WE’s fundraising methods could negatively impact other charities

OTTAWA — “Horrifying” stories of WE Charity’s alleged plaque-swapping and other dubious practic-es has prompted calls for investigations by the RCMP, the Canada Revenue Agency and the U.S. In-ternal Revenue Service.

Charity experts fear that the allegations will make Canadians less likely to open their wallets to other charities, already dealing with a downturn due to the pandemic.

“I’m shocked, astonished, horrified, you pick your word,” said Ann Rosenfield, principal at Charita-bly Speaking. “The thing that’s hard to let the donor public know is what a gigantic outlier and how unusual the allegations are against WE Charity.”

Rosenfeld, who has decades of experience working in the charitable sector, was referring to a se-ries of allegations regarding unusual donor recognition practices by the Toronto-based charity that have emerged in recent weeks through media reports and a parliamentary committee hearing.

Last Friday, American journalist and WE Charity donor Reed Cowan told members of the parliamen-tary ethics committee that he had recently learned that a school in Kenya he had funded in honour of his late son later bore a plaque with another donor’s name.

Learning that the plaque bearing his son Wesley’s name — who died at the age of four in 2006 — had been swapped out for another donor’s name was like “returning to my son’s grave and finding it broken, open, defiled and empty,” Cowan said during emotional testimony.

He also said that he’d broached the topic with WE organization co-founder Craig Kielburger, who offered a sort of “mea culpa.” In a statement sent to media after the hearing, the organization said Cowan’s experience was “exceedingly rare.”

In an emailed statement Monday, an unnamed WE Charity spokesperson also argued that all of Cowan’s donations were spent to help children.

“While we understand why Mr. Cowan is upset that one of his plaques was removed — and we re-gret that error — the funds he raised 15 years ago has long since been used for the sort of charita-ble purposes everyone expected,” reads the statement.

But experts like Rosenfield and lawyer Alexandra Tzannidakis, partner at tax and charity law firm Drache Aptowitzer, think alleged stories like Cowan’s seriously undermine Canadians’ trust in Canadian charities.

“Regardless of if it’s legal or not, engaging in questionable practices especially with regards to the public and donors, risks putting the entire sector in some level of disrepute,” Tzannidakis said.

“This is already a difficult time for charities, and I’m sure that the last thing that the sector wants is increased scrutiny on how charities are using their funds.”

Cowan isn’t the first donor to express frustration regarding allegedly dubious WE Charity donor recognition practices.

On CBC’s “The Fifth Estate” last month, James Cohen, another WE donor, said the organization as-sured him that a group of donors he represented had paid for the entirety of a borehole in Kenya.

But on the same report, another donor said she’d received an email from WE saying her donation was enough to implement a clean water system in Kenya. Accompanying photos appeared to show the same borehole as Cohen’s.

In its Monday statement, WE disagreed that CBC’s story described “a pattern of donor allegations” similar to the one described by Cowan last Friday.

WE also pointed to its statement published by CBC News on Saturday that “there was no donor confusion” all the while mentioning emails that Cohen later understood explained that he had paid for only part of the borehole.