Helping Alaska, formerly Love INC of the Tanana Valley, is an Alaska nonprofit organization and subsequently an organization tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. As the former Deputy Director of the Organization, I attempted to force the organization to align its fundraising strategy with how they use their funds and to communicate honestly and openly with donors about how their funds are used.

I worked to correct misappropriation with grants from the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation. In effect, I blew the whistle about mismanagement, deceptive fundraising strategies, and flaws in policy that could lead to significant risk for the organization.

On March 11, 2022, I was terminated from my position, days before taking 8 weeks of earned leave for maternity. 

From November 1, 2021, I reported my findings to the President of the Board of Directors, Jeff Rud. Through these reports, I operated under the longstanding protections afforded to whistleblowers. Three days before my termination, I directly told Executive Director Dean McDaniel, that I would not be communicating falsities to the public or continuing what I felt was a perpetuation of fraud. I have donated to the organization also and strongly feel that the organization should be transparent with donors about how their donations are used by the organization to impact the lives of people, as the organization claims they do.

The problem is this: from what I can discover, nearly 100% of the funds donated to the organization are spent on administrative salaries and expenses. Very little is passed on to the community in the methods that the agency claims they are. I feel strongly this is a deceptive practice, it goes against the Donor's Bill of Rights.

Article III specifically states that donors should be permitted to, "have access to the organization’s most recent financial statements." Furthermore, Article IV specifically states that donors should be confident knowing that "their gifts will be used for the purposes for which they were given." The organization has never had an external audit. Internal audits have been performed by conflicted parties. As Deputy Director, empowered by the board but reporting to the Director, I operated in the capacity of an internal auditor with respect to several areas. I alerted the leadership to the need for an external audit and to realign our practices to "align our words with our actions."

Even though these areas of concern were outlined to the board and the director, they still insisted that I manipulate my words to be in the realm of truthfulness and to further "not do anything that would jeopardize losing a grant." 

In this example, I will draw your attention to another fraudulent practice. The organization claims to be in partnership with 65 area churches, (see page 39 and the organization's homepage). This is flat-out false and a lie. I personally encountered six area churches that had an interaction on a regular basis with the organization.

Next, the organization claims to have "13,985 Hours By 903 Volunteers," see the organization's homepage again. This is blatantly false as well. I encountered three volunteers attached to Helping Alaska from the time I was employed there until my termination.

During my internal audits, I discovered that the wing of the organization that made payments on behalf of clients was purposely separated from the organization's master accounting program. There was a separate installation of Quickbooks which maintained the records of the organization and its use of donors' hard-earned dollars. In this silo, there is no oversight. Checks are reconciled by number and amount only, payees are never audited for accuracy or internal fraud. I asked for a forensic review of this information.

Within the auspice of the silo making payments on behalf of clients, I further asked for the balance of several sub-accounts or classes. The organization's Finance Director was unable to reliably provide that information to me without significantly manipulating the data. 

On the books, at the moment of my departure, the organization had over 20 million dollars on its balance sheet. Obviously, their accounting practices are flawed.

The Director possesses no formal education, no business experience, no significant experience in human resources or personnel management, no accounting experience, no general ledger experience, absolutely nothing qualifying him for the position or his salary, that I was forced to write for the Board of Directors. Furthermore, the only evidence of how your donations are applied, are disclosed in the budget I wrote for the director, which was adopted by the board of directors. Nowhere included in this budget is how donations are to be budgeted for use for the purposes described within the marketing and communications initiatives undertaken by the agency.

For these reasons, I continued to blow the whistle to the board of directors, protected under the Taxpayer First Act of 2019. Now that I have been terminated, I intend to see that donors are provided a fully transparent account of the organization's activities, or, demand a new board of directors is installed and a new director.

I will be filing suit in Federal court to pursue the same course of action. I have requested that the organization preserve data on their systems, but have little confidence that a further coverup will not take place.

Join me in encouraging this organization to step up and do the right thing. Be accountable and transparent and honest with donors about the use of their funds. Be open and inclusive. Be trustworthy again. Be honest.

I ask that you sign this petition, support me in my endeavor to do what's right, and realign this organization's activities to more closely reflect what they communicate. I need your support.

 

Christopher Donahue

907-251-5800