Sex-ed nonprofit banks heavily on public funds
Heritage gets millions, but operations are secret and success questioned
File/The Post and Courier
A poster heralds the Heritage sex-education abstinence focus.
Heritage gets millions, but operations are secret and success questioned
Related documents
For more information about Heritage Community Services, you can see:
-- The nonprofit's latest IRS 990 form, a document it and other nonprofits must make public every year.
-- A statement Heritage Community Services supplied to The Post and Courier about its programs.
-- A federal study that analyzed Heritage's key abstinence-only program.
Heritage Community Services, a well- connected North Charleston nonprofit that teaches students to abstain from sex until marriage, has received or been allocated more than $23 million in state and federal money since 1997, including a $1.4 million infusion of state funds last year, tax documents and other records show.
But a recent federal evaluation of its work in Edgefield County found that one of its key programs might not work.
An analysis of tax and other government records also shows that Heritage Community Services depends almost entirely on government funds to operate — more than some government agencies.
Despite this dependence on tax dollars, Heritage has hidden behind its nonprofit status when state officials and reporters asked for basic information about its operations in South Carolina.
Heritage Community Services has received nationwide attention — positive and negative — for its focus on teaching students that chastity is the only sure way to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
But a look at its finances shows how lines between nonprofits, for-profits and government sometimes blur.
It also shows how state lawmakers quietly tuck hundreds of thousands of dollars in the state budget for favored nonprofits without signing their names or explaining why the money is needed. Some lawmakers have vowed to change this practice during the current legislative session.
Questions about Heritage's funding and effectiveness also come amid emerging resistance to the Bush administration's focus on abstinence-until-marriage to reduce teen pregnancies. Since George W. Bush's election to the presidency, the federal government has poured nearly $1 billion into these efforts.
But last year, Virginia became the 14th state to turn down federal grants for abstinence programs. In doing so, the Virginia governor cited recent studies showing that teaching teens about chastity and birth control is a better way to prevent teen pregnancies than teaching only about abstinence.
'Wait'
Heritage's offices take up at least seven storefront units in a brick strip shopping center off Ashley Phosphate Road. Next door is a Mexican grocery store and the Lowcountry Crisis Pregnancy Center. Heritage runs several marriage and family-support programs, but its flagship program is the Heritage Keepers abstinence course.
In 10 45-minute courses or five 90-minute sessions, Heritage's staff teaches students that sex is like fire: Safe within the right place, unsafe outside a protected place, with marriage being the only protected place. They teach students how to refuse advances and that condoms can fail.
Heritage teaches its programs in 14 Charleston County district schools, down from 19 a year ago. Heritage also has programs in Colleton County's high schools and middle schools, but Berkeley and Dorchester County school officials don't use the organization's services, preferring to use their own staff to teach sex education.
Heritage sells T-shirts for $10 on its Web site that say "Virgins are hot" and "Wait," but the main source of the group's revenue comes from state and federal grants and other government sources, records show. Since 1997, Heritage's revenue totaled about $23.5 million, according to tax forms and state and federal budget documents.
Of that $23.5 million, about $23.2 million, or 99 percent, came from grants and other government sources, those records show, though it's unclear from the group's tax forms in the late 1990s exactly which government agencies contributed how much.
When the newspaper asked for this information, Heritage declined, saying it would require paying an accountant. Todd Carroll, Heritage's lawyer, said that the group "acknowledges that it is funded primarily through federal grants, as well as some state-level resources."
The group's success in nabbing these public dollars is largely due to its political connections.
Anne Badgley founded the nonprofit in the mid-1990s when the abstinence movement picked up steam. In 1997, the group's budget hovered at $50,000. In 1999, with help from then-Gov. David Beasley and state lawmakers, its budget grew to $1.5 million.
That year was a turning point. During his first presidential campaign stop in South Carolina, George W. Bush visited one of Heritage's workshops. "I could see he was very sincere, and I worked hard to get him elected," Badgley told Washington Monthly magazine in 2002. Badgley declined to comment for this story but did provide a statement outlining studies that found the program works.
Today, Badgley and her family hold key positions with the group. She is chief executive officer, drawing a salary of $83,576, according to 2006 tax records. She also received $5,000 in compensation from the Lowcountry Crisis Pregnancy Center, where she is listed as a former officer. Badgley's husband, Gordon, is Heritage's operations director, making $68,576.
The Badgleys' son-in-law, Gerald Raymond, pulls down $65,476 as a regional director, and the Badgleys' daughter, Sally Raymond, also has a director-level job, tax records show.
In addition, Gordon and Anne Badgley run a for-profit business called Badgley Enterprises that benefits from Heritage's publicly funded operations.
In 2003 and 2004, Heritage paid Badgley Enterprises $290,095 for 10,000 student manuals and other materials, tax records show.
How to get $800,000
Heritage continues to have powerful friends, with Cyndi Mosteller, a notable Republican operative and sister of Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Charleston, sitting on the group's board, according to its 2006 tax form. Charleston-area lawmakers, such as state House Speaker Bobby Harrell and state Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Bonneau, have sponsored grant applications for the group.
Last spring, lawmakers quietly penciled $800,000 for Heritage into the state budget in what's known as a budget proviso. No lawmaker's name was attached to the proposal. Through word of mouth, The Post and Courier learned that Grooms initiated the budget outlay.
In an interview, Grooms said he thinks highly of Heritage's work, and that "the folks at Heritage let me know that it looked like they were going to lose some federal money." While most of his district is in Berkeley and Dorchester counties, which don't use Heritage's programs, he represents a portion of Colleton County. "And Colleton is very pleased with them," he said.
Grooms said he went to the chairman of a Senate subcommittee and asked him to meet with Heritage representatives. Later, the Senate Finance Committee added a sentence to the state budget saying that $800,000 should be sent to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control on the condition every penny goes to Heritage Community Services.
The proviso didn't offer any other details about how the money would be used.
According to Thom Berry of DHEC, the agency isn't required to monitor how that money is spent. "The money comes to us, and we cut the check (to Heritage), and that's the beginning and the end of it," he said.
Heritage also received $600,000 last year through the state Department of Social Services, and federal grant records show the group was awarded an additional $1.4 million in federal money.
During this year's session, several lawmakers, including Harrell, are pushing legislation requiring lawmakers to attach their names to provisos and earmarks.
Denying information
In some respects, Heritage is more dependent on tax dollars than some government agencies.
While Heritage receives nearly all of its money from government sources, the city of North Charleston gets about 87 percent of its budget from property taxes, grants and business licenses, with the remaining $10 million from donations, fines, fundraising and other non-tax-dollar sources. CARTA, the local bus service, gets about 79 percent of its budget from government sources, with most of the rest picked up by riders.
Even though Heritage gets most of its money from public sources and does most of its work in public schools, it isn't particularly forthcoming about its finances or operations.
When The Post and Courier requested information under the state Freedom of Information Act about its income from government sources, Heritage's president, Dick Pruet, wrote back that Heritage "is not considered a 'public body' for FOIA purposes" and "we will not be providing the information you request."
Jay Bender, a lawyer for the S.C. Press Association, said that nonprofit groups supported in part or in whole by public funds are considered a public body under the Freedom of Information Act. "If they're getting funds from the state budget, that clearly makes them subject to the law," he said.The Post and Courier is pursuing the issue.
In recent years, Heritage officials also declined to provide basic information about their work to state officials.
The state Department of Education has asked the group to list the schools and districts that use its programs and materials, said Lynn Hammond, director of the South Carolina Healthy Schools program.
She said it's the agency's job under the Comprehensive Health Education Act to monitor who's teaching what in the state's schools.
She said the agency also has asked to see what kinds of materials the nonprofit uses in public schools. "They don't typically respond to requests from us," she said.
Carroll, Heritage's lawyer, said the General Assembly has determined that sex education should be addressed by local governments, not state agencies, and that the group only provides its curriculum materials to local school officials.
He said the Education Department is free to ask the districts themselves whether they use Heritage's services.
Does abstinence work?
While Heritage continues to acquire millions of dollars in grants and other public money, it's unclear whether the group's abstinence-only approach works.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services commissioned Mathematica Policy Research Inc. to study Heritage's work in rural Edgefield schools.
In a report last year, researchers found that participants "reported similar rates of sexual abstinence, number of sexual partners, and age at first sex" as those who didn't participate. Researchers also found that participants in Heritage's program were just as likely to engage in unprotected sex as those who didn't take part. The study concluded that Heritage's program had little or no impact on "sexual abstinence or activity."
The Mathematica study followed a larger one the consultant did in April on four other abstinence- only programs. That evaluation also found these programs had little or no effect. Another study released in November by the nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy reached similar conclusions.
In a statement, Heritage said that it adjusted its program in response to the Mathemetica study's findings in Edgefield, and that its surveys about these changes show encouraging results.
Heritage also has hired its own researchers who found that the group's programs do help prevent unwanted pregnancies. Those studies have appeared in peer-reviewed journals and have been cited by noted sex-ed researchers, the group's statement said.
On its Web site, Heritage said an analysis of 2,000 students who went through the program shows those students initiate sexual activity at a rate of 42 percent lower than those who didn't participate "and 72 percent lower when they have had the course twice." Heritage said these results "are being prepared for publication."
In its statement, the group noted that since Heritage started its programs in 1996, teen pregnancy rates in South Carolina have declined 35 percent. "Skeptics predicted rates would go up; they didn't. They went down."
Transparency
As the debate continues over abstinence programs, nonprofits as a group are trying better measure their performance, experts say.
Dennis Young, director of the nonprofit studies program at Georgia State University, said research is mixed about whether government money affects a nonprofit's autonomy, but he said nonprofits dependent on public money tend to do more to account for their funds.
One of the biggest changes in the nonprofit field is that charities' tax forms are now posted on the Internet by GuideStar and other companies, giving the public easy access to nonprofits' financials, Young said. "I think there's general agreement in the nonprofit community that it's good to be transparent."
Reach Tony Bartelme at tbartelme@postandcourier.com or 937-5554.
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Comments
LutherVanderhorst (anonymous) says...
There should be openness, but I worry some of the people cited in this story are antagonistic to abstinence and just looking to derail a sensible program.
January 19, 2008 at 1:31 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
granny2 (anonymous) says...
This story makes me sick. There are people out there making $6.00 to $10.00 per hr( waitress, cashiers, ect)trying to make a living and SCUM bags like this is making big bucks on our tax money. Places like this should be shut down and use this tax money for a better cause. This sh*t needs to STOP.
January 19, 2008 at 7:05 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
edwardh1 (anonymous) says...
Looks like one family getting a lot of State money. I think other charities may be like this too. Some are solutions looking for problems. Sprinkle in the religious right influence and you have wasted state money
January 19, 2008 at 8:18 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Beachbumwannabe (anonymous) says...
The Real point to this story is not this group:but ALL of these groups! Nonprofits are a wonderful idea, but the government HAS NOT regulated them, and they are running wild with nonstandard activities. Large salaries, hidden business connections, secret deals:are what many nonprofits are designed to do!
Hell, our governor has 6 nonprofits with over 5 million dollars in them and no one gives a whit why people gave him 5 million!!! He is the governor of our state, and people send his shadow groups money. 2+2=4. He gets money for some reason, and I am sure that if he were not governor he would not have 5 million!
So the P&C want to pick on this little group. I don't know a thing about them, but I know they are not the head of our state government, and that their influence over our lives (and their ability to sell that) is nothing like Mark Sanford's.
As a culture, we have lost our way. We expect more from the little guy than our leaders. We value land conservation more than insurance for poor children. Surely, we have lost our way.
January 19, 2008 at 8:27 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
steve (anonymous) says...
What a waste. With so many deserving non-profits strapped, and hanging on by a thread, our state leaders pander to a small proportion of fundamentalist who make a living out of creating windmills to fight.
In all honesty these abstinence programs need to be taught in church not public schools. Why? South Carolina is now #9 in the nation for state's with new cases of HIV/AIDS. Schools are there to help prepare our children to become functioning, productive adults. Churches are there to guide one's spiritual and moral principals. No, one size religion does not fit all.
For all you liberal hating, pro-life, fundamentalist, hard line GOP'ers & lip service Bible thumpers. Here's a small bit of advice: Keep it in you pants! Stop worrying about what other people are doing below their belly buttons and start taking care of the 25% of ex-military service members who are now homeless.
January 19, 2008 at 8:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
oldglory (anonymous) says...
*FAINTS*
OMG, as soon as one reads that information is refused...
And---absolutely no accounting of the monies?? That family has really lived high on the hog! They must get up everyday bubbling over with laughter at how clever and smart they are, while all us little guys just toddle off to pay-nothing jobs and going without health care and even food.
Let's line up here to work for those people--we'll be rich!!
January 19, 2008 at 9:21 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
forget (anonymous) says...
How much money could there be left after all those salaries are paid each year? I bet after this article appeared they are starting sweat a little. I would be.
My next stop on the web will be looking up on how to start a government funded non-profit org.!
January 19, 2008 at 9:42 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
gencon1 (anonymous) says...
If anyone receives any public funding at all, their books should be open for public inspection. First the government takes my hard earned dollars from me upon the threat of imprisonment or death, then it gives my money to a "nonprofit" group that isn't accountable to anybody. This is insanity!
If the program is truly successful, they should want to proudly show the public their results. Either they show us proof of success, and that the cost to achieve that success is warranted, or get them off of the public teet.
January 19, 2008 at 9:50 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
ricktib (anonymous) says...
Steve: "25% of ex-military service members who are now homeless."
Dude, how can you expect ant credibility putting out false crap like that?
Any number of organizations could be looked into. Do you think an abortion rights group with similar financial dealings would get such scrutiny from the P&C? I think not.
January 19, 2008 at 9:54 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
oldglory (anonymous) says...
ricktib, I believe ALL agencies--profit, non-profit, state, local, whatever--should be monitored to prevent corruption. Luckily, P&C at least tries.
January 19, 2008 at 10:01 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
mlm (anonymous) says...
I agree with ColdBeer. Tax 'em all. "Waste, fraud and abuse...", in the right context among these so-called non-profits, are crimes. Their records should be made public. While you're at it, start looking into the connections between county school officials and this group of thieves.
January 19, 2008 at 10:26 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
heavyd (anonymous) says...
It really doesn't matter what your outlook is on the teaching of abstinence in schools. Whatever your view, it's still clear that the Heritage group is ripping off the public, and some state lawmakers are evidently enabling this sorry situation.
I work for the state, and there are policies in place that prevent state employees from paying such egregiously high fees for services. Almost $300,000 for a print job of 10,000 copies? That's unimaginable. I've seen this handbook, and it wouldn't win any awards. In my humble estimation, most printers could turn that project around for less than $40,000. So we definitely got robbed by Heritage on that project and the lawmakers who provided this funding should be ashamed. Any non profit receiving state or federal funds should readily provide its financial records for public disclosure.
January 19, 2008 at 10:33 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bkeelin (anonymous) says...
I wonder how many of the bloggers here work for non-profits. The salaries for senior management is not out of line for other non-profits. This group also works in other states as well so it's not just a local program. I think the P&C forgot to mention that. Taxing non-profits would severly limit the good work that many of them do. I don't like the veil of secrecy but I understand that too many liberal whacko groups don't police their own liberal non-profits but only go after the conservative ones, rather hypocritical, not that it doesn't occur on both sides. The point is don't misjudge the facts until all the facts are in. Abstinence education works and abstinence is still the only 100% sure way to prevent unwanted pregnancy and STD's.
January 19, 2008 at 11:02 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
astrofan (anonymous) says...
Am I the only one who wonders why we have classes for this? Common sense and morals aren't something that can be taught in a classroom. Parents should be bringing up theie kids to know better. "Just Say No" is a slogan that should not be limited to drug use. This is just another example of why our society is going to hell in a handbasket.
January 19, 2008 at 11:31 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
outrage (anonymous) says...
All these programs need to cease! Pure criminal activity.
January 19, 2008 at 11:40 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
forget (anonymous) says...
Abstinance is a good thought, but young people are not practicing it. It's a fact. Illiginamate (sic) births are at an all time high. They have the facts, they've chosen to ignore them. They've been taught in school because alot of parents aren't doing it at home (teaching it or practicing it). Throwing $$$ at this program doesn't benefit many except the office holders. You may reach a few people, but over all not a good buy for our tax dollars. And correct, common sense and morals should be one of the things taught at home. If young people had these tools, we wouldn't have the education problems or these problems. Young people learn from what they see. If they see their parents with multiple partners, and mothers with 5 children from 5 different fathers, that is how they're going to live their lives also. No class is going to change that. No pamphlet is going to change that. It comes from the home.
January 19, 2008 at 11:46 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hillbilly (anonymous) says...
You can't put a price tag on the number of unborn babies who have been saved from the abortionists knives because of this group.Ms Badgely and this "non profit" is well worth the investment.
January 19, 2008 at 11:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
outrage (anonymous) says...
Then you pay for it HILLBILLY!
January 19, 2008 at 11:56 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
forget (anonymous) says...
hillbilly- teach them at home.
January 19, 2008 at 11:58 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
outrage (anonymous) says...
I am going to start a non-profit class on how people should abstain from stealing and all other criminal activity. What a joke these programs are!
January 19, 2008 at 12:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
forget (anonymous) says...
My non-profit will be teaching people to abstain from talking on cell phones in restaurants, movie theaters and in store checkouts. I think it will be very beneficial to the community. I'll make a booklet.
January 19, 2008 at 12:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
granny2 (anonymous) says...
I agree that HILLBILLY should pay for all these worthless programs because I am tired of my tax money going to them. ColdBeer, I want to work for you too, I will check on your clients to make sure thay are haveing a SAFE good time and that they are old enough to enjoy it.
January 19, 2008 at 1:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
forget (anonymous) says...
oooh, me too, I wanna be a director. I can really direct.
January 19, 2008 at 1:44 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bluegreen (anonymous) says...
Senator Obama's short 2 years in the Senate, after campaigning for his US Senate Seat, voted to keep the war going, not even supporting Senator Feingolds Bill to end our occupation.
In this time period, after campaigning against the Patriot Act, Senator Obama managed to vote for Patriot Act 2, the Reauthorization.
Senator Obama also is for Free Trade and supported adding Peru to the Free Trade agreement.
Senator Obama also did not support the citizens over Financial institutions, when Bankruptcy amendment to cap interest rate to a maximum 30 percent, he did not vote to support that.
He also supported Cheneys 2005 Oil Industry and Nuke Plant loaded Energy Bill, even though he said he only supports Nuclear plants if we find a way to store the waste.
Senat Obama also pushed the Lobbyist backed Liquified Coal Bill, for a 2nd time, even though it would have added so much CO2 to the environment, it would have been like replacing every car with a Hummer, and use our tax dollars to fund it.
...that's just a sample in his short 2 years.
AND NOW he wants to bring us back to the start of the NeoCons with Reaganomics, busting unions, decling social programs, largest deficit, increased poverty with wealth at the top. GEE THANKS OBAMA, now you decide to look at the past and that's what you've chosen for America? NO THANKS
January 19, 2008 at 4:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
abitskeptical (anonymous) says...
How did Obama sneak into this? Unless someone is going to nominate him to head up a non-profit.
January 19, 2008 at 6:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
buttercup (anonymous) says...
Geechie The Last I heard on the news is that they has a law suite against the Housing Authority. We all know how long that will take.
January 19, 2008 at 9:46 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
buttercup (anonymous) says...
Sorry Typo They have a law
January 19, 2008 at 9:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
eyfigueroa (anonymous) says...
i see some of you all got off topic.
my problem with this 'not for profit'?
i appreciate and like the message, not the messenger (abstinence). a few of you on here, want to hold on to your 'religious beliefs' so much that you would overlook discrepancies in a particular organization than do ANYTHING to make it right.
a shame. too many of you out there, both evangelical conservatives and liberals worry too much about ideology and not enough about what's right and wrong.
you take public money, subject yourself to public scrutiny.
very simple.
too simple.
January 20, 2008 at 2:32 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
scienceguy (anonymous) says...
Anne and Gordon Badgley, who received $9 million in federal grants for their nonprofit, Heritage Community Services, also set up Badgley Enterprises to market and sell their abstinence-only curriculum, Heritage Keepers. While Heritage's IRS 990s are sketchy and marked by vague expenses, even a student loan repayment, they clearly show that the Badgleys pocketed $174,201 from the taxpayer-funded nonprofit by buying the curriculum from their own private company.
"The Abstinence Gluttons"
The Nation
January 20, 2008 at 11:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
scienceguy (anonymous) says...
Link for "The Abstinence Gluttons"
http://www.religionandsocialpolicy.or...
January 20, 2008 at 11:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
scienceguy (anonymous) says...
Those "peer-reviewed" articles do not exist. See,
http://calladus.blogspot.com/2007/04/... and http://scienceblogs.com/denialism/200...,
If they did exist, there would be no need to obtain funding in secret--the whole legislature would gladly give it to the Badgleys.
January 20, 2008 at 11:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hennry (anonymous) says...
Chairperson of the Indian Central Board for Film Certification Sharmila Tagore feels that censorship should not be used for moral policing and preaching.
------------------------
hennry
http://www.hookup-tonite.com
September 15, 2008 at 12:13 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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