seen a report

on where their money goes, but every charity is required to produce one.

(ON EDIT: I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not sure whether any branch of MoveOn is required to create such a report.)

[PrisonerLazy8]

11. Required or not they should let us know how our money is spent

I feel it's only fair that we can see where the money is going. Staff salaries and "other" expenses included. With the millions we have sent they can afford a few hundred to generate a report or share the report sent to the IRS with we the people that support them.

[Eric J in MN]

12. I don't think organizations like MoveOn are taxed.

Though once again, I'm not a lawyer.

[PrisonerLazy8]

14. Taxed or not...it's our money

I'm not alone in wanting to know how it is being spent. I will continue to send them money but I want to know what the staffers are making and where the rest is spent. I have gone hungry and shorted myself the good things in life to send them money. I want to know where it goes.

[Eric J in MN]

15. I've clicked around their website, and I haven't seen that information NT

NT

[high density]

25. Open Secrets has MoveOn.org's expense data

MoveOn.org expenditures sorted by amount

MoveOn.org Summary

I think the expenditure figures are as of late October.

[VivaKerry]

27. Two questions:

1. What are their receipts?

2. what about moveon.org, who collects a ton of money. Those expenditures are for the pac, which are highly regulated. The non=profit, hardly regulated at all.

[VivaKerry]

20. not a lawyer either:

but they are a non-profit, not a charity, right?

Seems their money reports show up on their tax returns. That is private.

the moveon pac, however, is different.

[shesemsmom]

13. yes I have sent them an email

and no I didn't personal reply. I got a plastic email saying a real person would answer my mail shortly.Never did

[rhite5]

21. Two years ago when the dangers of e-voting were just

starting to percolate, several of us wanted to get MoveOn to pay attention to this issue and get behind the effort to stop it.

First, we could not find an email address or a phone number to use to reach any of the principals of MoveOn.

We resorted to using MoveOn's "Action" Forum where they had asked members to write about issues we wanted MoveOn to take up. So that is what we did. Nothing came of it. In fact, it looked like nobody at MoveOn ever read those forums during the years since.

I agree with others here that MoveOn is a "top-down" organization, not particularly democratic.

It still performs a wonderful service and has demonstrated remarkably what can be done with online fundraising and online activism.

I believe the moneys they have raised over the years for specific campaigns and for newspaper ads and TV ads have been used as they said they would be, but that does mean we have to go on faith. I would like to see financial accounting to the members just the same as other organizations must provide.