Code Green Campaign Finances

AllGoode

Forum Probie
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I recently lost a family member to a long run-out illness, and she was thoughtful enough to leave behind a small amount of money with the stipulation that I donate a certain amount of it to a charity of my choosing. After having been on the trucks for a little over a year now and having conversations with a few partners who have been on those calls, the Code Green Campaign was my first though. I have heard anecdotally from a few coworkers that CGC has provided resources to help them from some pretty dark places, and based on that alone, they seem like a charity I might be interested in. Searching their website though, I can't seem to find any kind of financial reporting. Looking around the googles, I've not been able to find much more- none of the regular Charity Watch sites have usable information, and EMS1 is, well... EMS1.

I'd love to send some of this money to an organization that does important work in this brand new community I've found myself a part of, but I'm extremely hesitant to give to group that won't disclose what exactly that money is going to do. Does anyone have any insight to how CGC uses donations? If not, are there any other organizations that might benefit from a couple extra dollars in their pocket?
 

DrParasite

The fire extinguisher is not just for show
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MMiz

I put the M in EMTLife
Community Leader
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I donated to the Code Green Campaign last year but haven't received a single communication from them on how the money is being used.

I've been unable to find any information about their financials on the charity investigator websites.

I won't be donating again this year due to similar concerns.
 
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AllGoode

Forum Probie
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That's something of a bummer.
It really is, but it makes sense.

All I've been able to find is a comment on reddit claiming that the founders of CGC use donations for personal vacations. The sad thing is that I can't even find enough information to disprove that- there's absolutely nothing. Until they get it together enough to provide even the bare minimum, giving them money just feels like a foolish thing to do.
 

Summit

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vc85

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According to the IRS they only need to file an e-postcard because of donations less than 50,000

Washington State charities registration shows them as closed
 

Aidey

Community Leader Emeritus
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Hey all, I'm a few days late replying to this. I'm also doing it with my old account since Code Green doesn't have an official account here.

As vc85 pointed out, because we're such a small org we only need to file an e-postcard with the IRS. Last year we did exceed the $50,000 due to the donations for Las Vegas, however the IRS bases what taxes you're required to file on the average over the last 3 years, which for us is not in excess of $50,000. WA state does not require audited financials unless an org has more than $1 million in revenue if they're not using a CPA or more than $3 million if they are. Audits can be very expensive due to the number of hours they take ($5,000+). For this reason we have foregone doing an audit or publishing a formal annual report.

Because we only file the e-postcard none of the charity navigator websites will have detailed financials. We can't even submit financial information to those websites directly, they only get their info from the IRS and for many the e-postcard doesn't show up as anything. We tend to look like a much bigger organization than we really are due to our social media presence.

We do have our limited financials available at http://codegreencampaign.org/about/disclosures/. The 2017 e-postcard hasn't been added because I've been extremely sick and am behind on updating the website.

That all being said, we are an active non-profit in WA, and I'm not sure why any database would be showing us otherwise. I've attached a screenshot of the WA State Secretary of State results page for the org.

Hopefully this clears a few things up for people.

AllGoode, we're sorry to hear of the recent loss of your family member. If you're interested in donating the money within the mental health umbrella but prefer to donate it to someone besides Code Green we suggest the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance, the Battleboro retreat, or the West-Coast Post Trauma retreat. All are first responder specific resources. We are not affiliated with any of them aside from making referrals to their services as appropriate.

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wanderingmedic

RN, Paramedic
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Being resisted with the state is great, but it does not tell us how our charitable contributions are being used.
 

Summit

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Hey all, I'm a few days late replying to this. I'm also doing it with my old account since Code Green doesn't have an official account here.
Hi Aidey thanks for reaching out to the EMTLife community.

Can you tell us about what Code Green has been working on and what successes have been achieved using donated funds?
 
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