This year, We Fight for Our Children!
Around Thanksgiving, Stand for Children's National Digital Director, Brendan Burns sent out an email saying, "I'm tired. Between Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, I feel like I haven't slept since last week. And yet here I am asking you to do one more post-Thanksgiving ritual: Giving Tuesday." Then he begs for money.
 Stand for Children? Hmm, looks more like he is sitting down. Guess, he really is tired of children. Well, Momma Bears know a thing or two about being tired but its not from shopping. We are tired of Stand For Children. |  |
A few days ago, another begging-for-money email was sent out by Stand for Children. This one was e-mailed from Jonah Edelman, the Co-Founder and CEO. It asks everybody to chip in and "help us make sweeping and immediate change by investing in the most powerful advocates in the world: parents."
It is interesting that Stand for Children insinuates itself to be a parent organization. We know that Edelman has children now but did he have children back when he founded Stand for Children in 1996?
Hmmm....
It is interesting that Stand for Children insinuates itself to be a parent organization. We know that Edelman has children now but did he have children back when he founded Stand for Children in 1996?
Hmmm....
Welcome to the Bizzaro World of Stand for Children
In the comics, there is a poor, pathetic creature who desperately wants to be like Superman. But he is only the imperfect, mirror image of Superman, everything is reversed. He am Bizzaro and in his Bizzaro world everything is opposite. Good is Bad. Right is Wrong.
Meet Jonah Edelman whose mother is the famed civil rights activist, Marian Wright, who founded the Children's Defense Fund, a non-profit child advocacy organization that champions policies and programs to lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to health care, quality education and a moral and spiritual foundation.
Decades after his mother created the Children's Defense Fund, Edelman co-founded Stand for Children, a corporate-driven, artificial imitation of his mother's foundation.
Meet Jonah Edelman whose mother is the famed civil rights activist, Marian Wright, who founded the Children's Defense Fund, a non-profit child advocacy organization that champions policies and programs to lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to health care, quality education and a moral and spiritual foundation.
Decades after his mother created the Children's Defense Fund, Edelman co-founded Stand for Children, a corporate-driven, artificial imitation of his mother's foundation.
Look!...It's a charity...It's a PAC...No, It's SUPER PAC!!
STAND is a schizophrenic organization with many different sides.
It can appear to be a sweet little registered charity asking for a few dollars from ordinary folks. People give and think they are supporting awareness campaigns or advocacy on issues affecting children. It can also appear to be a parent organization affiliated with schools like a PTA or PTO and charge parents dues for membership.
But unlike charities and parent groups, Stand for Children also operates as a political action committee (PAC) where it endorses and financially supports political candidates. Something charities and 501c3 parent groups are not allowed to do. And, Stand for Children operates multiple PACs in Tennessee using slightly different versions of its name.
In 2010, STAND PAC OF TENNESSEE donated $2,400 to Bill Haslam's gubernatorial campaign. And over the years, it has supported candidates in a variety of races on both state and local levels. Mostly, the support comes in the form of monetary campaign donations. The reports can be found here.
But there is another PAC, called Stand for Children, Inc. whose address is in Portland, Oregon. This Stand PAC has paid out THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of dollars for political consultants, advertising and other campaign expenditures in the last two school board races in Nashville and Memphis. More than just contributing money to candidates, this PAC furnished mail-outs, advertising, websites, and other professional services, practically running their campaigns. Here is a list of the candidates who received services:
Chris Caldwell
Raphael McInnis
Billy Orgel
Reginald Porter
Kim Wirth
Kevin Woods
Roshun Austin
Tyree Daniels
Jarod Delozier
Margaret Dolan
Bernie Driscoll
Elissa Kim
Will Pinkston
You can read the reports at the links below:
2nd Quarter 2012
3rd Quarter 2012
Amended 3rd Quarter 2012
Pre-Primary 2012
3rd Quarter 2014
Amended Pre-Primary 2014
It can appear to be a sweet little registered charity asking for a few dollars from ordinary folks. People give and think they are supporting awareness campaigns or advocacy on issues affecting children. It can also appear to be a parent organization affiliated with schools like a PTA or PTO and charge parents dues for membership.
But unlike charities and parent groups, Stand for Children also operates as a political action committee (PAC) where it endorses and financially supports political candidates. Something charities and 501c3 parent groups are not allowed to do. And, Stand for Children operates multiple PACs in Tennessee using slightly different versions of its name.
In 2010, STAND PAC OF TENNESSEE donated $2,400 to Bill Haslam's gubernatorial campaign. And over the years, it has supported candidates in a variety of races on both state and local levels. Mostly, the support comes in the form of monetary campaign donations. The reports can be found here.
But there is another PAC, called Stand for Children, Inc. whose address is in Portland, Oregon. This Stand PAC has paid out THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of dollars for political consultants, advertising and other campaign expenditures in the last two school board races in Nashville and Memphis. More than just contributing money to candidates, this PAC furnished mail-outs, advertising, websites, and other professional services, practically running their campaigns. Here is a list of the candidates who received services:
Chris Caldwell
Raphael McInnis
Billy Orgel
Reginald Porter
Kim Wirth
Kevin Woods
Roshun Austin
Tyree Daniels
Jarod Delozier
Margaret Dolan
Bernie Driscoll
Elissa Kim
Will Pinkston
You can read the reports at the links below:
2nd Quarter 2012
3rd Quarter 2012
Amended 3rd Quarter 2012
Pre-Primary 2012
3rd Quarter 2014
Amended Pre-Primary 2014
In 2015, Momma Bears just want you to pay attention...
We are not soliciting any end-of-year donations. We don't need your money. But we do need you to pay attention when legislative season starts in 2015. This is going to a big legislative year for education issues and we don't want you to be fooled by astro turf groups like Stand for Children or state officials like former Education Commissioner Huffman who dismissed his critics as faux parents. We are real alright and so are the threats to our children. No more standing around, its time to fight for our kids. We want 2015 to be the year when Momma Bear instincts kick in for every Tennessean and we protect our children and their schools from those who want to politically exploit and monetarily profit from them.