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Saturday, Nov. 28, 2009

Critics say copycat charity entity is dishonest

Sacramento County households have been receiving yellow postcards in the mail soliciting donations of clothes and other household items for charity. The cards closely resemble those previously used by a local nonprofit most people knew as SAR -- or the Sacramento Association for the Retarded.

The cards, however, are careful near-duplicates meant to steer donations to a local thrift store struggling to stay open. They are the work of Andrew Minin, who a year ago tried to become a voting member of the nonprofit -- along with a dozen of his friends -- following a contractual dispute.

Now that the original nonprofit has closed its doors after more than 50 years of service and has filed for bankruptcy protection, longtime advocates fear people trying to help the developmentally disabled will inadvertently help a thrift store on Auburn Boulevard that has yet to donate anything to charitable causes.

"I think it's beyond dishonest. It's taking advantage of an unsuspecting public," said Roger Chapman, a member of Sacramento County's Developmental Disabilities Planning and Advisory Council. It also could hurt other organizations trying to make a difference, he said.

"I find this absolutely unconscionable behavior," Chapman said.

Minin is soliciting donations from area residents for an organization he's calling the Sacramento Association for Retarded Citizens -- acronym SARc.

SAR changed its name in late 2008 to the more politically correct "Service Advocacy Respect for Persons with MR/DD," but retained its acronym.

Until The Bee began asking questions, Minin's Web site -- thriftmart.org -- claimed that donations benefit the original nonprofit. An "About SAR" tab steered visitors to a page with information copied and pasted from the original organization's documents. The site even listed SAR's address -- or at least its address before it filed for bankruptcy protection last month -- and the name of its former president.

Standing outside his Auburn Boulevard store, Minin called the information on the Web site an error. He said that a company that makes such Web sites must have put the information on the site thinking it was the same organization.

Earlier this week, the information was removed. The Web site no longer claims donations to the thrift store will benefit a nonprofit.

As for the mailing cards that look almost identical to ones from the original nonprofit, Minin is unapologetic. Around the time he incorporated his own nonprofit in December 2008, he said, he read Sam Walton's book "Made in America." In the book, Walton -- founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. -- wrote about the benefit of emulating those with already successful ideas.