CBC Foundation, Katrina, Giving Money

I heard about the CBC raising money for the victims of Katrina.

Lately I've been hearing that the CBC has yet to give out any of the funds. For example, read this

According to Marc Morano it would appear at the time bodies (the allegations being black bodies) were floating in the waters of Hurricane Katrina, the Congressional Black Caucus was floating tax-free charitable donation dollars. (See: "Bush-Bashing Black Charity Sits on Katrina Cash," CNS News, Marc Morano, Dec. 22, 2005).

Morano's investigation found the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation not only has not distributed any of the estimated $400,000 it raised for the black victims of hurricane Katrina, but as Patty Rice, spokesman for the CBCF told Morano, "The distribution of the money would not begin until January or February at the earliest." My guess is that unless shamed into doing so, they will not have dispersed one dollar toward the stated urgent need this time next year, but I digress.

This is quite a haul for CBCF, and if one were inclined to question the integrity of a group that proudly comport itself as what could be construed as available to the highest bidder, it could also be seen as quite a con game – one that should be looked into.

I was ready to slam them.

But I went to the CBCF website and read this:

On December 9, 2005, CBCF issued a $290,000 grant to the New Orleans-based Community of Faith for Economic Empowerment (COFFEE). COFFEE is right on the front lines providing crisis assistance to supplement rental payments for dislocated families and emergency food and clothing assistance. They also offer construction and rehabilitation assistance and loss mitigation counseling among other vital services such as, insurance claim filing assistance and foreclosure abatement assistance for those who have been unable to meet their mortgage payments. For more information on COFFEE, visit their website at www.coffee-neworleans.org.

Help me out here? Are people talking out of their behind or did they give up the money is response to critics?

Well, read this

Bush-Bashing Black Charity Sits on Katrina Cash
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
December 22, 2005

(CNSNews.com) -The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, which slammed the Bush administration for its allegedly slow and racially insensitive response to Hurricane Katrina, has yet to spend any of the estimated $400,000 that it raised for the victims of the Aug. 29 storm.

"We are collecting all the way up through the very end of the year and then our board has set aside a committee who is going to administer the funds," Patty Rice, spokeswoman for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), told Cybercast News Service on Wednesday. The Foundation is an offshoot of the Congressional Black Caucus and was founded in 1976.

...

Ken Boehm, chairman of the conservative National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a group that monitors charitable giving, was quick to criticize the CBCF.

"It sounds like the CBCF has been stressing the immediacy of the [victims'] needs when they raised the money and yet for some reason when it comes time to dishing it out they can't seem to get organized," Boehm told Cybercast News Service.

:

The author wrote an article near Dec. 22 saying the funds haven't been given. Funds were given on the 9th.

Interesting.

Comments

[john_m_burt]

Um, they said they were going to start giving money out after the first of the year...and they did. After nine whole days.

Yes. definitely a fiendish conspiracy of pro-terrorist hypocrites.

[DarkStar]

What?

I don't understand your comment.

They actually started giving out funds on Dec. 9, 2005.

[dbrayboy]

The only thing that confuses me is the following statement:

"but as Patty Rice, spokesman for the CBCF told Morano, "The distribution of the money would not begin until January or February at the earliest."

Why would the CBCF make that kind of statement if they already had made distribution on 12/9? If Rice was not aware of the distribution, then that is scary (being the spokesperson for the organization and all). Did CNS news "insert" something here?

[DarkStar]

Why would the CBCF make that kind of statement if they already had made distribution on 12/9? If Rice was not aware of the distribution, then that is scary (being the spokesperson for the organization and all). Did CNS news "insert" something here?

I sent email asking for clarification from the author of the piece I linked pointing out the same thing. So far, nothing.