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The Berkbridge Foundation - Questions Regarding Legitimacy
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682 posts in this topic

14 minutes ago, Mecha_Fantastic said:

A legitimate charity would jump at the chance to clear their name, and seize the opportunity to promote their good works amongst the community. The Berkbridge Foundation, lead by Robert S Jalali, is CLEARLY aware of this thread, so there's no ambiguity here. 

Robert, maybe you think by ignoring us it'll all go away. It won't. 

Well regardless of their response, their tracks are being covered as the original ebay listing thread was removed. That's 4 threads related to this issue that disappeared in less than 3 days...

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"100% of the sale of this item will benefit BERKBRIDGE FOUNDATION"

Got it. What percent of the sale will be used for "administrative expenses" and what percent will directly be used to support "single mothers?"

Can I guess at least 99% for your "administrative expenses", which include compensation?

If I am way off, feel free to come on the board and correct my guess.

Edited by icefires
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49 minutes ago, Mecha_Fantastic said:

A legitimate charity would jump at the chance to clear their name, and seize the opportunity to promote their good works amongst the community. The Berkbridge Foundation, lead by Robert S Jalali, is CLEARLY aware of this thread, so there's no ambiguity here. 

Robert, maybe you think by ignoring us it'll all go away. It won't. 

I was going to reply with the same thing.  So many charities work hard to keep their reputation clean and go to lengths to show/prove legitimacy and list where their funds are spent.  Often you can't get them to stop sending testimonials, references, financial statements, and success stories once you get them started. 

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41 minutes ago, Naphtha said:

Well regardless of their response, their tracks are being covered as the original ebay listing thread was removed. That's 4 threads related to this issue that disappeared in less than 3 days...

The non-response is troubling, but the removal of those threads is equally troubling. If these boards function partly as a way to shed light on shadowy corners of our hobby, and to sound alarm bells when it's merited, then we should know if their removal relates to the manner which members brought this information to light, of if there is an effort and attempt happening behind the scenes to make it disappear.

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I have an email exchange from last year with this RJ where we negotiate the price of a book he wants to buy.  Claims “board of directors” doesn’t allow him to spend more than a certain amount on the book (no deal reached).

Best-case scenario: charity doesn’t have to be visible or have an online presence to be legit. I happen to know of a small local non-profit that benefits exactly 8 people (all handicapped).  It doesn’t solicit donations. It’s funded with government grants.

Worst-case scenario: “charity” benefits only himself, his ex-wives and/or baby mamas (“single mothers”)

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1 hour ago, comicwiz said:

The non-response is troubling, but the removal of those threads is equally troubling. If these boards function partly as a way to shed light on shadowy corners of our hobby, and to sound alarm bells when it's merited, then we should know if their removal relates to the manner which members brought this information to light, of if there is an effort and attempt happening behind the scenes to make it disappear.

At least one of the other threads, maybe more than one, had some shrapnel going in the direction of other third parties.  I would like to think that's the reason they were shut down and this one has been allowed to continue.  As long as we keep the conversation respectful, in the spirit of informing the community about a potential bad actor while maintaining openness to that individual / organization coming here to tell their side of the story, I hope we'll be OK.

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1 hour ago, Heronext said:

I have an email exchange from last year with this RJ where we negotiate the price of a book he wants to buy.  Claims “board of directors” doesn’t allow him to spend more than a certain amount on the book (no deal reached).

Best-case scenario: charity doesn’t have to be visible or have an online presence to be legit. I happen to know of a small local non-profit that benefits exactly 8 people (all handicapped).  It doesn’t solicit donations. It’s funded with government grants.

Worst-case scenario: “charity” benefits only himself, his ex-wives and/or baby mamas (“single mothers”)

Most people around here know how much time and energy it takes to amass sufficient knowledge of the market to feel comfortable pricing books and gauging short-term market trends.  That's if you want to be a collector.  If you want to be a dealer / flipper, and take on the risk of trading in high-grade key material at the upper end of the market, the bar is even higher.

The idea that the head of a charity has the time and interest in doing that is enough of a stretch.  The idea that he's backed by a "board" of similarly informed comics experts is beyond ludicrous.  Also keep in mind that based on the lack of evidence of any other fundraising activity, we're being asked to believe that this "board" has told its executive director / CEO to go forth with comics flipping as the organization's sole source of income.  Not to mention, this "board" has presumably authorized him to keep tens of thousands of dollars of its assets tied up in an illiquid inventory of high-grade comics.  It's preposterous.

Edited by Sweet Lou 14
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This thread has prompted me to do some research into non-profits and charities as a whole. There is a ton of information out there and I was very disappointed to find some high profile and well known entities are essentially scams, some moving way less than 10% of their funds to the actual causes they supposedly support while their board members and/or CEO's take in hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in salary and perks (usually under the guise of operating expenses or something like it). It's a joke and truly amazing. My only suggestion is be informed before giving or participating in any of these activities. 

Added note: on the flip side, for smaller charities like this Berkbridge Foundation, it's very hard to determine what's really happening, as there is very little info out there available. Convenient or just a function of being small and under the radar?

Edited by Jaylam
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40 minutes ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

At least one of the other threads, maybe more than one, had some shrapnel going in the direction of other third parties.  I would like to think that's the reason they were shut down and this one has been allowed to continue.  As long as we keep the conversation respectful, in the spirit of informing the community about a potential bad actor while maintaining openness to that individual / organization coming here to tell their side of the story, I hope we'll be OK.

I sometimes wonder how difficult it is, particularly in instances where the majority of the thread is otherwise of important public service, that the people doing the removal just delete the offending posts. I do agree though that there was an element of this in the other threads which could explain it, but it just seems equally as irresponsible to delete the entire thread rather than remove the offending or problem posts. my2cents

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13 minutes ago, Jaylam said:

This thread has prompted me to do some research into non-profits and charities as a whole. There is a ton of information out there and I was very disappointed to find some high profile and well known entities are essentially scams, some moving way less than 10% of their funds to the actual causes they supposedly support while their board members and/or CEO's take in hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in salary and perks (usually under the guise of operating expenses or something like it). It's a joke and truly amazing. My only suggestion is be informed before giving or participating in any of these activities. 

I'm shocked that people don't realize that most of the money that major or a lot of charity organizations take in is a low percentage of the donations that actually go to help the people that the charity is supporting. This has been a known thing in the 90's and I am not shocked that this still happens its sad really, but what I learned back then when I looked at what really reaches the people compared to what is paid for "administration" costs I look at those #'s now to determine how much I donate and how often. 

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15 minutes ago, Jaylam said:

This thread has prompted me to do some research into non-profits and charities as a whole. There is a ton of information out there and I was very disappointed to find some high profile and well known entities are essentially scams, some moving way less than 10% of their funds to the actual causes they supposedly support while their board members and/or CEO's take in hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in salary and perks (usually under the guise of operating expenses or something like it). It's a joke and truly amazing. My only suggestion is be informed before giving or participating in any of these activities. 

Yes. The CEO's of larger charities often make in excess of $500,000 annually.

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25 minutes ago, mosconi said:

I'm still wondering why did they even use "Berk" in the name?  I honestly thought this entity had something to do with Jon Berk!  Possibly part of the deception :whistle: What's the penalty for creating a fraudulent charity?

If I had to guess . . . to try and affiliate it with Berkshire Hathaway

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1 hour ago, mosconi said:

I'm still wondering why did they even use "Berk" in the name?  I honestly thought this entity had something to do with Jon Berk!  Possibly part of the deception :whistle: What's the penalty for creating a fraudulent charity?

Does anyone know what handle the seller used on ebay for 15+ years prior to changing it to Berkbridge?

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