Capitol Hillbillies
Santorum aides live large off charity payroll
By KIMBERLY HEFLING
Feb 25, 2006, 02:11

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Sen. Rick Santorum's charity donated about 40 percent of the $1.25 million it spent during a four-year period, well below Better Business Bureau standards -- paying out the rest for overhead, including several hundred thousand dollars to campaign aides on the charity payroll.

The charity, Operation Good Neighbor, is described on its Web site as an organization promoting "compassionate conservatism" by providing grants to small nonprofit groups, many of them religious.

The Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance says charitable organizations should spend at least 65 percent of their total expenses on program activities.

Operation Good Neighbor is based at the same address as Pennsylvania Sen. Santorum's campaign office in suburban Philadelphia, and some of the same people who have worked on his campaign are working for his charity and collecting money from it, records show.

Among them:

_Maria Diesel, who has been paid fundraising fees by the campaign, is listed as the charity's finance director. Filings show she has received $192,958 in professional fundraising fees from Operation Good Neighbor.

_Robert Bickhart, who has also been involved in raising campaign funds for Santorum, is listed as the charity's executive director. Filings show he has earned $75,000 in salary from the charity since 2001 and that his business, Capitol Resource Group, rents the office space to the charity. The charity has paid $20,437 in occupancy fees, filings show.

Santorum, the No. 3 Senate Republican, is embroiled in a tough campaign against his leading Democratic opponent, State Treasurer Bob Casey.

The foundation's treasurer defended the organization's level of giving. If money set aside for future gifts is counted, she said, 45 percent of the money collected during the period will go toward charity.

"It is important to realize that the foundation does not have the same ability as better-known charities, such as the Salvation American or the American Red Cross, to raise money without spending much money do so," Barbara Bonfiglio said in a letter posted Friday evening on the charity's Web site.

She said Santorum is not involved in the charity's day-to-day operations. Virginia Davis, Santorum's campaign press secretary, referred questions to the charity.

The charity's finances first came under scrutiny earlier in the week by the liberal magazine The American Prospect.

From 2001 through 2004, filings show Operation Good Neighbor took in a total of $1.6 million and spent about $1.25 million. Of that amount, just over $501,000 was awarded in grants, helping people from the homeless to AIDS patients. The charity has not yet reported 2005 figures.

Its IRS filings are signed by Bonfiglio. Its secretary is listed as Mark Rodgers, Santorum's former chief of staff and now staff director at the Senate Republican Conference, where Santorum is chairman.

Operation Good Neighbor's filings do not show that either Bonfiglio or Rodgers was paid by the charity. The two _ along with Bickhart _ have been on its board since its inception.

Santorum is not the only senator with a charity. Late last year, Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., was criticized after an Associated Press analysis found that his AIDS charity paid nearly a half-million dollars in consulting fees to members of his political inner circle.

Operation Good Neighbor traces its beginning to 2000, when Philadelphia played host to the Republican National Convention. Santorum _ then also facing re-election _ promoted an initiative that funneled corporate donations to the city's disadvantaged during the convention. He later took the initiative and transformed it into the charity, according to published reports. He serves as its unpaid chairman.

The charity spent 31 percent on fundraising during the four-year period, an AP analysis found, under the 35 percent maximum the Better Business Bureau sets as a standard in that category.

But other expenditures, including $169,140 on conferences, conventions and meetings, and $52,906 on travel, brought the total overhead much higher.

While reports on the charity's fundraising have been filed with the IRS, Operation Good Neighbor has not indicated on any of the forms that it has filed returns in any state.

Charities are exempt from filing in Pennsylvania if they don't pay for fundraising or collect less than $25,000 per year.

Operation Good Neighbor is not registered with the Pennsylvania Department of State, said Allison Hrestak, a department spokeswoman. Bonfiglio said the charity learned of the state's registration requirement during an IRS audit, and that it would comply.

On the Net:

Operation Good Neighbor: http://operationgoodneighbor.net/

Sen. Rick Santorum: http://www.ricksantorum.com/

Bob Casey: http://www.bobcaseyforpa.com/

© 2006 The Associated Press

Santorum's Charity Rewards His Cronies

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After reading this article from the March issue of American Prospect, I'm not sure what is most disconcerting about the charity launched by Senator Rick Santorum (R-Penn.) -- the fact that so much of its money is wasted on overhead or the fact that its operations are so tangled up in Santorum's political network.

In the article, American Prospect's Will Bunch writes:
In 2001, [Santorum] launched the Operation Good Neighbor Foundation. The charity, which seeks to award money to faith-based groups and other organizations that combat poverty and social ills like teen pregnancy, has a Web page loaded with photos of a smiling Santorum, posing with oversized checks and leaders of community groups.

... A review of federal tax returns filed by the foundation for 2001, 2002, and 2003 shows that the charity spent just 35.9 percent of the nearly $1 million raised on its charitable grants, while spending 56.5 percent on expenses like salaries, fund-raising commissions, travel, conference costs, and rent.

Charity experts say that charitable groups should spend at least 75 percent of their money on program grants, and that donors should beware of organizations that spend as little as Santorum's has.
There's nothing illegal about operating a charity that spends dollars so inefficiently. Yet Operation Good Neighbor Foundation also seems to serve as a vehicle for enriching Santorum's political operatives and allies:
The donor list isn't the only overlap between Santorum's charity and his political operation. The charity's treasurer is Barbara Bonfiglio -- who works out of the Washington, D.C., lobbying firm of Williams and Jensen and serves as treasurer of the senator's leadership PAC, America's Foundation.

Operation Good Neighbor also paid $50,000 in total salary in 2002 and 2003 to Rob Bickhart, Santorum's finance director, who is also the charity's executive director.

It has paid $118,710 in fund-raising fees to Maria Diesel of Chester County, Pennsylvania, who also raises money for Santorum's political efforts.

Sour Charity
From our March issue (full content): Exclusive: Inside Rick Santorum's charity, which isn't very charitable and hasn't filed the required papers with the state. The sidebar to Bunch's cover story posted yesterday.
By Will Bunch
Web Exclusive: 02.21.06

LINK

Ever conscious of political fashion, Rick Santorum wanted to demonstrate that he, too, was a "compassionate conservative" in 2000, when the Bush campaign popularized the phrase. Santorum helped sponsor the Good Neighbor Initiative, a fund-raising drive that netted $700,000, mostly from big corporations, to do good works in Philadelphia.

"When I found out the Republican convention was coming to Philadelphia, I thought: 'Wouldn't it be a great thing to leave something positive behind other than a bunch of parties and a bunch of garbage?'" Santorum told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In 2001, he launched the Operation Good Neighbor Foundation. The charity, which seeks to award money to faith-based groups and other organizations that combat poverty and social ills like teen pregnancy, has a Web page loaded with photos of a smiling Santorum, posing with oversized checks and leaders of community groups. So far, according to the site, the Senator's charity has doled out $474,000.

But public records show that the group has raised considerably more than that since its inception in 2001.

A review of federal tax returns filed by the foundation for 2001, 2002, and 2003 shows that the charity spent just 35.9 percent of the nearly $1 million raised on its charitable grants, while spending 56.5 percent on expenses like salaries, fund-raising commissions, travel, conference costs, and rent. Charity experts say that charitable groups should spend at least 75 percent of their money on program grants, and that donors should beware of organizations that spend as little as Santorum's has.

"The majority of organizations are able to meet that 75 percent figure," says Saundra Miniutti of Charity Navigator, a watchdog group. Without addressing Santorum's charity specifically, she noted that nonprofits spending in the range of just one-third on programs are "extremely inefficient."

Moreover, the foundation is not registered with the Pennsylvania Department of State. A spokeswoman for the state agency said that any charity that solicits and raises more than $25,000 in Pennsylvania is required by law to register. Records included on the foundation's 2002 tax filing list $94,000 in donations from sources in the state. State law says that violators of the registration law run the risk of civil penalties and possible legal action by the state.

The list of 2002 donors -- displayed on a Web page marked "not open to public inspection" -- includes several major donors to Santorum's political campaign. Most notable is Philadelphia Trust Company, the same private bank that refinanced Santorum's Virginia home in 2002, which gave $10,000. The CEO of Philadelphia Trust, Michael Crofton, is chairman of the charity's board of advisers. The foundation also raised $25,000 from the PMA Foundation, the charitable arm of a risk-management firm in suburban Philadelphia; $25,000 from the suburban Philadelphia development firm Preferred Real Estate; and $10,000 from J. Brian O'Neill, the brother of that firm's founder and himself a developer. The charity also received $10,000 from the Keystone Sanitary Landfill, owned by Louis DeNaples, a controversial Scranton businessman who is fending off published allegations that he associates with organized-crime figures.

The donor list isn't the only overlap between Santorum's charity and his political operation. The charity's treasurer is Barbara Bonfiglio -- who works out of the Washington, D.C., lobbying firm of Williams and Jensen and serves as treasurer of the senator's leadership PAC, America's Foundation. Operation Good Neighbor also paid $50,000 in total salary in 2002 and 2003 to Rob Bickhart, Santorum's finance director, who is also the charity's executive director. It has paid $118,710 in fund-raising fees to Maria Diesel of Chester County, Pennsylvania, who also raises money for Santorum's political efforts.

Gary Ruskin of the Congressional Accountability Project, a good-government group, questioned why Operation Good Neighbor would hire lobbyists and political operatives instead of charity professionals. "It looks like another pocket to fill," Ruskin said, adding: "Senator Santorum is obviously a man with many pockets."

Santorum's office did not comment.

© 2006 by The American Prospect, Inc.

DeLay's PAC gave Riley $11,000
Group registered in Alabama to make contribution, treasurer says
Friday, January 20, 2006
KIM CHANDLER and MARY ORNDORFF
News staff writers

LINK

A political campaign committee run by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay registered in Alabama in 2002 because it contributed to Bob Riley's campaign for governor, according to its treasurer.

The Americans for a Republican Majority's account for state candidates filed paperwork with the Alabama Secretary of State on May 15, 2002, the same day the committee made a $1,000 contribution to Riley's campaign.

The treasurer of the committee, Barbara Bonfiglio, said the filing was in response to Alabama law that requires registration by committees that spend at least $1,000 on a state candidate. The issue is coming up now because one Alabama Democrat is questioning why the committee, which is at the heart of a criminal investigation in Texas, filed in Alabama.

Although it registered in Alabama, the committee did not raise or spend any money in the state that it wasn't already reporting to the Internal Revenue Service, according to a review of IRS and Secretary of State records. The committee supported nonfederal candidates around the country and was a 527 account, so named for the section of the tax code that allows the tax-exempt organizations to engage in political activities using unlimited contributions.

The only two direct contributions to Alabama candidates in 2002 are to Riley for a total of $11,000 before the June primary. However, the state account of ARMPAC, the nickname for Americans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee, raised and spent about $2.3 million during the 2002 election cycle, according to records compiled by PoliticalMoneyLine, making it one of the more active 527 groups that year.

The committee's filings in Alabama list many but not all of the same contributions and expenditures that it also reported to the IRS that same year. The year-end report filed in Alabama shows $1.1 million of the committee's spending in 2002. Bonfiglio said she did not know why the Alabama filing doesn't include all of the financial activity involving other states.

State Rep. Randy Hinshaw, D-Meridianville, sent copies of the Alabama filing to the Alabama attorney general and the Texas prosecutor who has charged DeLay with campaign finance violations. Hinshaw said he thought it was odd that DeLay would report so much out-of-state money in Alabama.

"Something doesn't add up about this," Hinshaw said.

Craig Holman, a campaign finance expert for Public Citizen's Congress Watch, a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, also questioned why DeLay would report so much out-of-state money in Alabama. "It makes no sense that he would report that money in Alabama if he wasn't spending that money in Alabama," Holman said.

Riley's office and the committee's treasurer say there is nothing suspect about the records. "If following state law, if that's untoward, then there's any number of committees you can write articles about," Bonfiglio said.

Riley spokesman Jeff Emerson said Riley has advocated tighter rules on campaign finance in Alabama, including a ban on transferring money from PAC to PAC, a process that obscures the original contributor. Hinshaw's committee in the state Legislature recently approved a bill to ban the transfers but the proposal has yet to come to a vote on the House floor.

DeLay is accused of breaking Texas election law by routing huge sums of corporate donations through PACs to state Republican candidates.

E-mail: kchandler@bhamnews.com

© 2006 The Birmingham News
© 2006 al.com All Rights Reserved.

Santorum charity fell short of giving goal
Operation Good Neighbor donated about 40% of what it spent. The BBB says such groups should allocate 65%.
By Kimberly Hefling, Associated Press

LINK

WASHINGTON - Sen. Rick Santorum's charity donated about 40 percent of the $1.25 million it spent during a four-year period - well below Better Business Bureau standards - paying out the rest for overhead, including several hundred thousand dollars to campaign aides on the charity payroll, records show.

The charity, Operation Good Neighbor, provides grants to small nonprofit groups, many of them religious.

The Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance says charitable organizations should spend at least 65 percent of their total expenses on program activities.

Operation Good Neighbor is based at the same address as Santorum's campaign office in West Conshohocken, and some of the same people who have worked on his campaign are working for his charity and collecting money from it, records show.

Among them is Maria Diesel, who has been paid fund-raising fees by the campaign. She is listed as the charity's finance director; filings show she has received $192,958 since 2001 in professional fund-raising fees from Operation Good Neighbor.

Robert Bickhart, who has also been involved in raising campaign funds for Santorum, is listed as the charity's executive director. Filings show that he has earned $75,000 in salary from the charity since 2001 and that his business, Capitol Resource Group, rents the office space to the charity. The charity has paid $20,437 in occupancy fees, filings show.

Santorum (R., Pa.) is embroiled in a tough reelection campaign against his leading Democratic opponent, State Treasurer Bob Casey Jr.

The foundation's treasurer defended the organization's level of giving. If money set aside for future gifts is counted, she said, 45 percent of the money collected during the period will go toward charity.

"It is important to realize that the foundation does not have the same ability as better-known charities, such as the Salvation Army or the American Red Cross, to raise money without spending much money to do so," treasurer Barbara Bonfiglio said in a letter posted last night on the charity's Web site (http://operationgoodneighbor.net).

Bonfiglio said Santorum is not involved in the charity's day-to-day operations. Virginia Davis, Santorum's campaign press secretary, referred questions to the charity.

The charity's finances came under scrutiny earlier in the week by the liberal magazine the American Prospect.

From 2001 through 2004, filings show, Operation Good Neighbor took in a total of $1.6 million and spent about $1.25 million. Of that amount, a little more than $501,000 was awarded in grants, helping groups including homeless people and AIDS patients.

Santorum's charity spent 31 percent on fund-raising during the four-year period, an AP analysis found, under the 35 percent maximum the Better Business Bureau sets as a standard in that category.

Charities are exempt from filing in Pennsylvania if they do not pay for fund-raising or if they collect less than $25,000 per year. Operation Good Neighbor is not registered with the Pennsylvania Department of State, said Allison Hrestak, a department spokeswoman.

Bonfiglio said that the charity learned of the state's registration requirement during an IRS audit and that it would comply.

© 2006 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.philly.com