Oct 1, 2010

Even the blind, liberal media seen through this ONE

Nothing says, "Wipe out AIDS and poverty" like Band-Aids and a black-and-white cookie.

That's what Bono's $15 million nonprofit the ONE Campaign -- which gives only a pittance of proceeds to its hunger and health causes -- bombarded New York newsrooms with last week to get press for its push for billions in African AIDS funding from President Obama.
The items were part of a pricey pile of puzzling loot, which also included a $15 bag of Starbucks coffee, a $15 Moleskine leather notebook, a $20 water bottle and a plastic ruler.
The stash came in four, oversized shoe boxes, delivered one at a time via expensive messenger. The boxes were timed to arrive for the UN "Summit on the Millennium Development Goals," which kicks off in Manhattan today.
Caitlin Thorne Hersey ONE' BIG WASTE: Bono's ONE Campaign blew cash on cookies, water, rulers, leather notebooks, coffee, Band-Aids and pens for media mailings.
Kimberly Hunter, spokeswoman for DC-based ONE, declined to say how much money the organization shelled out for the publicity blitz.
"Sometimes it's pretty hard to get through to reporters with the information about the lives of the world's poorest people," Hunter said. "We think it's important enough to try and break through the clutter . . . That's why we sent the boxes."
The boxes included a small tin of Band-Aids and two syringe-style pens -- along with a pitch challenging Obama to fork over $6 billion to the UN's Swiss-based Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa.
Caitlin Thorne Hersey;
Another container held the oversized cookie and water bottle in an odd pitch for funds for clean water and "sustainable sources of food."
Poverty-stricken African kids live on less than $1.25 a day -- "about the cost of the cookie in this box," ONE contended.
The leather-bound journal and ruler urged education funding in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Starbucks brew -- made with Ethiopian beans -- came with a suggestion to drum up support for investing in African agriculture.
Charity watchdog Daniel Borochoff of the American Institute of Philanthropy in Chicago called the p.r. move a "risk."
"There could be recipients -- or donors -- who might think that the money they spent could have instead been donated to help their cause," he said.
Hunter countered that ONE "does advocacy work, not charity work." Caitlin Thorne Hersey
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.

jeane.macintosh@nypost.com

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