Charities flee Mar-a-Lago amid fallout
Fundraisers flex economic muscle
Another wave of charities abandoned plans for fundraisers at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach resort, as the fallout intensified Friday over Trump’s remarks on the violence in Charlottesville, Va.
The latest groups to distance themselves from the venue are the American Red Cross, Susan G. Komen, the Salvation Army and Big Dog Ranch Rescue. They’re among at least seven organizations to cancel in recent days, while others indicated they’re weighing their options.
The mass departure of groups from Mar-a-Lago is an example of them wielding their clout, said Dwight Burlingame, a professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University.
It’s likely charities are disassociating from Trump properties
based on moral convictions, but they could also use their exit as “economic leverage” to call attention to ideas to which they are fundamentally opposed, Burlingame said.
“That is part of the freedom that charities and other nonprofits enjoy and part of the responsibility they need to exercise,” Burlingame said.
Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Laurel Baker said she hopes the cancellations emphasize what “we all need to be doing.”
“Critics have said, ‘You are mixing business with politics,’ ” Baker said. “I’m afraid, given the events of the past week ... there is no separating them, unfortunately.”
Perhaps the strongest rebuke Friday came from Palm Beach County philanthropist Lois Pope, the widow of National Enquirer publisher Generoso Pope. She plans to ask the board of the nonprofit she founded, Leaders in Furthering Education, to cancel a Dec. 2 celebration, the Lady in Red Gala, at Mar-a-Lago and move it elsewhere.
In her statement, Pope took exception with Trump’s remarks Tuesday, in which he said “fine people” were on both sides of last weekend’s clash between white nationalists and counterprotesters.
Anyone who shows “even a modicum of support” for neo-Nazis and white supremacists isn’t “deserving of my personal patronage or that of my foundations,” Pope said.
White nationalists gathered Saturday in Charlottesville, Va., to protest the city’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. A man plowed his car into a crowd, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer, police said.
On Friday, the Salvation Army said it won’t host its Holiday Snow Ball at Mar-aLago. It said it relies “heavily on fundraising events,” such as the ball, to help those in need. It added: “Because the conversation has shifted away from the purpose of this event, we will not host it at Mar-a-Lago.”
The American Red Cross also nixed plans to host an annual fundraising event at the resort.
It has “increasingly become a source of controversy and pain,” and relocating the event will let the group keep its “focus on our lifesaving mission and the people we serve,” the group’s statement said.
“The Red Cross provides assistance without discrimination to all people in need,” the statement said. “We must be clear and unequivocal in our defense of that principle.”
Susan G. Komen, which raises money for breast cancer initiatives, said the nonprofit decided to find a new venue to host its 2018 Perfect Pink Party gala, spokeswoman Andrea Rader said. An announcement circulated within the organization didn’t specify why the foundation withdrew, other than to say, “We are not a political organization.”
Big Dog Ranch Rescue’s founder, Lauree Simmons, said that moving the group’s annual luncheon to its new facility will better serve the nonprofit’s core purpose of helping animals.
The cancellations came a day after three large funding organizations — the American Cancer Society, the Cleveland Clinic and American Friends of Magen David Adom — also pulled their events.
Two other organizations said Friday that their events will proceed. A spokesman for The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts said officials haven’t changed plans to gather at Mar-a-Lago.
“The event has been held there for a number of years, and the people who are regulars at the event want to keep it there,” said Gary Schweikhart, spokesman for the Kravis Center.
The Palm Beach Police Foundation said it, too, will stay the course.
“The ball typically attracts 700 people, and it’s the only venue in Palm Beach that will accommodate a crowd of that size,” according to a statement issued from the foundation, which supports Palm Beach Police Department employees.
Carrie Bradburn, president of the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce, said she hopes the nonprofits that are changing venues will stay in Palm Beach.
“As a business owner in the town of Palm Beach, I work with a lot of nonprofits and a lot of people who live in Palm Beach,” she said. “I choose to be neutral.”
Richard Busto, president of the Autism Project of Palm Beach County, said his small, parent-driven nonprofit has had events at Mar-a-Lago, but recently finished a construction project at another venue.
He let Trump’s resort know “early on” he wouldn’t be holding future events at Mar-a-Lago. “I’m certainly happy we made the decision when we did,” Busto said.