Adventures in Charity: Bono Edition

21 September 2010, 12:00am

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Alex Massie

Adventures in Charity: Bono Edition
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I dare say it makes one a bad person to be amused by this:

ONE gives only a pittance in direct charitable support to its causes — something Borochoff said the average donor might not realize. The Bono nonprofit took in $14,993,873 in public donations in 2008, the latest year for which tax records are available. Of that, $184,732 was distributed to three charities, according to the IRS filing. Meanwhile, more than $8 million was spent on executive and employee salaries.

Like many others then, I guess that makes me a bad person.

A spokeswoman for Bono’s “charity” ONE Campaign explained all:

ONE “does advocacy work, not charity work.”

True enough. As their website explains: At ONE, we believe the fight against poverty is not about charity, but about justice and equality.

Especially for its DC-based employees who might otherwise endure a pretty tough time.

(To be fair: they’re right to emphasise trade issues and the like and correct too that charity is only part of the deal for Africa.

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