SBC 990's 2002-2009, you decide if they are worthwhile use of our taxpayers money

Over the last couple of years I have endured the self important musings of Steve Frisch, CEO of a non profit called the Sierra Business Council.  Now understand, I have nothing against the SBC or even this Frisch character since I have never met either one.  What has inspired me to do a bit of research om the I.R.S. filings, the 990's, is the ever glowing reports of how great Frisch says he and the SBC are.  Well after his challenge to go look at his organizations returns I did.   I decided to put some of the information here for others to make their own determination whether the SBC is important or no more than a scam on the taxpayers.

There are usually 20 plus pages to the filings and the only one that did not contain that many pages was 2007.  It contained only two pages.  If there are more I would ask someone to point me to them.  There is also no return for 2010.  That was the year that Mr. Frisch was actively campaigning against the passage of Proposition 23.  I am waiting breathlessly for the return which will show us all the percentage claimed for politicking.  What do you think?  Maybe all those meetings, letters and campaign appearances, emails, editorials etc, will add up too how much?

Greg Goodknight has asked Mr. Frisch if the membership and assets are up or down.  Mr. Frisch gave a glowing report on another blog about how well SBC is doing and it is gaining members and money.  He also claims his non-profit is not using much taxpayers money, you know, grants, loans and other government stuff.  You can look at the numbers and percentages gleaned from his returns and you make the call.

In 2002 the bottom line was a surplus of over six million bucks and by 2009 it was upside down.  Where dd all that money go?  It appears mostly to wages and benefits.  There is a check off box on the returns which ask the preparer if they are required to post a Schedule B, a list of the contributors.  The SBC checks the NO box.  I would like to know why we taxpayers don't get to see the contributors.  Could there be some folks they don't want us to see?  Maybe a bunch of liberal organizations?  Is the Tides Foundation in here?  How about a Soros outfit? Well, unless Mr. Frisch wants to become transparent with all the money givers I suppose we will just ave to guess.  Yep, his calls for transparency don't trickle down to his organization I guess.

 That goes for a listing of all his members too.  I have listed the total dues for teh 2002-2009 returns.  What does that amount too as regards the total number of members, you know, his claims for businesses all up and down the Sierras.  Could there be a lot of San Francisco liberals in there?

If you want to look at the returns here is the link.  When you get to the Attorney Generals site, just type in Sierra Business Council in the name box and it will take you to the returns, listed by most current downward.  http://oag.ca.gov/charities/charity-research-tool#Location:Summary .

Here are the dollar amounts I gleaned regarding the Dues.

2002-$96,460
2003-$41,385
2004-$161,358,  this was on line 3
2005-$131,495
2006-No listing I could find
2007-No listing, only a two page return
2008-$51,497
2009-$29,461

It looks like the SBC may be losing members?

The following is the amount of public financing as a percentage of the total SBC operations each year.  It looks like the taxpayers supply quite a lot of money. These were listed on each return.

2002-77.94
2003-82.92
2004-87.15
2005-92.92
2006-None shown
2007-None shown
2008-99.2
2009-98.5

I would suggest if anyone wants to verify these numbers gleaned from the returns to go check it yourself.  This non-profit is a great example of what is truly wrong with the non-profit system.  Some people call these kinds of organizations no better than a money laundering scheme (though I don't think SBC is), and the laws should be changed to ensure they can't be abused.  Many of these kinds of organizations are viewed as a Job opportunity for liberals who can't find a private sector job and a repository for campaign workers who take time off to go campaign for other candidates or issues.  Sure, many say this is truly just a full time, taxpayers funded way to keep a cadre of workers but it would take a much more motivated person researching the folks to determine if that is true.

When a person is as strident as Steve Frisch is about how wonderful and important his SBC is I must ask, how does the SBC help our country in any way?  It appears to me, when I read the list of programs on the returns (to justify what?), that there really is no good use to the taxpayer or the community for the SBC.  It looks to me reading the returns that it shuffles a lot of paper.  So, read the numbers and you taxpayers out there determine if these kinds of non profits are worthwhile using your money or not.

Go to the Rebane Ruminations at  http://rebaneruminations.typepad.com/rebanes_ruminations/2011/11/the-international-cancer-of-public-service-unions.html# ,  and go down to the Frisch screed at 3:21 PM on November 13 and then you decide if he is a BSer or not.  I think you will see he is a BSer.