Questionable Gay Charity?

[mjthai007]

I've recently been informed by a co worker (who by the way is gay), that there seems to be quite a bit of 'creative accounting' going on at the gay charity Bangkok Gay Pride!

My co worker tells me that he has requested, on a number of times, financial statements for the monies given to no avail! He has also been told that 'people who ask too many questions (in Thailand) sometimes vanish without trace!'

Having looked at the website AGM, I certainly think that he has a very valid point!

I quote;

Over 600,000 baht was raised via, sponsor fee, donations, fund raisers and other various events. The expenses for running pride, park and parade was a little over 400,000 baht, and so far over 200,000 baht has been donated to charity. The final selection for charity donation will be voted on at the next meeting.

Forgive me if this is the norm, but when the comitee members spend money on lavish dinners etc.(All, may I add being spent at comitee members, friends, restaurants and bars) I feel utterly disgusted with some of the other creatures I have to share this planet with!

Call me old fashioned but is there some sense of morality left in this world?

By the way, we can't blame this on Thais! it is greedy farangs!!

I apologise for this rant, but I am more than annoyed!!! And I hope that at least next year these THIEVING BAS#ARDS won't get away with it!!!

[Ijustwannateach]

Link removed; moved to Gay Forum.

[undercover]

Creaming off charity is the norm here, it's many farangs only income. Asking questions will only get replys like, how do you know ? you can't proove nothing, our charity is certainly not corrupt, our good work is documented.

mabe so but there has been more than one occation I have seen when a guy living here on a small budget and having very little suddenly seems to doing very well once he gets involved in some charity work,

[PeaceBlondie]

We farang are accustomed to what Sir Paul McCartney called "a registered charity." I think that means a charity whose books of accounting are audited by some government agency, or by an independent professional accountant, or available to the public.

It's a reasonable request, at least by donors and supporters and volunteers, to ask "Where does the money go?" No matter how worthy the charity cause is.

[November Rain]

Creaming off charity is the norm here, it's many farangs only income. Asking questions will only get replys like, how do you know ? you can't proove nothing, our charity is certainly not corrupt, our good work is documented.

mabe so but there has been more than one occation I have seen when a guy living here on a small budget and having very little suddenly seems to doing very well once he gets involved in some charity work,

I'm not commenting on the particular charity in the OP, as I wouldn't know anything about it, but I find your statement offensive, undercover, particularly the part I have highlighted.

You may know of certain instances where this has been the case, and I certainly wouldn't dispute that. I'm sure it does happen. But to generalise & say "it's the norm" or "it's many farang's only income" is not only wrong & inaccurate, it's damaging for genuine non-profit orgs.

FYI, I have run a non-profit org for the last three & a half years, along with my mother. I have never taken a satang from it (neither has she, obviously) & we have put a lot of our own money into it, to the extent that she has now gone to work in HK to support my son & I so I can carry on with our work. I live in a tiny 2 bedroomed bungalow with over 30 dogs (the org is a dog rescue center - the sick dogs & pups live with me) & have had to cut my life back to absolute basics to get by. I never get a day off, I never take holidays (once every 15 months back to UK to get my visa & then back again within the week!) & I can't remember the last time I went out. So, please, don't tar everyone with the same brush...

[Jet Gorgon]

I have full confidence in you and your work, NR. It is pity, that others are not like you.

[Steveexpat]

This is really amusing. I stopped by and asked Khun Tai yesterday about the "meals". Well, funny thing, he said that the meals were supplied by several restaurants in the Silom area. Some on Soi 4, said they did not want to help out. There were between 20 & 25 volunteers at the monthly meetings. Meals were provided as the meetings were held in the evenings for 3 to 4 hours. The cost paid was 60 baht per person. So strange that people here think 60 baht for a meal is hight cost. Wonder why they didn't volunteer their services. But some people just like to bitch. so 60baht per person with 20 or more volunteers is about 1,200 baht for a meal. He said only Rainbow Sky, Bug & Bee, @Richards & The Beach did provide food, as other pubs that were asked, said they could not do so at that price.

I realize that Pride Festival was not perfect, but instead of ripping them apart, maybe the farangs should actually go to a meeting and see what happens?????????

And I also learned, this was the first year that total expenses were provided for the public on the internet, always in the past, the pride committees only posted a Totals page.

Khun Tai also told me, the accounting was audited by 2 gay venues, O Ho Restaurant and Om Yim Lodge. This was the same way as in the past several years.

Lets try to work together and help Pride Festival this year, instead of ripping it apart.

I do not own a gay place, I am retired, but I am going to try to volunteer as a private person to help.

[PoliticallyCorrect]

And I also learned, this was the first year that total expenses were provided for the public on the internet, always in the past, the pride committees only posted a Totals page.

Can you tell us where this is; a link?

I have tried the links for pride festival shown on some pub websites but all they show are the dates for next years party.

Can they put the link on the pride festival website next to the dates and the advert for the new webmaster.

Edited March 2, 2007 by PoliticallyCorrect

[mjthai007]

And I also learned, this was the first year that total expenses were provided for the public on the internet, always in the past, the pride committees only posted a Totals page.

Can you tell us where this is; a link?

I have tried the links for pride festival shown on some pub websites but all they show are the dates for next years party.

Can they put the link on the pride festival website next to the dates and the advert for the new webmaster.

I totally agree with Politicallycorrect, stevexpat might find stealing from a charity 'really amusing' but I certainly don't! So, only around 15000 baht was for meals, where did the other 385000+ go?

[bibendum]

This is really amusing. I stopped by and asked Khun Tai yesterday about the "meals". Well, funny thing, he said that the meals were supplied by several restaurants in the Silom area. Some on Soi 4, said they did not want to help out. There were between 20 & 25 volunteers at the monthly meetings. Meals were provided as the meetings were held in the evenings for 3 to 4 hours. The cost paid was 60 baht per person. So strange that people here think 60 baht for a meal is hight cost. Wonder why they didn't volunteer their services. But some people just like to bitch. so 60baht per person with 20 or more volunteers is about 1,200 baht for a meal. He said only Rainbow Sky, Bug & Bee, @Richards & The Beach did provide food, as other pubs that were asked, said they could not do so at that price.

Steveexpats explanation for this expenditure on meals is specious and deceptive.

A charge has been made to the funds of Pride Festival for meals. It does not matter who provided them since the providers have been paid.

It is disingenuous to suggest that "some on Soi 4 did not want to help out" since those who did sell the meals were the same ones who consumed the meals and made the decisions on behalf of Pride Festival where to buy those meals.

The purchase of these meals by the Pride Festival committee may have been necessary to sustain the marathon 4 hour meetings however it is not the committee who has paid for them and this was not an altruistic triumph by @Richards or Bug & Bee. Since the funds of Pride Festival have been charged it is the donating public and all the sponsors who paid...and it is charity that has lost out.

Steveexpats penultimate volley was: "Lets try to work together and help Pride Festival this year, instead of ripping it apart". I agree; but that can only be achieved if those who volunteer for the committee act in a truly impartial manner; desist from promoting their own businesses over and above other sponsors and call a halt to the petty points scoring and one-upmanship that was widespread last year. Steveexpat's explanation only serves to fan the flames.

Finally, and on a personal note, I shall not be volunteering to help if the meetings routinely last 3-4 hours.

[endure]

Let's be very careful about unsubstantiated accusations on here please. If you have evidence that some sort of fraud is taking place the proper thing to do is to report it to the authorities, not use internet forums to blacken people's names.

[mjthai007]

Sir, I never meant to cast aspirtions at any person/persons, all I am trying to say is that in the future could some of these 'volunteers' think for a moment about the word charity!

In my book, even accepting a meal for 60 baht ( I can and do eat food for 30 baht and less!) when it comes from donations would be against my values, call me old fashioned!

Meetings lasting 3-4 hours seems quite excessive? I wonder what they are talking about? Maybe the minutes of the meetings are on the same website as the financial report! (I refuse to use sarcasam, which would be easy in this case, but it would only belittle the seriousness of this thread).

Also could anyone enlighten me on who the 'authorities' are?

[popshirt]

Sir, I never meant to cast aspirtions at any person/persons, all I am trying to say is that in the future could some of these 'volunteers' think for a moment about the word charity!

In my book, even accepting a meal for 60 baht ( I can and do eat food for 30 baht and less!) when it comes from donations would be against my values, call me old fashioned!

Meetings lasting 3-4 hours seems quite excessive? I wonder what they are talking about? Maybe the minutes of the meetings are on the same website as the financial report! (I refuse to use sarcasam, which would be easy in this case, but it would only belittle the seriousness of this thread).

Also could anyone enlighten me on who the 'authorities' are?

Please forgive me in advance, but this is not intended as a flame. This post reflects the thinking and values of the West, not of Thailand. Just yesterday a medical doctor at Bumrungrad Hospital advised me against "thinking too much". In my opinion thinking too much is what is demonstrated in this post. The concept (and need for) "gay pride" demonstrations, is considered western, not Thai, by most of my Thai friends.

Thailand can be so enjoyable if one simply relaxes a bit.

[mjthai007]

In my opinion thinking too much is what is demonstrated in this post. The concept (and need for) "gay pride" demonstrations, is considered western, not Thai, by most of my Thai friends.

Thailand can be so enjoyable if one simply relaxes a bit.

And what pray tell, 'In your opinion' or most of your Thai friends, should be done about the misuse of monies given by honest people? relax or 'mai pen rai'. Tell this to the week old babies who are in the orphanage in Pattaya, who have HIV! Hopefully thy will live long enough to understand any 'concepts' east or west, and then they might understand that there ARE some decent people in this world who do CARE!!!!

[jojo11]

Sir, I never meant to cast aspirtions at any person/persons, all I am trying to say is that in the future could some of these 'volunteers' think for a moment about the word charity!

In my book, even accepting a meal for 60 baht ( I can and do eat food for 30 baht and less!) when it comes from donations would be against my values, call me old fashioned!

Meetings lasting 3-4 hours seems quite excessive? I wonder what they are talking about? Maybe the minutes of the meetings are on the same website as the financial report! (I refuse to use sarcasam, which would be easy in this case, but it would only belittle the seriousness of this thread).

Also could anyone enlighten me on who the 'authorities' are?

Hi There! On the other thread about pride BKK v Pattaya,

jdinasia says:If you couldn't get info on last year's festival in BKK ... then you never looked at the website or signed up for their emails <in fact I got one from them today! for 2007's 1st meeting>

Just a bit of heresay jdinasia, but I hear that some of the bars in soi 4 aren't going to give the money to pride, but directly to the named charity!

[ProThaiExpat]

I have always been amazed at how little of the total dollars collected by western charities ever gets to the recipients. And these figures are audited by the IRS etc.

It is quit common to see overhead, salaries, collection costs and advertising eating up 75% or more of donations.

Most heavy donors check the net to recipients figure before giving. The fact that small charities, or not experienced ones, have no such figures, is not surpirising.

Take a look at the salary and expense account figures for the American Red Cross as a starter. Jerry Lewis used to get a million dollars for his telethon appearance for "Jerrys Kids". I am sure it is higher now.

Careers in charity work can be quite well paid, but certainly expertise is called for and perhaps professionals at raising money aren't willing to work for nothing or live at the poverty level.

A basket was passed around at a bar a few weeks ago and the drag queen doing the passing said if was for HIV and her hand drawn sign said so as well. I frankly thought it smelled of a scam but my Thai said make a small donation to save face. I did. Yes, I wonder where the money collected went.

Most U.S. gay events sponsor charities and all their profits presumably go to charity, but what the "profits" are, after all is said and done is certainly questionable and it does seem the "owners" of the events do nothing else all year and live quite well on the proceeds of their efforts.

I wonder if attendance at the events would be any less if no chairty was mentioned. One might argue that any money going to charity is a plus, no matter how small a percentage of the total collected made it to the charity.

And I won't even go into the evangelical movements and t.v. ministries and their sheanigans, so luridly reported over the years.

[ILoveThaivisa]

I've recently been informed by a co worker (who by the way is gay), that there seems to be quite a bit of 'creative accounting' going on at the gay charity Bangkok Gay Pride!

My co worker tells me that he has requested, on a number of times, financial statements for the monies given to no avail!

Newbie to this forum, mjthai007, has posted here some interesting accusations against the Bangkok Pride Festival 2006 Committee. Not wanting to repeat everything he claims, I'll just sum it up in my own words: He thinks the Committee is a bunch of crooks who have stolen funds from the Bangkok Pride Festival.

I've read and re-read the "evidence" he gives and I have ended up thinking that nothing he says will hold water in a court of law. Another poster wrote: "Let's be very careful about unsubstantiated accusations on here please. If you have evidence that some sort of fraud is taking place, the proper thing to do is to report it to the authorities, not use internet forums to blacken people's names."

What did mjthai007 answer to that? "... could anyone enlighten me on who the 'authorities' are?" I guess most people would assume that the other poster meant the police.

After thinking about mjthai007's many posts knocking the Bangkok Pride Festival Committee (8 out of the 9 posts he made since joining the Thaivisa.com Forums), I came to the conclusion that he has an axe to grind. But just what is his angle?

I came up with several possibilities:

(1) He is homophobic. He does admit to being straight in one of his posts. But 8 out 9 posts on a gay topic?? -or-

(2) He is the owner of a venue that competes with a venue owned by one of the members of the Bangkok Pride Festival Committee. -or-

(3) He has a "personal quarrel" with one of the Committee members. -or-

(4) He just likes to complain about everything. (But remember that 8 out 9 of his posts could be considered gay-bashing).

(5) All of the above or some of the above.

Do we have a polling feature on this forum???

[jdinasia]

In my opinion thinking too much is what is demonstrated in this post. The concept (and need for) "gay pride" demonstrations, is considered western, not Thai, by most of my Thai friends.

Thailand can be so enjoyable if one simply relaxes a bit.

And what pray tell, 'In your opinion' or most of your Thai friends, should be done about the misuse of monies given by honest people? relax or 'mai pen rai'. Tell this to the week old babies who are in the orphanage in Pattaya, who have HIV! Hopefully thy will live long enough to understand any 'concepts' east or west, and then they might understand that there ARE some decent people in this world who do CARE!!!!

Step down .......

if you have questions and 'eggs' ... go to a meeting and ask As for other charities? The donations made by individuals etc were earmarked for Pride. Pride seems to not only have run in the black (kinda amazing!) but turned around and donated out 33%+ of all they rec'd? Why not just keep it and earmark it for volunteer recognition? or for next year's advertising? etc etc?

I have a feeling that this poster is quite disingenous!

[jdinasia]

Sir, I never meant to cast aspirtions at any person/persons, all I am trying to say is that in the future could some of these 'volunteers' think for a moment about the word charity!

In my book, even accepting a meal for 60 baht ( I can and do eat food for 30 baht and less!) when it comes from donations would be against my values, call me old fashioned!

Meetings lasting 3-4 hours seems quite excessive? I wonder what they are talking about? Maybe the minutes of the meetings are on the same website as the financial report! (I refuse to use sarcasam, which would be easy in this case, but it would only belittle the seriousness of this thread).

Also could anyone enlighten me on who the 'authorities' are?

Hi There! On the other thread about pride BKK v Pattaya,

jdinasia says:If you couldn't get info on last year's festival in BKK ... then you never looked at the website or signed up for their emails <in fact I got one from them today! for 2007's 1st meeting>

Just a bit of heresay jdinasia, but I hear that some of the bars in soi 4 aren't going to give the money to pride, but directly to the named charity!

You 'hear' this?

in this case Pride IS the charity .... so some bars choose not to participate? is that a problem? if so for whom?

[bibendum]

(on the Bangkok Pride Festival v Pattaya Gay Festival thread) simple ... Pride IS the charity to whom people gave money ..... amazingly they ran in the black and donated some out to further charoties/ngo's/agencies etc Probably it is in their by-laws that they do this, but you are deluded if you think they needed to. They could have kept the cash and used it for volunteer appreciation ... or next year's advertising budget .... or just about anything! ... so you have no "facts" about lavish dinners or anything else! Just an over-inflated sense of what YOU think should be done and the way it should be done! Pride was not established to be a means of donating money to other agencies ... the fact that they DO donate should be lauded!

If you look at the excellent Pattaya Gay Festival website under the heading "About Us" you can see the PGF Committee Report for 2006. Therein you will see "We are pleased to report that 2006 proved to be another hugely successful year for the Pattaya Gay Festival. As will be seen from the accounts being presented by the Treasurer, a net income of 3.7 million baht was achieved – only some 0.1 million baht short of 2005's record breaking 3.8 million. The whole of this sum was available for charitable donations and 3.6 million baht was duly donated to Heartt 2000 during the year"

Read that again "The whole of this sum was available for charitable donations" .

Then read again jdinasia's suggestion on Pride "They could have kept the cash and used it for volunteer appreciation ... or next year's advertising budget .... or just about anything"

Or just about anything! Are you serious?

I do NOT agree with you that 'Pride is the charity'. Pride is an organization of the Gay community with the aim of collecting money for gay related charities and gay philanthropic organizations. Charities are set up with specifics in mind, not 'just about anything.' I have not seen any charter or by-laws for Pride but as a member of the public I supported Pride with my cash in the (probably foolish) belief that it would be used for AIDS awareness training; hospices; free condoms; AIDS treatment etc etc. and I expect that the majority of the public gave with the same expectation. They did not expect their money to be used to buy meals in committee members' restaurants. If we take jdinasia's 'just about anything' to its logical conclusion then a new car for Pride's chairman is permissible.

Pattaya has got its act together; Bangkok has not.

Pattaya has a permanent website that gives full news of its mission, its fundraising, its accounts and expenditure on its causes. Anyone can see at a glance what the Pattaya Festival has been doing over the years and what it is about to do. Bangkok has had at least two websites over its variously named life; now it has nothing. Why?

Pattaya has a committee that is organised and dedicated to its cause of raising money for its nominated charity. Bangkok has a committee that does … what? There is more to Pride than bashing the efforts of previous committees and promoting your own businesses.

I read that Pride committee meetings take 3-4 hours. Why? If they talked a lot less and DID a lot more then they might manage to attract some capable people onto the committee.

Here is a suggestion for the committee of Pride: Get your website up and running and publish the full accounts - not just a summary, and do it as soon as possible. Show what has been collected and from whom; what the expenses were; what has been donated and when. Try to get some archives up showing charitable donations over the years. Then people will know what you have been doing and there will be an end to this damaging speculation; claim and counter-claim.

[jdinasia]

(on the Bangkok Pride Festival v Pattaya Gay Festival thread) simple ... Pride IS the charity to whom people gave money ..... amazingly they ran in the black and donated some out to further charoties/ngo's/agencies etc Probably it is in their by-laws that they do this, but you are deluded if you think they needed to. They could have kept the cash and used it for volunteer appreciation ... or next year's advertising budget .... or just about anything! ... so you have no "facts" about lavish dinners or anything else! Just an over-inflated sense of what YOU think should be done and the way it should be done! Pride was not established to be a means of donating money to other agencies ... the fact that they DO donate should be lauded!

If you look at the excellent Pattaya Gay Festival website under the heading "About Us" you can see the PGF Committee Report for 2006. Therein you will see "We are pleased to report that 2006 proved to be another hugely successful year for the Pattaya Gay Festival. As will be seen from the accounts being presented by the Treasurer, a net income of 3.7 million baht was achieved – only some 0.1 million baht short of 2005's record breaking 3.8 million. The whole of this sum was available for charitable donations and 3.6 million baht was duly donated to Heartt 2000 during the year"

Read that again "The whole of this sum was available for charitable donations" .

Then read again jdinasia's suggestion on Pride "They could have kept the cash and used it for volunteer appreciation ... or next year's advertising budget .... or just about anything"

Or just about anything! Are you serious?

I do NOT agree with you that 'Pride is the charity'. Pride is an organization of the Gay community with the aim of collecting money for gay related charities and gay philanthropic organizations. Charities are set up with specifics in mind, not 'just about anything.' I have not seen any charter or by-laws for Pride but as a member of the public I supported Pride with my cash in the (probably foolish) belief that it would be used for AIDS awareness training; hospices; free condoms; AIDS treatment etc etc. and I expect that the majority of the public gave with the same expectation. They did not expect their money to be used to buy meals in committee members' restaurants. If we take jdinasia's 'just about anything' to its logical conclusion then a new car for Pride's chairman is permissible.

Pattaya has got its act together; Bangkok has not.

Pattaya has a permanent website that gives full news of its mission, its fundraising, its accounts and expenditure on its causes. Anyone can see at a glance what the Pattaya Festival has been doing over the years and what it is about to do. Bangkok has had at least two websites over its variously named life; now it has nothing. Why?

Pattaya has a committee that is organised and dedicated to its cause of raising money for its nominated charity. Bangkok has a committee that does … what? There is more to Pride than bashing the efforts of previous committees and promoting your own businesses.

I read that Pride committee meetings take 3-4 hours. Why? If they talked a lot less and DID a lot more then they might manage to attract some capable people onto the committee.

Here is a suggestion for the committee of Pride: Get your website up and running and publish the full accounts - not just a summary, and do it as soon as possible. Show what has been collected and from whom; what the expenses were; what has been donated and when. Try to get some archives up showing charitable donations over the years. Then people will know what you have been doing and there will be an end to this damaging speculation; claim and counter-claim.

Then again YOU could join ... and help out ... and tell us all about it.

No a new car would NOT be permissible because that would be profit.

Yes Pattaya is a far more successful event ... why? more venues? more sex tourists/sex pats etc ....?

However ... the PGF will never draw regular Thai gay folks. It will always be an event for the bars etc. I rather doubt that PGF has to pay the expenses out that BKK does (space in the parks ... etc)

I foresee Pride in BKK moving further and further from Silom and particularly from Twilite and more into the overwhelmingly Thai areas. Why? The Thai folks are starting to generate a real gay identity <and yes this has almost nothing to do with the tourist/ex-pat community>

Oh ... and BKK does have a website

[bibendum]

Oh ... and BKK does have a website

So it does ......... created today according to the 'right click' properties.

The home page is there but none of the other pages are functioning. Since you are au fait with the minutiae of Pride can you tell us when more detail will appear?

A very busy job does not allow me time to be involved in extracorporeal affairs with Pride, however I am ever willing to throw money at any charitable fundraising organisation IF it is open and up front about its finances. Information about Pride's finances is like the search for the Holy Grail and I hope they will be publishing their financial records on their new website in the very near future.

[Steveexpat]

Maybe I am wasting my time here. I am impartial, just believe in finding out all sides. I understand the concern of abuse of charities. I went and talked to one of the owners of Balcony on the weekend. He said at the Annual General Meeting, a complete detail of the expenses were given out to many of those in attendence, including Balcony, Telephone, dreadedneds and Dicks cafe. I also asked Khun Tai at Telephone Pub, and he said the same thing, and he is on the finance committee. He did say, that as of now there is no webmaster to post the financial sheets, but please feel free to come to any meeting of Pride Festival, held on the First Monday of every month at Bug & Bee Cafe at 5:30pm.

If anyone can volunteer to be webmaster, the first thing posted will be the Financial Page for 2006.

I hope all this settles soon, if you don't like the way it is run, JOIN IT and help out.

But then again, so many here are hiding under names just to hurt certain individuals. I will go to the meeting on the 5th to ask questions. I hope the rest of you will also.

[jojo11]

<br />Maybe I am wasting my time here. I am impartial, just believe in finding out all sides. I understand the concern of abuse of charities. I went and talked to one of the owners of Balcony on the weekend. He said at the Annual General Meeting, a complete detail of the expenses were given out to many of those in attendence, including Balcony, Telephone, dreadedneds and Dicks cafe. I also asked Khun Tai at Telephone Pub, and he said the same thing, and he is on the finance committee. He did say, that as of now there is no webmaster to post the financial sheets, but please feel free to come to any meeting of Pride Festival, held on the First Monday of every month at Bug & Bee Cafe at 5:30pm.<br />If anyone can volunteer to be webmaster, the first thing posted will be the Financial Page for 2006.<br />I hope all this settles soon, if you don\\\\\\\'t like the way it is run, JOIN IT and help out.<br />But then again, so many here are hiding under names just to hurt certain individuals. I will go to the meeting on the 5th to ask questions. I hope the rest of you will also.<br />

<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

\' a \'complete\' detail of the expenses were given . . . . . \' ,

\'I am impartial\' REALLY!!!!

Edited March 5, 2007 by jojo11

[jojo11]

I have been given access to the accounts and it makes interesting reading!!! If you send me an e mail I will send you the link!

Below are just some of the accounts;

Checking:

25-Oct-06 9660226 -10,000 baht ‘To Petty Ca

30-Oct-06 9660228 -30,000 baht Float Company

30-Oct-06 9660228 -33,000 baht Assawan Printing

03-Nov-06 9660229 -30,000 baht Cash

03-Nov-06 9660230 -50,000 baht Cash

03-Nov-06 9660231 -30,850 baht Tent Company

20-Nov-06 9660232 -30,000 baht ‘Transgender Legal Fund’

And it goes on!

Cash:

03-Nov-06 -5,200 baht SWING ‘volunteers’ meals.

04-Nov-06 -1,800 baht SWING ‘volunteers’ meals.

04-Nov-06 -8,700 baht SWING ‘volunteers’ payment!

This list doesn’t even mention amounts paid to certain ‘restaurants’ for ‘meals’

I showed these accounts to an accountant, who exclaimed ‘ &lt;deleted&gt;@king hel_l!’

Edited March 5, 2007 by jojo11

[orchis]

Do Pattaya Pride and BKK Pride publish their accounting of donations/fundraising, where are these available and are they clear, honest and transparent? Once these questions are answered there should be no doubt about them anymore, really. Their expenses could be limited as they work with volunteers and can ask services in lieu of donations from the various companies in the gay "community". Overhead should then be no more than 10 percent of monies raised. Also donators can freely question the accounts of charities without being volunteers themselves.

And yes, please send me the links.

Edited March 5, 2007 by orchis

[jojo11]

I agree with your points, Link sent!

Edited March 5, 2007 by jojo11

[jumnien]

While a primary purpose of charities and fundraising is to help those who need help, a very strong secondary reason is income tax avoidance. People involved with income tax avoidance schemes are not always known for their integrity and soulfulness. The world of non-profits is extremely profitable and quite scary sometimes. That said, some good work gets done.

[jjonjj]

<br />

<img src=\\\"style_emoticons/default/angry.gif\\\" style=\\\"vertical-align:middle\\\" emoid=\\\"\\\" border=\\\"0\\\" alt=\\\"angry.gif\\\" /> I\\\'ve recently been informed by a co worker (who by the way is gay), that there seems to be quite a bit of \\\'creative accounting\\\' going on at the gay charity Bangkok Gay Pride! <br /><br />My co worker tells me that he has requested, on a number of times, financial statements for the monies given to no avail!

<br /><br /><br /> Newbie to this forum, mjthai007, has posted here some interesting accusations against the Bangkok Pride Festival 2006 Committee. Not wanting to repeat everything he claims, I\\\'ll just sum it up in my own words: He thinks the Committee is a bunch of crooks who have stolen funds from the Bangkok Pride Festival.<br /><br />I\\\'ve read and re-read the \"evidence\" he gives and I have ended up thinking that nothing he says will hold water in a court of law. Another poster wrote: \"Let\\\'s be very careful about unsubstantiated accusations on here please. If you have evidence that some sort of fraud is taking place, the proper thing to do is to report it to the authorities, not use internet forums to blacken people\\\'s names.\"<br /><br />What did mjthai007 answer to that? \"... could anyone enlighten me on who the \\\'authorities\\\' are?\" I guess most people would assume that the other poster meant the police.<br /><br />After thinking about mjthai007\\\'s many posts knocking the Bangkok Pride Festival Committee (8 out of the 9 posts he made since joining the Thaivisa.com Forums), I came to the conclusion that he has an axe to grind. But just what is his angle?<br /><br />I came up with several possibilities:<br /><br />(1) He is homophobic. He does admit to being straight in one of his posts. But 8 out 9 posts on a gay topic?? -or-<br /><br />(2) He is the owner of a venue that competes with a venue owned by one of the members of the Bangkok Pride Festival Committee. -or-<br /><br />(3) He has a \"personal quarrel\" with one of the Committee members. -or-<br /><br />(4) He just likes to complain about everything. (But remember that 8 out 9 of his posts could be considered gay-bashing).<br /><br />(5) All of the above or some of the above.<br /><br />Do we have a polling feature on this forum???<br />

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I wasn\\\'t going to get involved with this, but has I would love to see the \\\"Accounts\\\" link: here goes: There seems to be a slight smell of hypocrisy when \\\'Ilovethaivisa\\\' says that the thread starter is a \\\'newbie\\\', or is Ilovethaivisa forgeting he\\\'s using an alias? (posts: 1), mjthai might have an axe to grind but all he is saying ( my conclusion! ) is, show us the accounts!

Maybe Ilovethaivisa or whoever could accomodate him (and the rest of us!).

Would it be possible to have the link e mailed to me? many thanks in advance!

Edited March 5, 2007 by endure
Email addresses not allowed in posts - please use the PM system

[jdinasia]

Oh ... and BKK does have a website

So it does ......... created today according to the 'right click' properties.

The home page is there but none of the other pages are functioning. Since you are au fait with the minutiae of Pride can you tell us when more detail will appear?

A very busy job does not allow me time to be involved in extracorporeal affairs with Pride, however I am ever willing to throw money at any charitable fundraising organisation IF it is open and up front about its finances. Information about Pride's finances is like the search for the Holy Grail and I hope they will be publishing their financial records on their new website in the very near future.

http://www.pridefestival.org/ has been up and running for more than a year

Again you guys are responding to silliness posted by someone with an axe to grind ... (Thankfully BKK pride is more about community growing than sex-pat/tourist entertainment!)

If you want it to be something it isn't ... PLEASE get involved and do something ...

If you don't vote you don't bitch .... and in this case voting would be participating .. or at least contributing

Nice ... first the website has been up for more than 1 year and I have already said that I am not involved ... but a great cop-out in the end for you! <<remember ... I am not a participant ... i live in PHUKET! ... I just happen to know some of the people that ARE involved. I am not defending them here ... because they don't NEED to be defended... so far it is shallow accusations and nothing more! likely by someone with an axe to grind >>