Jirard The Constructionist (@Completionist)
Hey everyone. I know you all have had questions. I want to assure you all that the funds we have raised together through IndieLand and The Open Hand Foundation are safe, accounted for, and have been donated. $600k went to a leading charity that specializ...
The excuses for years of missing funds are unbelievable.
And given how most "charities" operate, untill provem otherwise, I assume it's been passed-around to fellow grifters and family who "work in charity".
He didn't donate the money for several years while speaking publicly constantly about the money he was supposedly donating to solicit more.
My opinion is in this case it was fraud. He got caught. Scrambled to find enough money to make a big dump donation ( there is still missing money ).
Making the mistake once is understandable, especially if you just stop bringing it up. Running the charity multiple times while openly discussing it fully knowing you are fucking up and not doing what you say you are isn't a fuck up.
You don't need to be evil or malicious to do something horrific. You can just be a coward. Which is the most charitable explanation possible for this and is almost certainly not the case here either.
Because it was also found that he was massively underreporting on his taxes this whole time as well. As an American I think that is the most correct thing you can do, but that means the actual amount missing is likely well more than double what was originally suspected and almost all of that money is also missing. Way more than can just be "admin fees" and certainly was just pocketed.
I spend so little time on youtube anymore that the only reason I know who the guy is, is from this issue.
This just reminds me never to donate at all.
Did you know that it's perfectly legal to have administration costs eat up to 95% of the total incoming donated revenue if you have a 501c non profit?
That means for every dollar, you only have to spend a nickel of said dollar on the thing you claim to stand for. Ain't that something.
Oh, it gets worse though. And this is where I'll fully admit it's over my legal knowledge. (I haven't dipped a toe into the law since 2011. So it might have changed. I'm out of the field now.)
You can donate it to another non profit charity if you want to do so, even if that's not the stated goal of the company. To my knowledge, there are no laws against owning that, or a family member owning that non profit charity that you just donated money to from the other non profit you also own.
So basically, your right hand can give the money to your left hand, and make it look like you did something with it.
Seems like the only thing not profiting from the non profit industry, is the cause they claim to want to help.
It's one of the reasons I don't do law work anymore. I've seen first hand people in high positions that work at these 'charity' places paying off cars, houses, boats, with donated money. Because when a 501c does it, no one bats an eye that it can be an expense you could weasel word state that it was for the good of someone and benefits someone, even if that someone is you.
Anyone have a TL;DR? I'd rather read your words than his.
He says he's now donated the money, including accounting for the devaluation over time.
Still an awful look to wait this long to do it, though. I'm sure Karl Jobst will follow up.
A worse look is the face of the operation saying (all those years that the money wasn't being donated) that he was working with various charities. Jirard was lying about working with them while soliciting more funds.
Regardless of the charity playing catch up by donating, it deserves an audit.
Thanks man. Yeah, not good enough, IMO. Donating everything now also seems like an admission of guilt.
He didn't deny this. Actually he basically admitted it without these specifics. That's fraud. You can't wait until you get caught to donate anything