Lisa Benitez, fundraiser for a project that she says has lost $6,400 to Help Is Here, teaches ESL at a community college in Madison, Wis. She learned from her students years ago about a charity in Ecuador — Rhumy Wara Foundation — that brought education and health care to the Salasaca, an indigenous tribe in the isolated central Andes that struggles to maintain its native culture.
In 2006, Benitez began to raise money in the United States on behalf of Rhumy Wara. She got a fiscal sponsor in Wisconsin and everything went smoothly for four years. When that sponsor’s board of directors decided to stop offering fiscal sponsorship, Benitez went looking for a new sponsor and found Help Is Here, through Study Center’s fiscalsponsordirectory.org.
In May 2010, she said, she phoned Bill Mack, then CEO of HIH, which she believed was based in Menifee, Calif., where Mack lives. She found him “very helpful.” Mack agreed that HIH would act as the fiscal sponsor for U.S. donations and grants to Rhumy Wara.
Problems for Benitez began in early 2011 when Maggie Lane-Baker became CEO of HIH. Benitez had received a $1,400 donation from the Rotary Club of Madison, deposited it with Help Is Here and soon was having difficulty getting HIH to use it to cover Rhumy Wara expenses.
Benitez recalls a series of excuses from Lane-Baker — broken office computers, monthlong interruptions in office phone and Internet services, loss of HIH accountants due to sickness — all said to be delaying the transfer of Rhumy Wara funds.
Benitez said Lane-Baker told her that the federal government was blocking money transfers to Ecuador in an effort to fight international drug trafficking. So, Lane-Baker said, Rhumy Wara should set up a SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) account, a standard of identifying bank accounts across international borders to facilitate international banking transfers. Benitez arranged for Rhumy Wara to set up such the account. Still, no transfers from HIH.
Next, in a telephone conference call, Benitez said, Lane-Baker, Mack and the HIH attorney told her Help Is Here could be accused of abetting international terrorism if it sent any money outside the United States.
Then Lane-Baker told Benitez to produce a notarized power of attorney from Rhumy Wara before HIH would release any of the project’s funds.
At great expense and with many difficulties, Benitez said, she traveled to Ecuador, obtained a written statement from the head of Rhumy Wara, got it translated and notarized, and sent it to HIH. Nothing happened, Benitez said. She got no response to numerous emails; her phone calls to Lane-Baker, she said, were blocked.
The turnover in accountants kept the books in chaos, Lane-Baker told Benitez, and, until clarification, no money could be released. Finally, Benitez said, she spoke with Mack in California who told her he believed she had done everything required, and didn’t know why Lane-Baker wouldn’t release Rhumy Wara’s money.
On the QT, Benitez said, she heard from former HIH compliance officer Anglie Clitherow who told her that strange things were going on at Help Is Here. Benitez contacted other HIH projects and learned that their funds, too, were being stonewalled. When she did get through to Lane-Baker, Benitez said, Maggie made it a point to accuse other project heads of malfeasance and fraud. No accusations directly to the individual in question, Benitez said, but she always ragged about one project head to another. Others confirmed this observation.
In November, Benitez contacted her congresswoman, Rep. Tammy Baldwin D-Wis., whose office sent her complaint and documentation to the Milwaukee IRS office. The IRS acknowledged receiving the complaint and told Benitez it was investigating it, but, as of September, wouldn’t disclose its status.
Benitez contacted the Wisconsin state authorities as well who, in turn, contacted Lane-Baker. Based on these contacts, the state’s Department of Safety and Professional Services issued a cease-and-desist order Aug. 7 banning Help Is Here from soliciting charitable funds in Wisconsin.
Benitez has managed to extricate Rhumy Wara from HIH, but she doesn’t have the $5,000 donated by the Jack Taylor Trust or the Rotary Club of Madison West’s $1,400 donation. Rotary has told Benitez that it also cannot make a second $1,400 donation to Rhumy Wara planned for 2012 unless the first $1,400 is found and properly disbursed to Rhumy Wara.
Rotary is not holding Benitez responsible for what it calls “fraudulent loss of funds,” said Dean Bowles, local chair of the club’s World Service Committee. “We have no disregard for Lisa, and don’t blame her at all. Our experience with her over the years has been very good.” Bowles is considering alerting the national and international Rotary Club membership of the actions of Help Is Here by placing information on the club’s Website.
“It sounds like Help Is Here has done this before,” he told the Study Center. “It would help people to know about it.”
Posted Sept. 7, 2012
Other stories in this series about Help Is Here
Arizona fiscal sponsor accused of taking $300,000 — Part 1
Help Is Here CEO Responds — Part 2
Judges Are Listening to Abused Projects — Part 3
Erik’s Cause Wins Suit Against HIH