“Awaken”
Soon after Non-Profit or Non-Existent was first posted here at Solid Foods, I received an email from Jimmy Duke, a member of Mosaic and former director of Awaken. Jimmy Duke had posted several responses to the Mosaic of Pain website, http://mosaicofpain. He offered to answer "any questions" I wished. We sent emails back and forth beginning April 11, 2007 until April 16, 2007. [Note: As the conversation will demonstrate, Jimmy Duke was well aware of my identity.]
I asked him the following questions:
Question: What was your position/title at Awaken?
Jimmy: I “was” the director of the entire ministry. We’re not so great at titles over here, but I essentially functioned as the executive vice president...I guess...with Erwin being considered the president of the company. I was responsible for all day to day activities. Now, Eric Bryant has that responsibility and I just oversee one aspect of Awaken, the film aspect. I am actually attempting to turn it into an actual, functioning production company.
Question: Do you know if Awaken is operating under its own 501(c)(3)?
Jimmy: Yes, Awaken has its own 501(c)(3) separate from Mosaic. I believe it got it back in 2001, but I’m not sure. Actually, your father would know, because I believe he helped set it up with all of the other elders back then. I believe Rick Yamamoto did the original paperwork.
[Note from Yvonne: My father was not in charge of setting up the paperwork for “Awaken” and resigned from its board of directors before such paperwork was finalized. He was not the only Mosaic elder to resign from the board of directors of Awaken at that time. For more about my father, see my profile.]
Question: Does it [Awaken] file a 990?
Jimmy: I’m not sure what a 990 is, so I can’t speak to that.
[What is a Form 990? Non-profits publicly disclose their financial information by filing form 990 or 990EZ with the IRS. This includes certain church auxiliaries if they meet the requirements for filing. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-tege/eotopich03.pdf ]
Question: Can you provide me with a copy of Awakens 501(c)(3) documentation or an official letter from the State of California confirming Awakens 501(c)(3) status? As I stated in my blog, according to the California Business Portal http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/ Awaken International and Awaken Center for Creativity are under a suspended status. I checked the listing today and they are still under this status.
[By law, non-profit organizations are required to disclose such information to the public without charge other than a small fee for copying. I would have been willing to pay for the copies.]
Jimmy: I don’t know if I can do that, but I will tell you that after seeing that on your website, I got concerned. Our status might actually be suspended. And I might be partially to blame because I never filed with the state last year when I was in charge. We are actually looking into it ourselves, and hopefully we won’t be “suspended” for long!
“Awaken Humanity”
In addition to the above email conversation, I also left comments at the Awaken website regarding the charities listed under Awaken Humanity. This is the text on the page listing those charities, there are also two short video clips embedded in the text regarding Awaken Africa. http://www.awaken.org/awaken-humanity
(Humanity) the quality of being humane
Awaken Humanity is a documentary film project dedicated to making a difference on the issues of poverty, HIV/AIDS, and human trafficking.
Entitled “Things You Should Care About,” each film highlights a community or organization that is actively moving towards global change in their local community. Awaken Humanity strives to help people feel deeply about human suffering and become apart of a global force to bring about change.
* * *
“Awaken Humanity 2007″ - a chance to change the world with the gift of compassion and humanitarian service.
GOAL: $100,000 to bring faith, love and hope to millions around the world!
*AWAKEN AFRICA
Zambia and South Africa
Africa is in a state of unprecedented crisis. In response to the human and spiritual poverty that threatens to devastate an entire generation, Awaken Humanity will be focusing on village outreach, training local leadership as well as providing transportation for local leaders to travel to remote areas.
Breath of Heaven Children’s Village in Zambia cares for children orphaned by the impact of HIV/AIDS. Your donation helps support the shelter,health, education, and spiritual development each child deserves.
Informal Settlements in South Africa are concentrated areas with displaced inhabitants and orphans, the majority living with HIV/AIDS. Your contribution will enable community development, AIDS relief and care, along with leadership training for local leaders and church planters.
*AWAKEN L.A.
Los Angeles has its own battles with gang activity, drugs, alcohol and spiritual hunger. Awaken Humanity mobilizes service to the needy and disadvantaged living in Los Angeles. Gifts will be used to fund some of the following projects:
SEA (Soladad Enrichment Action) serves at-risk youth in a final effort to encourage graduation from high school. Awaken Humanity would like to fund 400 students (and all 14 schools eventually) to participate in Yelo, a course in “StrengthFinders” and character development, to help students discover and use their unique abilities.
Nightlight L.A. is an organization in Bangkok, Thailand, and Los Angeles committed to combating human trafficking and the exploitation of women and children through outreach, transformative healing, economic and educational opportunities. NightLight encourages involvement in advocacy and follow-up care for women and children by developing a public awareness of the physical, psychological, legal, and economic consequences of prostitution and trafficking.
Homeless Service is in cooperation and support with other agencies such as L.A. Mission and Union Rescue Mission
Clean and Sober provides assistance and support for those with life-dominating habits especially addiction to alcohol and drugs
Neo-Underground Railroad encourages disadvantaged children and youth in South Los Angeles to experience and develop their abilities through a free creative arts and tutoring program.
*All donations are tax deductible. Please make checks payable to “Awaken” and indicate “Awaken Humanity” on the memo line and send to the Awaken offices at:
Awaken1443
E. Washington Blvd. #659
Pasadena, CA 91104-2650
*Note this is a mailing address and not an office address.
Or, give online with the link below.
Donations will be distributed according to the need of each area.
[Note from Yvonne: The online payment option is available through PayPal]
The Awaken Comments Page
The Awaken comments page is moderated by staff members of Awaken and accessible to the general public. My comments were not added to the public page, I do however have a copy of the page showing my "yet-to-be-moderated" comments on file here at Solid Foods. I used my own name and the email response came to my account, yvonneneem@gmail.com. This is the same email address listed in my profile here at Solid Foods.
These are the two questions I asked in the comments section:
1. What is the advantage of giving to Awaken instead of giving directly to the causes above?
2. Does Awaken have its own bank account?
On April 17, 2007 I received an email response from the Awaken webmaster, Alan Luu , regarding the second question: “Yes, Awaken does have its own bank account.” He then writes that he will be forwarding my first question to someone else “that can better answer your question.”
A few hours after the email from Alan Luu, I received an email from Eric Bryant, navigator at Mosaic and, according to Jimmy Duke, Awakens vice president. In this email Eric wrote:
There are no real advantages of giving to Awaken over giving directly to these organizations. In fact, we have decided to highlight these organizations in order to help others know about their efforts.
In Bryant's own words, "There are no real advantages of giving to Awaken over giving directly to these organizations. In fact, we have decided to highlight these organizations in order to help others know about their efforts."
A careful reading of the text on the Awaken webpage shows that Awaken is not just "highlighting" these charities; it appears to be soliciting donations on their behalf.
Consider these phrases:
Your donation . . .
Your contribution . . .
Gifts will be used to fund . . .
Awaken Humanity would like to fund . . .
Awaken is not asking donors to visit the individual websites of these charities in order to make a donation, it is asking donors to give to Awaken. Another troubling aspect of this is the line:
"Donations will be distributed according to the need of each area."
In other words, it is entirely up to the discretion of Awaken where these donated funds will be used.
The Charities Listed Under Awaken Humanity (For further clarity)
Breath of Heaven Children's Village in Zambia http://www.bofheaven.org/
Emthonjeni http://www.emthonjeni.org/index.htm (The organization's name is not mentioned in the text but can be glimpsed briefly in the second video clip on the Awaken page.)
SEA (Soledad Enrichment Action) http://seacharter.org/
Nightlight L.A. http://www.nightlightbangkok.com/support.htm
L.A. Mission http://losangelesmission.org/index.html
Union Rescue Mission http://www.urm.org/
Clean and Sober – This is a ministry that started at Mosaic.
Neo-Underground Railroad http://2therailroad.org/
What five of these charities had to say about Awaken
I sent emails to each of the above charities (with the exception of Clean and Sober which I know to be a ministry of Mosaic) and asked them if they were aware of its webpage and if they were acting in "cooperation" with Awaken. I am still waiting to hear from Emthonjeni in Africa and Nightlight in Bangkok, Thailand.
On Thursday, April 19, 2007, I was able to talk on the phone with a representative from SEA, the L.A. Mission, the Union Rescue Mission and the Neo Underground Railroad. This is what these representatives had to say:
PLEASE NOTE: At no point in these emails or phone conversations did I ever claim I was from Awaken or Mosaic!
SEA
Contact Person: Jennie
Phone # 213 480 4200
When I asked Jennie if SEA was aware of Awaken she said, "Yes, they are fundraising for us to have Yelo. It is outside our curriculum." According to Jennie, SEA would like to have their students participate in Yelo but can't afford it. Jennie said, "SEA will be seeing if a matching fund raising can be arranged with Awaken."
Note: According to the Awaken website: http://mosaic.org/yelo
Link Broken - see instead http://yelo.awaken.org/
Yelo is an Awaken event that focuses on unleashing your creativity, elevating your influence, challenging your character, and maximizing your leadership potential.
Yelo incorporates the Gallup's Strengths Finder, Myers-Briggs Temperament indicator and The Character Matrix based on Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul, by Erwin McManus. The staff of Yelo are: Steve Saccone, Erwin McManus, Dana Evans, Dana Elliot, Sueann Cho, and Eric Bryant; all members of Mosaic, L.A.
The normal cost of a Yelo event, per person, breaks down into: Strengths Finder $25, Myers-Briggs $25, Yelo event $25 - Total =$75
L.A. Mission
Contact Person: Nuria
Phone # 213 629 1227
Nuria told me that the L.A. Mission instructs groups that wish to raise funds for them to have donors make their checks out to the L.A. Mission. When I asked about Awaken, she was unaware of any affiliation with the L.A. Mission. She said she would contact her supervisor regarding Awaken and call me later.
On Friday, April 20, 2007 I received a follow up call from Nuria. She informed me that the L.A. Mission "does not work in cooperation with anyone because we have our own website. This avoids the processing fees." [She was referring to the payment processing fees imposed by on-line collection agencies such as PayPal.] She asked for my help in finding the Awaken Humanity webpage in order to pass this information along to her supervisor. I asked her why Awaken would say on its webpage that they were working "in cooperation" with the L.A. Mission and she said, "We have no idea. We are not linked to any organization."
In regards to giving a donation to the L.A. Mission, Nuria said, "My suggestion is, if you want to give us a donation, go to us directly."
Union Rescue Mission
Contact Person: Liz Mooradian, Director of Communications & Public Relations
Phone # 213 347 6300
In her email reply to me regarding Awaken, Liz Mooradian told me "I can tell you that they have been supporters of the Union Rescue Mission. Most recently one of their groups called MOSAIC has been sending quite a number of volunteers to help with special projects."
In our phone conversation, Liz Mooradian repeated her comments regarding the "many volunteers from Mosaic" who help out at the Mission. Due to confidentiality rules, she could not tell me whether Awaken had ever made a monetary donation to the Union Rescue Mission.
[Comment from Yvonne: I can understand how people at Mosaic would volunteer to work under the Awaken name but apparently this is not the impression that was given to the Union Rescue Mission.]
Neo Underground Railroad
Contact Person: Yvonne Napoleon, Founder, Neo Underground Railroad
Email address: yvonne@2therailroad.org
I spoke to Yvonne on her personal cel phone # which I will not list here.
Yvonne Napoleon is a current member of Mosaic, L.A. When I asked if she knew that her 501(c) organization, Neo Underground Railroad, was included on the Awaken webpage she said she had not known this. She felt that "some type of discussion should have taken place between me and them before Neo Underground Railroad was added."
When I asked her if she knew what Awaken was, she replied, "I have no idea what Awaken is." When asked to respond to the Awaken webpage's line: "Gifts will be used to fund some of the following projects:" she said, "Neo Underground Railroad has never received anything from Awaken." She mentioned that in Christmas of 2005, she was given a personal donation of around $1500 from a couple at Mosaic. Earlier this year, 2007, she was told by Eric Bryant that he had "some money" for her charity but she is still waiting to receive it. Yvonne also told me that Mosaic church often sends volunteers to help with the Neo Underground Railroad, not an organization called Awaken.
Yvonne Napoleon was not pleased to see that her organization had been included on the Awaken webpage without her knowledge and in such a way as to be misleading about Awakens association with the Neo Underground Railroad.
Breath of Heaven Children's Village in Zambia
Contact Person: Teresa LaManna, Office Administrator
Email: emchurch2@verizon.net
On April 20, I received an email from Breath of Heaven Children's Village in Zambia:
Teresa LaManna told me "Awaken Humanity is an outreach of Mosaic church of Los Angeles and is raising money for the construction of Breath of Heaven's second children's home. They will also be sending a photo journalism team this summer with one of the goals being to create a book of children's photos and poetry to use as a fundraiser."
She did not mention anything about it being a "documentary film project" as it is described on the Awaken webpage.
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California’s Nonprofit Integrity Act Of 2004
California’s Nonprofit Integrity Act of 2004 was signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on September 29, 2004 and took effect on January 1, 2005. This act places stricter conditions on the governance of nonprofit organizations and their fundraising activities.
http://ag.ca.gov/charities/publications/nonprofit_integrity_act_nov04.pdf
Section 12 of the act is a list of prohibitions. Among these prohibitions is one that seems to apply to the situation with Awaken:
12. Charitable Organization And Commercial Fundraisers For CharitableIt is clear that the L.A. Mission and the Neo Underground Railroad did not give Awaken permission to use their names as a part of its fundraising activities.
Purposes Are Prohibited From Engaging In Misrepresentation And Certain Other
Acts When Soliciting Donations [Government Code section
12599.6(f)]
The following acts are prohibited in the planning, conduct or execution of solicitation campaigns:
Representing that any portion of contributions solicited by a charitable organization will be given to another charitable organization unless the second charitable
organization provides prior written consent for such use of its name.
There appears to be some kind of ambiguity regarding what was communicated to the Union Rescue Mission regarding the organizational nature of Awaken.
So far, only the representatives from SEA and Breath of Heaven Children’s Village in Zambia have confirmed that they are working “in cooperation” with an organization called Awaken.
I have not yet heard from Nightlight in Bangkok, Thailand.
I am also still waiting for a response from Emthonjeni in South Africa, the charity whose name is not even mentioned on the Awaken website.
Conclusion:
I leave it up to the reader to draw his or her own conclusions regarding the information I have presented here at Solid Foods.
Yvonne W.
To be continued . . .
A Brief Update:
“Awaken” is currently sponsoring a music festival to be held on May 13, 2007.http://awakenhumanityfestival.org/
This music festival is a fundraising event. Following the link “the cause” will take you to a page with this text: http://awakenhumanityfestival.org/thecause
More to come . . .Proceeds from the Awaken Humanity Music Festival will go towards the following efforts to serve the disadvantaged around the world.
Awaken Africa
Africa is in a state of unprecedented crisis. In response to the human poverty that threatens to devastate an entire generation, Awaken Humanity will be focusing on several projects including healthcare initiatives, a women’s conference, and developing a children’s village outside of Lusaka, Zambia. The Children’s Village will provide a stable, secure, family-like environment that will allow the children who have been orphaned after losing their parents to HIV/Aids to interact with the neighboring community.
Awaken Los Angeles
1. NightLight, an organization in Bangkok,Thailand and Los Angeles committed to combating the exploitation of women and children.
2. Homeless Service is in cooperation and support with
other agencies such as L.A. Mission and Union Rescue Mission.
3. Neo-Underground Railroad encourages disadvantaged children and youth in SouthLos Angeles to experience and develop their abilities through a free creative arts and tutoring program.
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