Caroll Shelby's responce to the Charity article...

My snide comments will be in bold black Italics...





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Carroll Shelby Responds To AutoWeek Article Concerning Children's Foundation
By Carroll Shelby
Published: July 25, 2007
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The below letter from Carroll Shelby to Keith Crane is in responce to an Autoweek article concerning Caroll Shelby Children's Foundation. The original AutoWeek article can be found here.
To comment about this article, click here.
Editor.
_________________________________

July 23, 2007

Mr. K.C. Crain Jr.
Publisher
AutoWeek


K.C.,

I was surprised by Kathy Jackson's misinformed article about the Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation. Ms. Jackson did not contact me personally to request an interview and I just learned that an executive at Shelby Licensing failed to pass her request for comment to me. I've always been proud to talk about the Foundation. A conversation with me would have resolved any concerns and allowed me to explain my long term goals.

(Any goals for a charity should IMHO should BEGIN with long term goals in mind, the above statement is a cop out! What say you?)

Some who read this article might think that the Foundation is not running on all cylinders. Nothing could be further from the truth. We’ve throttled back a bit on our giving because we are committed to create a perpetual endowment. It’s routine for non-profit organizations to build an endowment that ensures the group can continue its mission in the future. At 84 years old, you can understand why I’m concerned with this issue. I want the Foundation to do great work years after I’m not around.

(This foundation has been here since 1991, don't you think there's been time enoguh to "set it up"??? Why Scale back when you've only given Thousands but have received Hundreds of Thousands?)

Though we’ve experienced a few growing pains, I’d like to point out a few important items:

• I hired Jenni Shreeves, a very capable Foundation director and very recently expanded the board to help us reach our endowment goals; they are helping me make donation decisions that won’t risk the Foundation’s future financial security.

(Why hire more people, see: spending more money, to do what others have been doing just fine for the last decade?)

• I’ve been searching for another person from outside the auto industry with expertise in this area to join the board of directors and provide additional expertise, as well as different perspective.

(A phone call to ANY of the 7 million other charities out there will do just as good of a job as wasting money on hiring more people...)

• Prior to working with Ford Motor Company beginning in 2006, I personally raised almost all of the funds for the Foundation by donating my personal cars and signing autographs. Sooner or later, I will run out of cars and the ability to sign autographs. Working with Ford has allowed us to take that next step and build a more diverse donor base for the Foundation.

(No comment here... I'm kind of out of sorts about this statement...)

• With the sudden inflow of significant money over the past 18 months, we tapped Wells Fargo to analyze our strategic plan and help us manage these funds. It is prudent stewardship to put on the brakes instead of throwing around money like a drunken lottery winner. We expect to announce their findings shortly.

(Sorry folks but I hate Wells F also... (they're a bunch of crooks too, but in a very legal way... Long story, not exciting at all) Giving Like a Drunken Lottery Winner does MORE for the children than giving like a Spinster with no funds! The monies need to be where the children can use it. NOW, not in the future...)

• We’re not “skimping on the giving.” While the Foundation will certainly continue to donate money to deserving kids and groups, everyone on the board is first committed to building the endowment so we don’t run out of money once I can’t sign autographs to raise funds. We won’t toss out our long-term strategic plan for a short-term benefit because of misinterpreted information discussed during an interview with a Shelby executive.

(Here's my logic on this: Giving to the children is paramount, in my eyes, to a charity for children; keeping most of that aside-which is what the #'s have shown- just to make Future Trickles into places of need is not necessarily helping at all... I mean, Give all you can right? That my $5 bucks is needed, when you got $300K given to you to give to the children, and give only $25K you're putting a lid on it. If you're a CHARITY, then GIVING is what you're for, not KEEPING... Why do you need not keep 70%? To keep the NON PROFIT company going? BAH!!!! You should run the company on scraps and give 90%, THAT is what will help the children and keep your company from looking like a bunch of BAFOONS... Did I ever mention that I HATE charities?)

What began as an effort to help kids has become much larger than I ever imagined thanks to many wonderful people, including partners such as Ford. While our fundraising was once confined to small donations, they have dramatically accelerated our efforts. We are much closer to making more substantial and more frequent donations for years to come.

(WHAT IN THE BERJEEZUS IS THAT? What, if I may ask, is much larger than HELPING KIDS For Christssake???! Secondly, Closer, is NOT 'there', the future is here, why contemplate giving what you may not have whilst keeping more than you need?!?!?!)


The team is meeting our challenges head-on while building a world class organization. I invite Ms. Jackson to talk to me anytime. I am sure she, and Automotive News readers, will be impressed.

Sincerely,


Carroll Shelby

Finally: Staying small and giving big will help the children MUCH more than going all Sally Struthers and ending up Eating the children when you can't feed them...
Not that ANYTHING about Carroll Shelby is small, his Organisations are HUGELY known, his Fame is Uncountable, adn his fame and name will live for ages to come.
I am positive that he started this charity from his heart, but now, it's like it's run by publicists and managers and financial advisers and the like, I HARDLY believe that this above retort to the Auto Week Article was even thought up by him...

That is all! Rant over. Please forgive any typing errors, I was rather impassioned when I received this in an e-mail this morning, (Thanks to BOF), and I typed rather rapidly when upset or excited...



FE

Gary stop *****footing around tell us how you really feel!

Gary

What exactly do you do for a living? He's Hiring..........LOL

HAHA@me...

I'm a Mechanic, and Auto Restorer, and the occasional Thread starter on FM...

With all these titles why would I work with a friggin Charity? They friggin ROB people Hearts and Give as little as possible to those who need it...

Oh great! You've done gone and made me say 'Friggin' more than once in a post... Now you've really done it...

Here's the data from the article...

--------------------------------------

TOTAL EXPENSES GRANTS %
2002 $164,178 $10,200 6.2
2003 $399,618 $17,299 4.3
2004 $308,941 $40,300 13
2005 $286,375 $24,944 8.7

----------------------------------------

In 2005, the latest year for which tax returns are available, the foundation took in $594,062 in contributions and gave out only $24,944 in grants.

Hmmmm.... In 2005, take in $594k, claim $286k worth of expenses, give out $25k

-----------------------------------------

ANYBODY really trying to focus on the people in need, would NOT allow for $286k worth of "expenses" when taking in $594k. That's around HALF the money, when what you are selling are $125 books and $25 autographs... and taking in totally free donations. THAT'S TOO MUCH! Other charities manage to give 80%-90% of the proceeds to those who need it.

Remember, EXPENSES are expenses. These are NOT re-investments. This $286k is taken right off the top and not given or re-invested anywhere!

He -may- have started out as a "lean" program with the intent to give to his favorite charities, but all it is now, is a self-propagating BUSINESS with full time employees and sky-high expenses. I have a feeling, that whenever he and his crew goes ANYWHERE, he's using the foundation to fit the bill.

With those kinds of expenses, the foundation seems to have shifted from a "charity" to an expense account.

Ok, he's a crook taking over half the money for expenses, but what about that money that is left over???? The money that he took the $25k from?

$594k (gross) - $286k (expenses) - $25k (givings) = $283,000

Shelby claims to be self-propagating the "foundation", but doesn't give any hard data for where that $283k has gone. Yea, he actually donated $25k of it to charities, but how exactly did he spend the rest??? I'm sure he HAS re-invested some of it, but I'd like to see exactly how much...

Man The "F" Bombs got to stop, your going to be sent to the principals office.....LOL

Someone name one large-renowned charity, with the exception of the Salvation Army, whose actual proceeds given to the cause, equal more than ten percent. The Salvation Army does contribute 90 percent of all receipts.
United Way equals between 5 and 10 percent, American Red Cross, last I heard was less than 10 percent. Most are around 5 percent. Rainbow Push is about 5 percent.
Big charities are hugh corportations in themselves and a way for many to get rich. The director for the A.R.C. in the LA area alone knocks down close to a Million a year in salary. United Way is much higher. Just imagine what Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton receive for legally blackmailing large corporations.
Check it out.

Originally Posted by retyler

Someone name one large-renowned charity, with the exception of the Salvation Army, whose actual proceeds given to the cause, equal more than ten percent. The Salvation Army does contribute 90 percent of all receipts.
United Way equals between 5 and 10 percent, American Red Cross, last I heard was less than 10 percent. Most are around 5 percent. Rainbow Push is about 5 percent.
Big charities are hugh corportations in themselves and a way for many to get rich. The director for the A.R.C. in the LA area alone knocks down close to a Million a year in salary. United Way is much higher. Just imagine what Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton receive for legally blackmailing large corporations.
Check it out.

That's WHY I HATE charities... THEY FRIGGIN SUCK! I'm going to my room now.

Their you go again........ F'n this and F'n that........LOL

If he was really into giving to the children, he would directly donate the money to his favorite charity, and not double up on the expenses by having a "Foundation" with his name on it. There are FAR more efficient ways of hooking kids up with the money for medical procedures. The "foundaton" simply allows him an his entourage to travel for free... as long as he signs some books, glove boxes and autographs.

He might be giving a little, but he's taking in FAR more than he's giving away.

If that author was truly slandering him, he would be the FIRST to sue her into the next decade.

CARROLL SHELBY IS FOR SALE. He will put his name on anything for money, and is one of the quickest to sue anybody he thinks he can get money from.

Of course, those who are illusioned into thinking he's some kind of hero, just because his name is associated with Ford hotrods, will simply believe whatever they want regardless of the evidence. It's like the girl who's husband is screwing everybody and their sister, but the wife simply lives in denial.

Shelby's, and his crew's pockets are getting padded FAR more than the charity. He doesn't do ANYTHING unless there is a lot of money behind it!