Sting's Rainforest Foundation Charity Under Fire

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
May 7th 2008 at 10:02AM

Sting has long been known as one of Hollywood's most philanthropic people but this week Sting and his wife Trudie Styler are under fire for their charity The Rainforest Foundation. Charity Navigator has reported that only 41 percent of the money raised by the couple's Carnegie Hall charity concert in 2006 actually went to fund programs that save the rain forest. In their rating system they have given the charity 0 stars.

Trudie Styler is quoted in People as saying that the foundation is in it's 20th year and that alone speaks to the efficacy of the nonprofit. In 2006, the charity reported $10 million in net assets including almost $5 million in cash which has caused some to speculate as to what they are doing with the money. This news comes as the Rainforest Foundation's next Carnegie Hall concert is set for May 8 with performances by Billy Joel, James Taylor and Brian Wilson and also includes a charity auction with a variety of donated items to raise money for the foundation.

Tags: charity of the day, rainforest foundation, sting, trudie styler

Filed under: Charity of the Day

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Richard May 7th 2008 12:17PM

When a charity has a celebrity at a fund raiser, everyone thinks the celebrity donated his time. But that is rarely true. Not only does the celebrity get paid, the celebrity normally gets his full fee.

So when the event has a lot of celebrities, the percent given to the charity is low.

Sharon May 9th 2008 2:29PM

It's called a non-profit masquerading as a "Tax Shelter". It's not unusual: Sammy Sosa comes to mind as the most recent example of a celebrity forming a non-profit releif organization, making nearly all deposits into the fund himself, and then not disbursing the funds. And Trudie Styler hasn't a leg to stand on when she says the time the non-profit has been around is a testament to "it's strength". Any fund will be strong if you park millions in it and collect the interest.

If I were Britain's Inland Revenue, I'd be calling for an audit of the fund and the Sumners.