I won’t be at Desert Bus this year. I would very dearly like to be, and plan to send copious baked goods and well wishes to the crew; I know they’ll do great. Desert Bus is important to me. Child’s Play is important to me. Responsible philanthropy is important to me. Child’s Play has not been sufficiently transparent with the community regarding financial and strategy changes for me to support it in good conscience. I don’t think anyone is doing anything malicious; I know Child’s Play is deeply meaningful to the people who work on it. It’s also meaningful to the community, which has moved mountains for the cause. When it comes to nonprofits and transparency, I have high expectations. Simply put, Child’s Play is not keeping their community in the loop on how the charity is evolving and what their plans for it are - how much is being raised and where it is going. The focus has shifted heavily to grants and new partnerships without a lot of clarity on how that impacts the budget. Resources like GuideStar and the Child’s Play website aren’t up to date, which means even more public resources like Wikipedia can’t be maintained by the community. Marketing initiatives have ramped up and programs like the domestic violence shelter network seem to have gone away without mention. To be honest, this all breaks my heart. I feel responsibility to the incredible community that makes this work possible: that we uphold the integrity of a truly great cause. Desert Bus and Child’s Play have done incredible work for many years; I am hopeful that can continue and wish them the best. If you have questions, my email is [email protected]. <3 Jam
