ACLU Loses $20 Million Donor

[babylonsister]

Civil Liberties Group Loses $20 Million Donor

By STEPHANIE STROM
Published: December 8, 2009


A longtime anonymous donor to the American Civil Liberties Union has withdrawn his annual gift of more than $20 million, punching a 25 percent hole in its annual operating budget and forcing cutbacks in operations.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

Mr. Romero said that donors like the Leon Levy Foundation, the Open Society Institute, Peter B. Lewis and John Sperling had stepped up with pledges totaling $23 million spread over the next three years. But unlike the annual Gelbaum gifts, the new money will have to be shared with state affiliates.

“Even with this incredible outpouring of support, we may still not have sufficient resources to replace our revenue gap,” Mr. Romero said. “Therefore we will need to consider a number of budget reductions as well as the possibility of drawing down from our reserve funds if necessary.”

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09aclu.html?_r=2&hp

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[Heidi]

2. Recommended.

:kick:

[barbtries]

3. the ACLU

is always on my list of to whom i donate. as bad off as we are these days, without them i don't even want to imagine. i urge everyone who can to donate: http://action.aclu.org/site/PageServer?pagename=FJ_donationhome&s_subsrc=getinvolved_donate_hp

[pleah]

4. K&R

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. I hope they cut back on the half of their causes that I don't agree with.

[jtrockville]

6. I had let my guardianship lapse. I renewed yesterday.

I had to close my credit card down earlier this year due to fraud. Unfortunately ACLU does not offer a way to update your credit card info on their website, so my guardianship was discontinued and I hadn't gotten around to renewing it.

I got a call yesterday alerting me to this situation, so I immediately renewed my guardianship with my new cc, and also gave an extra gift to compensate for the months I had lapsed.

It's not much, but hopefully others will pitch in too.

[derby378]

7. Sounds like another reason Republicans don't want economic stimulus

Or should I dig out the tinfoil hat?