You are mistaken. No one gets two audits.

Charity Navigator wants you to have audited financials and that the auditor be overseen by an audit committee. The auidt committee is usually a subset of the the board but in many smaller organizations the entire board is the audit committee. This is so the board, and not management, has the relationship with the audit firm.

I have also never heard of having an second auditor audit your first. That sounds insane. I have been told that changing auditors every few years is a good idea, to avoid the loss of objectivity that would result from the establishment of long-term personal relationships. The audit is supposed to be truly independent.

Didace's point about the board directing the audit rather than management is a good one, and one of the problems with having management and the board being essentially the same thing, as appears to pretty much be the case with IC.

I agree with Dids that all this sounds more like growing pains/inexperience than subterfuge. Look at how much their revenue jumped in one year. They were very small very recently.

While what I am going to say has probably been said and won't make me any friends around here, I want to rant here instead of sssh/ss/ms lhe lc/nc threads.

First let me say that Kony is an awful human being. I believe he has earned more than a few 7.62 rounds to his head. Letting a new generation of people know who he is is a good thing.

Initially I was pleased to see facebook being used for something that could benefit a forgotten region. The more I read about the organization and thought about the situation with the proposed solution I had to step back.

I don't know where to begin. Its a very complicated and dynamic situation shown through a simplified lens of removing one person. We are to believe that the targeted direct action against Kony will make all problems go away in Uganda.

I know reedit was brought up to discredit the opinion of some here, which can be a valid critique. Although much of it was repeating the same anecdote, the reply by an ex-military advisor is worth mentioning. Either the Ugandan military and government is trained and funded to go after kony or the US uses its own troops to go after him. Both would be expensive, time consuming, require extensive planning and open the US up to multi-year engagement even after Kony were captured. The idea that Kony can simply be found and captured this year is incredibly optimistic and naïve.

Supporting one evil dictator with a history of abuse to go after the flavor of the month bad guy does nobody any good. You are simply changing which civilian population is terrorized and mutilated. America has done it repeatedly with disastrous results. Inevtiably our troops have to return to defeat troops we trained using weapons we gave them. It is easy to go war. Getting out is the hard part.

In regards to Invisible Children, I am naturally suspicious of any non-profit that has such a relatively small percentage of donations go to the people who actually need it. I saw a lot of people throw around that the organization had not allowed outside independent financial inspection, but has that been since proved inaccurate?

Their video is very professional and quite the propaganda piece. My concern is it generating a movement centered around the "White Man Burden".

Ultimately I would like people to research what NGO they support before plastering posters everywhere and understanding what that group is trying to accomplish.

Making a video of that quality is hugely expensive.

interesting interview going on right now with one of the directors of invisible children at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/au...eam=africa_mix

Founders of Invisible Children with members of the Sudan People's Liberation Army:

Ahh, thanks for that clarification

Jane Bussmann was on good form

[X] Member of invisible children freshmen year of college
[X] Not active but still receive emails
[X] On Resume currently

i never thought it would go viral like this i thought it was just raising money for no serious awaresness expect on a college campus level

Well you thought wrong pal and now you're going to pay for it.

Yeah because you need to pay people to make it. But if the people who you pay to work on it are the management of your charity...

It's not like there's a big special effects setpiece or the guy had to pay to license his own home videos of his 5 year old child.

impeach carl weathers!

Given the exposure its created it seems money well spent no?Charities should be free to buy things at their market price, just like for-profit companies can. It would be hard to compete otherwise. No comment on whether this is a good cause or not

If the Bills would have not won so many Super Bowls this would never have happened.

insert quip about how religion has caused this

Not really sure that would be a quip so much as a factoid.

How does it cost the better part of a million dollars to make a 30 minute movie?

After the first 100k to buy a ridiculously expensive camera and a bunch of Apple stuff to edit on where is the rest of the cash going?

People make feature length indy movies paying a cast and crew for a huge amount less.

im more leaning on the side that is against the documentary, and that more harm would come of the good. I think all the constructive critiques are spot on and informative

however, my question to the people critiquing this is what exactly the organization has to gain from a full on attack using this information if it is so mis-guided and not thought out? Just the donations?

Yea I think its just about money. I mean 31% thats pretty low.

Everyone just bought Radical a 6 bedroom in La Jolla, that cheap bastard didn't even spring for the good bracelets, you get orange string and tinfoil.

That picture is just hilarious. I worry about the ramifications of this thing if it gets exposed as a money grab/semi scam deal. People will feel swindled and care less about real righteous causes in the future. Its refreshing to see that so many people care, I just hope this **** doesn't blow up in their faces.

some replies from invisible children about the criticism

http://www.invisiblechildren.com.s3-...critiques.html

There's a bunch of graphic design and work in that video which costs a ton, all the travel and associated costs are part of a production budget, you have to pay all the people who worked on it (film rates are generally very expensive), all the editing and post production people for every little revision you want, all the equipment rentals, etc. People not in film/tv have no idea how expensive things are and how much time is involved in making a piece that looks and sounds as good as that.

What's wrong Joesph? The (LRA) got you pushing too many pencils?

I think Fly's point is, "how does this stuff cost a ton if they're doing it themselves?" Everything you're saying seems to involve paying other people.

I'm just going to pretend goofy didn't just act like the concept of salary doesn't exist.

This has been stated a bunch of different times but it's not like when/if they ever catch him the uganda is just gonna return to peace and harmony.

Also people are saying that he's not even working in the uganda anymore? That he hasn't even been seen in years?

Can anyone confirm this? Skimming the thread it seems like it.