Why does Autism Speaks need a jet?

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Not actually my work, finding this link. I've just copied it from the newsgroup nntp://alt.support.autism

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/letters/send/s_544025.html

I think it's quite a good question.

I'm late to the family feud, but I take it that Autism Speaks (Speak boy, Speak!) isn't seen in too friendly a light round these parts.

I looked a bit harder, and Autism Speaks don't actually OWN a jet. As reported earlier on this year on Autism Diva's blog, their (purported?) IRS 990 for last year shows, on page 10, that they hired a private jet:


I can't say I'm at all "au fait" with this sort of thing, but "Statement #1" on page 17 seems to show that they "dabble" in stocks and shares, with 16 deals over the year. None longer than a fortnight, and four being overnight. On one overnight deal in March, they gambled(sic) $340,000 to make a net gain of $3,000. Another deal which went on for 6 days in June risked nearly $300,000 to reap $840 profit. A similar profit on a deal over April/May risked merely $150,000. Their other deals involved progressively less cash, down to a scant $400.

And, I guess it needs an accountant to see exactly what goes on, but they seem to have had an income of $20M which resulted in them funding $10M of research.

Pretty soon Alex will want a cruise ship to get around in.

This is rather troubling. They obviously want money for something other than what their organization supposedly supports. It is not uncommon for big "charity" organizations to have dubious "overhead expenses," because it's just too easy to slide a little money around here and there when there's no actual bottom line to maintain, like in for-profit businesses. But ultimately all this does is cheat autistics out of the support this organization claims it offers.

Granted $10M is still a lot, but chances are most donors to Autism Speaks not aware that half of every dollar they donate is going somewhere else, like to charter a private plane. This doesnt help them int eh credibility department. But then again, they don't seem very concerned about having credibility. They just think if they talk loud and long enough, and shove any dissenters away from teh table, they can get whatever they want, whatever that may be exactly.

This is the internet, you can get as loud as you want against the big mouths - and when you have facts to back your smaller mouth it starts getting peoples attention.

Many of politicians and companies were caught by just one blogger.

Why does Autism Speaks need a jet? I guess it's because sometimes we talk pretty fast, and they want to keep up...

Pakled, Autism Speaks is seen in a dim light 'round these parts because while they claim to speak for autistics, in point of fact they ignore any autistics who try to speak for themselves (claiming that having any ability to communicate means we're not really autistic, just posers). They seem to actually speak for the people who want us to all dry up, go away, and stop disturbing their conformist NT view of things.

actually pretty soon nasa will have a few space shuttles going spare...

Where can one invest $340,000 and make $3000 overnight? that is near 1% a day, where the market returns 7% to 10% a year, it sounds like insider trading. No one just lucks into such deals. They did not roll it over in a money market account, there the return would be $50 a day.

I thought nonprofits were limited in their investments, no speculation, Blue Chips and T Bills. Was it a Drug Company stock?

Investing in the companies that donate to them would be a red flag to the SEC, short term ocassional trades, very short term, all winners?

I took the course, Securities and Exchange Series Seven License, Stock Broker. One count of Insider Trading will bring down a house of cards.

No one just decides to play the market one day, with $340,000. Unless they know something that the public does not.

$20,000,000, how do we get in the game? I could spend that on vocational rehabilatation and we would have the richest sheltered work shop on Earth.

There is no money in just bad mouthing them, lets move on them.

We are Autisum.

We are better educated.

We would spend money on the people who exist, fitting them in to the world.

All of their cure research has produced nothing, and will produce nothing.

They want to study farming while people are starving.

The main issue I can see is a lack of social skills, except on WP.

A WP city and University would work for me.

We can research each other for a living.

We could retain an attorney. He'd need to employ investigators. That could get expensive, and I think they could employ more and better attorneys than we could.

Maybe the way to go is to turn the Public Relations machine, the media, against them. We'd need to find a sympathetic journalist or two.

Wow. More stuff to show that the people who claim to be "really" helping vulnerable people are out to make a buck. Autism Speaks, DAN, Judge Rotenberg Center...same doodoo, different piles...

You mean like Scientology?

Tim

"We'd need to find a sympathetic journalist or two."
What we need is a "Pit-Bull" like John Stossel of ABC's 20/20 to tear into these jokers......
But I haven't watched 20/20 in over 15 years.

Even small non-profits can be quite corrupt. I once ended up working for a "non-profit" thrift store that funded the owner's large house, fancy car, and sedentary lifestyle. She sold most of the donations on eBay and paid her employees minimum wage. She was always paranoid that I was looking at the donations before she had gotten a chance to go through them for items that would have value on eBay. If one person can manipulate a small non-profit into a good source of income, just imagine what larger ones can do. There needs to be more awareness about corruption in non-profits and ways to investigate them before donating.

here's the day trading:

http://investing.businessweek.com/resea ... bol=GILD.O