Subject: AIDS Ride-more $$$???? (call---demand accountability)
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 14:52:01 -0400 (EDT)

for more information contact ACT UP Washington at 202.547.0854 for immediate
release May 30, 1997
Members of ACT UP in DC are alarmed over recent newspaper accounts of the
AIDS Ride.  
States Steve Michael of ACT UP Washington, "We are asking all people
concerned about AIDS to demand that the "owner" of the AIDS Ride, Dan
Pallotta release details of his "for profit" AIDS Ride corporation.  Please
call the following toll-free numbers and demand accountability.  Thousands of
people across America are being led to believe that these rides somehow
generate needed funds for direct services for people with HIV and AIDS.
 Based on the news accounts we have received, it is doubtful that an
acceptable amount of money raised actually trickles down to those who are in
need --and with HIV or AIDS.
Call the AIDS Ride today---Demand accountability
1-888-39-RIDES
1-800-825-1000
you can also e-mail Dan Pallotta directly at [email-masked]

please note the following news articles 
Questions over past problems of AIDS ride producers
by David Tuller, SF Chronicle, May 31, 1997

Thousands of bicyclists will set out for Los Angeles from Fort Mason tomorrow
to raise money for AIDS programs as part of the fourth annual California AIDS
Ride -- even as producers of the event have come under criticism for some
fundraising practices.

As estimated 2,600 bicyclists are planning to make the seven-day, 525 mile
trip to Los Angeles. To participate, each one had to raise a minimum of
$2,500 and indicate whether they wanted their proceeds after expenses to go
to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation or the HIV-related programs of the Los
Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Center.

Last year, according to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the ride grossed
$8.1 million, $4.1 million of which was earmarked for the foundation. After
administrative, fundraising, rider support and other costs, the foundation
netted $2.5 million for various programs -- a 61 percent rate of return.

"The ride has proven to be very successful in bringing in new donors into the
fight against AIDS at a time when private support and fundraising for AIDS is
diminishing," said Pat Christen, executive director of the AIDS Foundation.
"The personal commitment that people make is so extraordinary that when they
ask family and friends to contribute it's hard to refuse."

But the hoopla over the ride has been dampened by questions about a previous
AIDS ride organized by the event producers, the Los Angeles fundraising firm
of Pallotta TeamWorks. The firm orginated the AIDS ride concept in California
three years ago and since then has produced nearly a dozen similar events
around the country. It is receiving $180,000 from the AIDS Foundation and a
similar amount from the Los Angeles Center to produce the event.

In Pennsylvania, the state attorney general's office investigated last year's
AIDS ride between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., after complaints from
some activists that the percentage of funds paid out to the AIDS
organizations fell well below Pallotta's target of 60 percent of funds
raised.

There are varying reports about the rate of returns from the ride. The
Philadelphia Gay News and this week's Bay Area Reporter, a San Francisco gay
newspaper, reported that the figure was less than 20 percent. Kevin
Honeycutt, Pallotta's national director of logistics, said that those figures
were wrong and that ultimately $420,000 out of the $1.5 million raised went
to the beneficiaries -- a return of 28 percent.

Last month, the firm reached an agreement with the state of Pennsylvania to
pay $110,000 to settle charges that it has violated state laws regarding the
solicitation of funds and the registration of fundraising organizations. The
settlement did not require the firm to admit wrongdoing, and a Pallotta
spokesman said the violations were unintentional and technical in nature.
Most of the settlement money will be distributed to AIDS-related
organizations.

Honeycutt said the problems stemmed from factionalism within the Philadelphia
gay community, which made it difficult to recruit enough riders. "That was
something we had no control over," he said.

In contrast, said Honeycutt, the Washington, D.C., beneficiaries of the same
ride netted a 53 percent return because they registered far more
participants. Honeycutt added that although an AIDS ride in Florida also had
a low return -- 26 percent -- the average for AIDS rides organized by the
firm over the past three years is a little less than 60 percent.

Pat Christen of the AIDS Foundation said she felt confident that the
Philadelphia and Florida situations would not be repeated here.

Critics concerned about proceeds from AIDS bike ride
by Jay Bonasi, Bay City Newswire, May 30, 1997

(SAN FRANCISCO) - Activists today blasted the disbursement of proceeds from
the upcoming "California AIDS Ride 4" in which 2,600 bicyclists will depart
from San Francisco for Los Angeles on June 1.

Critics say that some 40 percent in overhead and promotional costs means that
not enough money goes to support AIDS services and disease research through
the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

However, AIDS Foundation spokesman Jeff DeLucio-Brock today called the ride
and annual success that has raised "very important unrestricted funds" for
AIDS programs such as education, publications and outreach.

Lance Henderson, deputy director of finance and administration for the
foundation, said the 1996 ride grossed $4.1 million in San Francisco pledges,
of which 61.3 percent -- about $2.5 million -- was income returned to the
foundation. Henderson said such a ride entails high fixed costs because
essentially it involves "moving a small city down the coast."

Mike Salinas, editor of the Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco's gay and
lesbian newspaper, said the ride is "not about helping the fight against AIDS
enough and there are better, more cost effective ways to raise funds."

"We're talking about approximately $2 million being spent on 3,000 people in
six days," Salinas said. "You can take 3,000 people to Paris for six days for
that cost." Salinas is also upset about the legal ownership of the ride's
name by Pallotta TeamWorks, a Los Angeles-based promotions firm founded by
President Dan Pallotta. "There's something morally questionable about
copyrighting a service trademark for fighting a disease that has caused me to
bury half of my friends," Salinas said.

Jeff Getty, a treatment activist for ACT UP/Golden Gate, alleges corruption
in the competitive bidding process for the ride. Getty said vendor Gary
Lanier made an $11,000 bid for services in last year's ride but was rejected
by Pallotta for a vendor whose bid cost $5,000 more. Getty, the recipient of
an experimental baboon bone marrow transplant, said he is discouraged by the
lack of funding from the bike ride for AIDS research and treatment drugs for
victims.

Getty said ACT UP members are "furious" with the San Francisco AIDS
Foundation because too much money goes to pay salaries and "ineffective"
bureaucracies. "A lot riders are misled that they are contributing to a
cure," Getty said. "The promotion doesn't say 'ride to pay the salary of AIDS
employees' or 'ride to pay the exhorbitant profits of AIDS promoters'."

Michael Petrelis, a self-proclaimed "AIDS watchdog," also has questioned
specific details about the fundraiser. In a May 22 letter to the San
Francisco AIDS Foundation, Petrelis asked, "What financial and profit margin
arrangements have you agreed to with the Pallotta agency?" and "What is Dan
Pallotta's ... salary and compensation package?"

Pallotta could not be reached for comment.

May 29 Bay Area Reporter
The AIDS Riders are off
But where is the money going?
by Mike Salinas

This Sunday, some 3,000 bicyclists will take off from San Francisco for
Southern California, as part of the fourth annual AIDS fundraiser 
California AIDS Ride, or as it is almost universally advertised,  California
AIDS Ride
Presented by Tanqueray.

Tanqueray, the gin importer, says the AIDS Rides it sponsors around the
country from May through September are ithe most successful AIDS fundraisers
in history.i But for heartbroken and exhausted cyclists of last yearis ride
from Philadelphia to Washington, the story was one of anything but success.
That ride pulled in some $4.5 million in pledges, of which over $1.66 million
came from Philadelphia riders n but it only returned $260,700 (not quite 17
percent) to Philadelphia beneficiaries.

That return was so small because the expenses amounted to over $1.3 million.
The greatest outlays associated with the overhead were for a $180,000
iproduction feei to Los Angeles-based producer Pallotta and Associates n a
for-profit corporation  plus staff salaries and benefitsi of $417,628. The
rest of the overhead consisted of food ($110,559), pledge processing staff
and legal fees ($82,064), advertising, dues, fees, permits, insurance,
staging equipment rentals, space rentals, utilities, supplies, vehicles,
mechanics, fuel, postage, printing, telephone, equipment purchase and rental,
travel and rider recruitment, and $27,561 for imiscellaneous.i
All told, the 786 riders from Philadelphia averaged a total donation of
$331.68 each to community organizations. Before they were allowed to
participate, each paid a non-refundable fee of $45, and lined up pledges of
at least $1,400. 

The resulting outrage over the tiny return in Philadelphia led to the
cancellation of this yearis ride (Washington riders will start in North
Carolina instead); a threatened lawsuit against the Philadelphia Gay News by
Pallotta and Associates; a countersuit brought by PGN and the contributing
writer who followed the story; and a state Attorney Generalis investigation
into the matter. 

In April, Pallotta and Associates was found to have violated a state law
against fundraising without registering as a iprofessional solicitori with
the state, and agreed to pay a fine of $110,000 (about 61 percent of the
iproduction feei) over a two-year period. The Pennsylvania Attorney General
has said the fine, minus the cost of the investigation, will be donated to
AIDS charitable organizations.

A statement on the Philadelphia DC. AIDS Ride, released through the official
press office of Bragman Nyman Cafarelli last August, estimated that iin just
over three years, the seven AIDS Rides around the country have raised nearly
$34 million.i It also said that 60 percent of that money went to
beneficiaries ion average, in other cities.

The remaining 40 percent totals some $13.6 million, which was raised (as
Bragman Nyman Cafarelli put it) ifor individuals with AIDSi but never reached
them. Figures like that worry San Francisco activists who say there are
better, more cost-effective, ways to raise funds. 

Longtime AIDS watchdog Michael Petrelis contacted the San Francisco AIDS
Foundation n the only Bay Area beneficiary to the California AIDS Ride n to
express his concern about Pallotta and Associates (recently renamed iPallotta
TeamWorksi) and to ask iwhat accounting mechanism is in place to prevent such
a mistake happening againi as happened in Philadelphia. In a May 22 letter to
SFAF Director Pat Christen, Petrelis asked,iWhat financial and profit margin
arrangements have you agreed to with the Pallotta agency? and What is Dan
Pallottais, president of the company that bears his name, salary and
compensation package?

But because, as Bill Barker of Pallotta TeamWorks told the B.A.R., we are a
private company,i the company is not required to make its financial records
public; donors and riders may never learn what Pallotta makes as producer. He
and his company are notoriously reticent to release statistics, and just as
notoriously prone to litigation. All financial statements are marked
"Copyright Pallotta & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved. Not for
Duplication."  In Philadelphia, Pallotta and Associates sued PGN, whose calls
were reportedly not returned when it looked into the controversy, demanding a
full-page retraction on page one; a free advertisement provided by Pallotta
and Associates for three consecutive weeks; and the first class postage
necessary to contact all riders with the produceris version of ithe truth
regarding the Ride.i The newspaper refused and filed a countersuit.
Eventually Pallotta and Associates withdrew the suit.

This week, as the riders take off for Los Angeles with their rainbow-hued
AIDS Ride shirts, they will be pushing themselves to physical and mental
limits; they will be putting themselves on the line in a hugely visible fight
against AIDS; but they will not be raising as much money for people with the
disease as they may think. 
According to AIDS Foundation spokesperson Timothy Rodrigues, all San
Francisco riders must pledge a minimum of $2,500 to participate, and 25
percent of all pledges (or $625 each, minimum) will be used for irider
supporti like food and the mobile medical team that will accompany riders.
Barker at Pallotta TeamWorks called those expenses imobilization support,i
and verified that a figure of $1.9 million for 3,000 riders over six nights
isounds about right.i
He acknowledged that the figure icould be lower n or higher,i and said, iOur
primary consideration on the road is safety. If all we supplied for
mobilization support was water and Power Bars, weid probably have more
casualties than the Vietnam war.i

Like Rodrigues, Barker told the Bay Area Reporter the value of the ride
extended beyond the money raised (or delivered to beneficiaries): both men
said that the publicity surrounding the ride helps to remind people that the
AIDS epidemic is not over, and that it is a powerful boost to riders
self-esteem and feelings of well-being.  Pallotta has become an expert at
using that theme to promote his events around the country, as typified by the
brochure hawking last weekis Florida AIDS Ride. iAIDS Ride,i it promised
prospective cyclists, ihas an uncanny way of restoring your faith in
humanity. You'll connect with people, witness other heroes struggling through
their own challenges, and be supported in a brand new way. It will end up
giving you evidence that people aren't as bad as the contemporary world view
often tells us. You'll experience that they're actually pretty magnificent.
 Or not. 

May 29 Bay Area Reporter Editorial:
Doing well by doing bad

Several years ago we heard a radio preacher in the Philadelphia area who had
carved out a stinky niche in the already smarmy world of electronic
evangelism: his pitch was specifically aimed at those people who were
literally down to their last few bucks or less. It was amazing to hear his
spiel: iIf you just have a dollar,i he thundered, iI want you to send it to
me! If you only have a quarter, send it to me!i 
Last year Philadelphia was hit by another pitch that, although different,
certainly bore similarities to that radio preacheris. This time the routine
wasnit in the name of God, it was in the name of people with AIDS n a no less
obnoxious ploy, in our book n and was sold less to people running out of
money than to people running out of hope. The event, of course, was the
PhiladelphiaxWashington AIDS Ride that made some people a bunch of money n
but raised somewhat less for the charities it was intended to help.
This week another AIDS Ride will unspool here in San Francisco, to wrap up in
Los Angeles next week. The riders who drive themselves to exhaustion for this
event are all to be congratulated and treated as heroes. Unfortunately, the
event is so much a part of iAIDS, Inc.i and the time-honored (if filthy)
tradition of people doing well (financially) by doing good (deeds), that it
almost makes us sick to hear its name. We trust the SFxLA ride will return
more to the designated beneficiaries than the scant 17 percent it returned in
Philadelphia; however, it wonit return anything close to enough. If all goes
optimally, organizers expect the overhead to be 40 percent. The 60 percent
left over goes to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, with its overhead. How
much of every dollar will end up in the hands of a person with AIDS? We wish
we knew.

 The thought of all those ridersi friends pledging money to help PWAs, when
they were actually fattening up the producers and the bureaucracy to which
the eventual iproceedsi will proceed, reminded us of that Philly preacher and
left us feeling dazed and enraged in exactly the way we felt listening to
that igive me your last quarteri spiel on the radio.

The sensation only got worse when we reread the chirpy fundraising guide on
the AIDS Ride website, which reads in part, iThe second rule of fundraising.
Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask.
Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. You raise money when
you ask for it and you donit raise money when you donit. The more youire out
there asking, the more youill raise.

The producers should know.
The same is unfortunately true of AIDS Walks,  Dance-A-Thons, Bike-A-Thons,
and other events for which producers skim (legally n we donit dispute that;
our problem is with the morality of it all) a ton of money off the top. In
each of those cases, they are copyrighted events that only the copyright
holder can put on. Imagine: someone has copyrighted the fight against the
disease that has killed our loved ones. And theyire making money on it. 
How much money, exactly, is difficult to ascertain (although weire willing to
bet the producer of the AIDS Rides makes a hell of a lot more this year than
the national iAIDS Czari), but it should be everybodyis business: not only
riders and pledgers, but also anyone who is concerned about so much money
being sucked out of the charitable pool that could be used more effectively.
So if youire concerned about it, as we are, call the producer at (213)
467-8888 and follow the isecond rule of fundraising. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask.
Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask. Ask.
Ask. Ask. Ask."