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Originally Posted by mugwump
"Scam" is unwarranted, at least from what is known so far. They lack transparency and their financial statements are bit of a joke but if they were a "scam" they would certainly have made a better attempt at covering up.
The top three principals are getting ~$80K/year and from what I've read they are being hammered by the European Internet community (this is arguably the first meme war) for funneling arms to the locals for self-defense.
They have apparently learned that weapons without training are useless. This whole campaign is designed to keep pressure on the US congress to keep SF troops in place for UW/FID training.
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Firstly all of my gripes is with Invisible Children. I fully support getting in there and killing Kony.
IMO scam is very much warranted, and until they stop refusing to have their financials audited and stop refusing to work with the BBB, they are HIGHLY questionable. As it is their financials certainly have to make you scratch your head. The 3 founders are making $89,000, $88,000, $84,000 which is pure profit. And there's are people that are oh so worried about the children in Africa? Total revenue is close to 14 million... Only 8.8 million of that went into thir programs. There's NO explanation as to where that excess 5 million went. 31% of funds ever make it to Uganda. And how much of that ever gets to the kids, which this is all about right?
The film itself was made from film they took in 2004! The film is basically a call to action. It's like showing a video of 9/11 today and saying we need to stop this problem NOW. The LRA has not even been present in Uganda in 6 years, and yet to donate to Invisible Children (aside from buying them first class tickets to and from Africa, brand new cameras, production equipment) the money is backing the Ugandan army, which has been accused of raping, looting and using children soldiers! This is also supporting the president of Uganda who among other human rights violations has; tortured prisoners, oppressed other political parties and has been trying to pass a bill that allows all convicted homosexuals to be killed.
The majority of the people pushing this "charity" are the same people that immediately criticize the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because "it's an illegal war" "war is never right" etc. And yet what they don't realize about Invisible Children is that they want to start a war in Africa. They're supporting a bill passed 2 years ago that allows military intervention. I'd love to hear the armchair-activists flooding Facebook support that claim while walking around with a t-shirt bought from Invisible Children with "End A War" plastered on the front.