September 26, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Changes the Federal Emergency Management Agency made since Hurricane Katrina are hurting charities, writes Mary Theroux, senior vice president of the Independent Institute, on the group’s blog.
Ms. Theroux says that by creating the Aidmatrix Foundation to collect donations, the agency is depriving disaster-response charities of money.
She describes how government officials told the Salvation Army that it would be among the organizations listed on a screen at the Republic National Convention, when Cindy McCain and Laura Bush made an appeal for hurricane victims. But instead, the screen directed viewers only to Aidmatrix’s toll-free number.
Says Ms. Theroux: “The flow of money out of Aidmatrix is completely intransparent, and will, by definition, be determined politically by inside interest groups. In the case of the aforementioned Gustav appeal, for example, Web sites for the four states ruled by Republican governors were displayed on the convention’s screens; relief for the one state ruled by a Democrat—Louisiana—was referred directly to Aidmatrix’s site. And the resulting influx of funds can only provide attendant political benefits to those Republican governors.”
Read a Chronicle story that discusses changes to FEMA and the impact on charity fund raising.
Do you agree with Ms. Theroux’s criticisms? Or are they overblown? What is your view of Aidmatrix?
