The Clinton Foundation has for months pressured a top charity watchdog group to remove it from its watch list, New York Magazine reports.
Charity Navigators, which rates charities for their effectiveness and questionable money handling, flagged the Clinton Foundation in March New York Magazine reports.
According to its website, “A charity will appear on the CN Watchlist when we become aware of conduct that may affect a donor’s decision to support that charity.”
“Clinton Foundation officials accuse the Navigator of unfairly targeting them, lacking credible evidence of wrongdoing, and blowing off numerous requests for a meeting to present their case,” according to NY Mag.
Navigators denies those charges and counters with charges of their own. “Navigator executives counter that the Foundation has demanded they extend the Clintons special treatment. They also allege the Foundation attempted to strong-arm them by calling a Navigator board member,” NY Mag reports.
According to Ken Berger, former CEO of Charity Navigators, “They felt they were of such importance that we should deviate from our normal process. They were irritated by that.”
As the publication of the book “Clinton Cash” approached, the Clinton Foundation increased efforts to be removed from the watch list, to no avail.
“With the publication of Clinton Cash on the horizon, Clintonworld surely knew landing on the Navigator’s watch list would be a public-relations debacle. By early March, Clinton campaign officials were holding regular war-room meetings to orchestrate their defense against the book. Over the next few days, Foundation officials desperately attempted to contact Navigator executives to rebut their claims but, inexplicably, couldn’t get through to anyone on the phone,” NY Mag reports.
Navigators watch list policy is “Charities will typically remain on the Watchlist for six months and just like the Donor Advisory, we want to see evidence that the issues identified in the Watchlist have been resolved in order to remove the Watchlist entry.
NY Mag reports, “Sandra Miniutti, the Navigator’s spokesperson, told me that, in order to get off the list, the Clintons need to publicly address each of the controversies raised by the media with a convincing response.”
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