They were all pretty small budget (~50k), and I didn’t notice anything
obviously wrong in the expenses unless things like publishing
expenses are being padded or the filings are simply wrong. (But then,
I’ve only read the occasional filing and I’ve never read any intended
to be deceptive; and note I didn’t look at 2010 and 2011 filings.
Apparently some leadership changes took place with Eric losing the
CEOship?)
EDIT: In late December 2010, Lifeboat Foundation associated with an accused embezzler; this is rather suspicious, as non-accused-embezzlers aren’t that hard to come by, and such a hire is easily fitted into a narrative of corruption (‘we hire you despite the blacklist on you and in exchange you cook the books and keep quiet’). She’s not clearly specified as being hired or working at LF and may just be another honorary member, but did they not bother to google her or something? Anyway, she’s not mentioned in it, but the 2010 filing is now up at Guidestar:
Their printing expenses were much smaller that year, around $100. Of their $36k in donations, $25k went to ‘fees and payments to independent contractors’, $6.5k to rent, and $4k to misc expenses, with an overall slight surplus and an increase in their savings account to $10k. In accomplishments, 2 of 3 were $4k for designing their website (pg9 lists a slew of software licenses, a Mac & DVD stuff), and $600 for ‘educational videos’. President Eric lists 60hr/wk at no compensation for him or the other employees. Unfortunately, like the previous filings this filing doesn’t list where donations come from or any breakdown of the $25k in contractor fees.
It would actually be worthwhile to post a small analysis of Lifeboat. How they meet the crank checklist, etc. Do they do anything other than name drop on their website, etc?
I think this answers my original question about how could $25k went to ‘independent contractors’ and Eric Klien did 60/hr week without compensation: Klien was the contractors. In this 2011 filing, line 13 is $32.5k… and Klien’s compensation on pg2 is listed as $29.8k. (The total LF revenue for 2011 was $50.2k.)
While I’m at it, here are some brief thoughts I had after spending an hour or so looking through the Lifeboat Foundation filings:
Well, that’s possible. Guidestar had 3 free filings for Lifeboat when I looked a couple months ago:
http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2009/800/034/2009-800034805-06a4d030-Z.pdf
http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2008/800/034/2008-800034805-0559643d-Z.pdf
http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2007/800/034/2007-800034805-0437f7f2-Z.pdf
They were all pretty small budget (~50k), and I didn’t notice anything obviously wrong in the expenses unless things like publishing expenses are being padded or the filings are simply wrong. (But then, I’ve only read the occasional filing and I’ve never read any intended to be deceptive; and note I didn’t look at 2010 and 2011 filings. Apparently some leadership changes took place with Eric losing the CEOship?)
That said, I don’t like Lifeboat myself. Matt Funk and Otto Rossler make any number of items on the crank checklist. I unsubscribed from their blog when they began removing my comments (eg. you’ll notice no comment from me on http://lifeboat.com/blog/2011/04/a-relatively-brief-introduction-to-the-principles-of-economics-evolution-a-survival-guide-for-the-inhabitants-of-small-islands-including-the-inhabitants-of-the-small-island-of-earth ).
EDIT: In late December 2010, Lifeboat Foundation associated with an accused embezzler; this is rather suspicious, as non-accused-embezzlers aren’t that hard to come by, and such a hire is easily fitted into a narrative of corruption (‘we hire you despite the blacklist on you and in exchange you cook the books and keep quiet’). She’s not clearly specified as being hired or working at LF and may just be another honorary member, but did they not bother to google her or something? Anyway, she’s not mentioned in it, but the 2010 filing is now up at Guidestar:
http://www2.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2010/800/034/2010-800034805-07cf4a67-Z.pdf
Their printing expenses were much smaller that year, around $100. Of their $36k in donations, $25k went to ‘fees and payments to independent contractors’, $6.5k to rent, and $4k to misc expenses, with an overall slight surplus and an increase in their savings account to $10k. In accomplishments, 2 of 3 were $4k for designing their website (pg9 lists a slew of software licenses, a Mac & DVD stuff), and $600 for ‘educational videos’. President Eric lists 60hr/wk at no compensation for him or the other employees. Unfortunately, like the previous filings this filing doesn’t list where donations come from or any breakdown of the $25k in contractor fees.
It would actually be worthwhile to post a small analysis of Lifeboat. How they meet the crank checklist, etc. Do they do anything other than name drop on their website, etc?
The filings said they were spending a lot on publishing materials, but didn’t say what exactly they were publishing on.
2011 filing: http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2011/800/034/2011-800034805-08ce0e63-Z.pdf
I think this answers my original question about how could $25k went to ‘independent contractors’ and Eric Klien did 60/hr week without compensation: Klien was the contractors. In this 2011 filing, line 13 is $32.5k… and Klien’s compensation on pg2 is listed as $29.8k. (The total LF revenue for 2011 was $50.2k.)