Talk:Planet Aid/Archive 1

Archive 1

Additional source

• Smith, Matt; Walters, Amy (23 May 2016). "Planet Aid's ubiquitous clothing donation boxes aren't so charitable". Reveal News. Emeryville, California: The Center for Investigative Reporting.

—Coconutporkpie (talk) 01:09, 30 August 2016 (UTC)

Thanks to the editor who added it here. —Coconutporkpie (talk) 09:54, 19 September 2016 (UTC)

Notability

I removed the notability warning template from the article here – plenty of sources in the news media and elsewhere have published a substantial amount on Planet Aid over a span of nearly sixteen years. Some of the mentions are reproduced below. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 23:17, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Sources

"Three years ago [the Teachers Group] started collecting and selling used clothing under the name Planet Aid, a non-profit branch set up near Boston that now has four stores and more than 1,200 familiar bright-yellow collection boxes and last year generated more than $2 million in sales, mostly as unsorted bulk sold to commercial wholesalers [...] As Planet Aid, it hopes to gain the name recognition, if not the scope, of such used-clothing concerns as Goodwill or the Salvation Army". "Planet Aid's model of economic idealism found such a welcome in Massachusetts that suburban Holliston became the group's headquarters in the United States [...] But almost none of the clothes donated to Planet Aid are given away, and only about 6 percent of the money the group raises is spent on charity, a Planet Aid official acknowledged a week ago [...] Unbeknownst to authorities in Boston, the British government took a recycled clothes operation run by Humana People to People, Planet Aid's parent organization, into receivership in 1998, after investigators could not determine what had happened to money from the clothing sales". "Besides Gaia, Tvind executives run two other U.S.-based clothing collection charities -- called Planet Aid and Planet Aid-Philadelphia". "FOX 5 has found evidence linking the controversial group Planet Aid to what some call a cult". "One of the areas the USDA will investigate is the funding given to Tvind-controlled Planet Aid, a charity that collects used clothing. US authorities believe that Planet Aid is so closely interwoven with Tvind’s commercial operations that profits from the charity’s work ends up in tax havens ultimately controlled by Tvind’s leadership. On condition of anonymity, a former manager at Tvind told Jyllands-Posten newspaper that large amounts of money flowing from Planet Aid and other charitable companies affiliated with the organisation are structured to ensure Tvind leaders’ financial well-being". "Another source of money is government aid. At the end of 2008, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that Planet Aid in Malawi and Mozambique had been granted commodity donations of wheat worth a total of $33.8 million. According to the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten, the USDA recently announced that it will be investigating grants valued at more than $96 million it has made over the past five years to Planet Aid to determine whether the aid has been properly administered". "Since then, numerous other journalists have published or aired investigations into Tvind-related clothing boxes, which are labeled Gaia, USAgain, Planet Aid, IICD and Humana [...] The American Institute of Philanthropy says it gives an F grade to both Gaia and fellow Tvind-related group Planet Aid". "Planet Aid is a nationwide, non-profit organization that collects the clothing, sells it and then claims to use the money to help those in need in third world countries [...] On their 2010 tax return, Planet Aid lists revenue of almost $36 million. But, according to CharityWatch from the American Institute of Philanthropy, Planet Aid spent only 34 percent of that money on program services to help the needy". "In contrast, the most recent federal tax return from non-profit Planet Aid, which operates donation bins across the country, shows that just 28% of its $36.5 million in spending went to its international aid programs in 2011. The bulk of its spending went to collect and process clothes for recycling [...] For-profit companies such as USAgain and non-profits such as Planet Aid make their money by bundling clothes and selling them in bulk to recycling companies that ship them overseas [...] On its tax returns, Planet Aid said its largest mission was the 'protection of natural habitat by collecting and recycling 50,000 tons of used textiles' [...] But the low percentage of money going to international aid programs earned Planet Aid an "F" from ratings organization CharityWatch, which examines how non-profits spend their money". "The FBI kept a file on Tvind, which both the I-Team and Reveal obtained, that details how Petersen created dozens of international companies and charities, including Planet Aid". "But charity watchdog groups and America’s most prominent used-clothing-focused nonprofit say Planet Aid is something else entirely: an organization that tricks the public into making donations that achieve very little charitable benefit [...] Planet Aid set up operations originally in 1997, registering in Massachusetts [...] According to the filings, the idea was to provide funds to the humanitarian relief organization Development Aid from People to People Angola, another group linked with the Teachers Group". "Grain purchases – such as the 30,000 tons of hard winter wheat the government bought under a 2006 USDA-Planet Aid grant agreement to benefit Malawi – don’t cause much of a bump in global, or American, crop prices [...] Between 2006 and 2012, for instance, the U.S. spent more than $102 million on commodities granted to Planet Aid. Factoring out shipping, warehousing, sales and other expenses, Planet Aid came away with a little more than $62 million, according to USDA records for projects in Malawi and Mozambique". "CharityWatch's analysis of Planet Aid's 2015 tax form and audited financial statements shows the charity spending only 17% of its expenses on programs". "In a 2001 FBI document related to extraditing Petersen from the U.S., DAPP, Planet Aid and a third group – Humana People to People – all are described as being part of the Teachers Group network, which diverts funds with 'little or no money going to the charities'". "Over more than a decade, U.S. taxpayers have granted more than $133 million to Planet Aid, a Massachusetts-registered nonprofit [...] Farmers who were promised help from Planet Aid say they have been shortchanged yet were told to put a happy face on their projects. Interviews in Africa show a Planet Aid subcontractor controlled by Teachers Group members would steer visiting auditors to Potemkin village farms that looked prosperous but were merely for show".

Disputed Section

Info in Section "Controversy" cites an erroneous or false. Citation says that Mikael Norling was charged in Tvind trials. Wikipedia's own entry on the subject lists multiple sources of all the people who WERE charged and Mr. Norling is not listed among them. Apologies if this is not formatted exactly according to Wikipedia style.

Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 5103WFO (talk • contribs) 22:37, 28 March 2016‎ (UTC)

There was a reliable source that appears to have stated that he was charged, but perhaps something was lost in translation. I modified the text to say he was present at the trials, something which several sources say, and added a couple more sources to the article. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 00:06, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

Your citations are from 2001 and 2002. How does a 2002 article place a person at a 2003-2006 trial? Time travel?5103WFO (talk) 19:14, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

@5103WFO: The 2001 article was updated in 2003, and both are referring to a hearing that took place in September 2002. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 21:02, 30 March 2016 (UTC)

@Ahecht: Would you be willing to answer if you speak and read Danish fluently? Wikipedia guidelines place a large preference on English language sources and ask to provide translations. It seems you are relying on Google translate or some other mechanical translation system. That wouldn't be considered reliable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 5103WFO (talk • contribs) 16:44, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

@5130WFO: Per WP:NONENG, "English-language sources are preferred over non-English ones whenever English sources of equal quality and relevance are available" (bolding mine), which is not the case in this situation. I do not personally speak and read Danish, but I ran the articles past friends who are Danish before adding them to the article. I will quote their translations in the references. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 18:40, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

Planet Aid has filed a civil suit against Reveal. This is a fact with at least four primary sources, and it is a neutral statement. Wizardryo (talk) 01:58, 29 November 2017 (UTC)