Bono’s ONE Charity Campaign } Gives Out only 1% to Charities, Rest 99%?
The Irish rocker’s ONE Campaign reportedly gives just over 1% of its funds to charity.
Photo Credit: PRPhotos.com
Bono has come under scrutiny for news reports that his anti-poverty foundation, the ONE Campaign only gives 1% of its earnings to charity.
Bono had established the foundation back in 2002. The New York Daily News reported that only $184, 732 of its total $14,993,873 in public donations was given to charities. Apparently, more than $8 million was distributed as salaries for ONE Campaign employees.
The findings were reported after boxes stuffed with Starbucks coffee, leather notebooks, $20 water bottles, band-aids, pens, and cookies were sent to New York reporters during a recent PR campaign. The PR campaign was meant to coincide with President Obama’s advocacy for AIDS funding for Africa.
ONE Campaign spokesperson, Kimberly Hunter, wouldn’t disclose how much the reporters’ gifts cost, but said they were meant to get ONE noticed. Hunter told the Post, “Sometimes it’s pretty hard to get through to reporters with the information about the lives of the world’s poorest people. We think it’s important enough to try and break through the clutter… That’s why we sent the boxes.”
Now that Bono is under fire, Hunter insists that it’s all a misunderstanding of ONE’s role. ONE Campaign, Hunter stated, “does advocacy work, not charity work.”
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