The following solicitation for donations of $10 and up was distributed today by a group of six charities that vocally advocated for the giving away of $37.5 Million to HCW to build a convention in downtown Evansville.
The Hunden Study that was commissioned by and paid for by the Office of the Mayor explicitly states that 70% of the business that a new 253 room hotel will attract will come from cannibalizing the existing hotels.
Those donations were made from Mr. Dunn’s profits from his investments. If his income is negatively affected I’m sure you will understand a decline in donations to your charities. They are donations and in no way should have been assumed to be perpetual. No person “owes” these charities anything. Just my opinion, good luck in filling the void, but you are not entitled to blame the previous donner.
Donating to organizations who are supporting your competitor makes no sense. These organizations should learn a lesson here and stay out of deeply controversial issues. Pretty stupid of them.
You damn right. For Dunn to continue to support these organizations that dance and sing against his interests makes about as much sense as the NAACP donating money to the Ku Klux Klan. The rule is simple, do not financially support charities that attack your business interests. Let these panhandlers learn a lesson from this. I bet they didn’t even think this could be one of their unforeseen consequences. I won’t give any of these places a damn dime much less $10. What a bunch of moochers.
Problem number one would be taking sides when you rely on charitable contributions.
Do you realize that when the above not for profit organizations have went against Federal IRS laws that states that they can’t get involved in political matters. The proposed downtown hotel issue is indeed a political issue.
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You damn right too! This bunch of moochers needs to have their non-profit status audited. They are obviously politicking for this hotel and that should negate their non-profit status.
I agree, but we’d have to reign in all the right wing radical preachers, priests, proseletyzers, etc out there. I’m sure you’d kick and scream if we did that. And why single out only the African American Museum hmmmmmmmmmmmm??????? I’m white before you accuse me of playing a victim.
Because that is the one with the matched grant. Geez…
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Give the not-for-profit hell Mr. Dunn.
What a bunch of do nothing organizations.
John Dunn made very a bad PR move that will never be forgotten. Never. No matter how the hotel votes goes, Dunn will lose customers. It is only a question of how much he loses.Almost all Businessmen are supportive of the hotel project and they will stir people away from his hotels. Charities are liked by the public. They will stir people away from his hotels.
So Mr… Dunn: What you have the power to do is not always the wise thing to do. Bad move.
CCO: In your desire to help Dunn–you hurt him big time by publishing this dumb action by Dunn.
Brad Linzy: Bad move
Oh, I don’t know. People seem to forget a crap load of mistakes when they walk into the polls.
Stir people away from his hotels???? What with a spoon you moron??? Where did you go to school?
Huh? Why is this a “Brad Linzy: Bad mode”?
What the heck did I do? I don’t hold the Dunns’ jock straps. I’ve only met David Dunn a couple of times in passing, and yes, we just so happen to share a common interest on this issue, but saying something like I’ve made a “bad move” speaking my mind is silly. It assumes falsely that I give a damn what you think. The simple fact is, I call ’em like I see ’em.
I have visited most of the places on this list and have enjoyed those visits, but I am severely disappointed that non-profit organizations are wetting their beaks in a political issue. I have thus far stopped short of calling for a boycott on these organizations, but there is still time. Don’t tempt me.
Linzy—Give me break. What real influence do you think you have in boycotting these good non-profit organizations. How much money do you and your friends give them? Any attempt to organize a boycott will dig a deeper hole for John Dunn’s ill-advise move of publicly retaliating against these fine non-profit folks. The public will further avoid Dunn’s hotels.
Is that you Wayne? Gil seems to have the same level of pursuit against Linzy as Wayne does. Most of the people in this town have only been to that list of places once or twice anyway.
Mr Dunn’ s decision seems logical to me. He is saying that he will lose customers if the hotel is built; you are saying that he will lose customers because of his decision. Either way he loses.
Stir? Steer?
Looks like Wayne Parke has another new blog name! What does this make blog name #17 for Wayne?
This part taken down because it was off message,
Just don’t understand why these worthily not-for-profit organizations would allow themselves to get involved in this much heated political discussion.
This not a political issue. This is not one political party against the other or one candidate against another. It is an economic issue. What is best for Evansville?”
As a whole, I don’t support pulling out of donating to non profits over a hotel because I think that just proves that the organization only donated to them in the first place as a means of building up political allies instead of supporting the cause itself. You should support a cause if you believe the staff is doing a good job advancing the cause or not and nothing more.
With all of that being said, I am THRILLED to see Dunn Hospitality pulling support for Wesselman. All they have done from day 1 is play politics with this disgusting “Roberts” Park project.
I am embarrassed at the way the Wesselman organizations (No, I’m not talking about the resident led support group. It was an honor to work with them.) completely ran over Roberts Stadium supporters just to be a kiss up to the mayor. I hope more organizations pull funding from this organization as well. It’s good to see Justice & Karma are still around in this world.
I also don’t shed a tear for the museum either. They completely mishandled the planetarium project.
Willard on the other hand is a great organization that is getting ready to undergo a tremendous expansion. I sure hope they can make up the lost funding from another organization.
These non-profits have no business advocating for or against a downtown hotel. When you pick sides, there are consequences. Mr. Dunn was free to not support these groups taking a position against his business interests. Again, just a really dumb move by the non-profits and whoever is supposed to be in charge of them.
These organizations rely on and are supported in a large part by visitors to their respective facilities. How can you expect them not to support any effort that will bring more visitors and convention business within close proximity to them? You guys act like it is the American Cancer Society or Salvation Army. These are visitor based attractions, close to downtown.
Yes, Dunn has a right to support who he wishes, as we all do…but the hardballing and threats to get his way is where he crosses the line.
If the Dunn family is pulling their support from these organizations that is their business and theirs alone. No one has the right to criticize them. Fact is, the Dunns have been incredibly generous with their time, their money, and their support of this entire community for a very long time — and in return they have been excoriated over this hotel debacle. We all have the right to give our money and our time to whomever we choose. The tone of the letter is incredibly disappointing to me as I have been involved with several of those listed organizations and have written checks to them in the past. I have tremendous respect for the Dunns. Shame on those groups. My donation dollars are going elsewhere this year.
Why would the Dunns continue to support organizations that are choosing to support their direct competitors? Not to mention the fact that HCW, an out of town developer, has NO SKIN in the game. How much have they given to the city and to these local organizations and charities in the past?? And we want to provide them with $37.5 MILLION dollars???? It’s disappointing that it has to come down to this, but I respect the Dunns and I’m sure we will see them continue to support local organizations and charities that choose to support them back.
There has been a definite trend over the years, as the area’s not-for-profits have significantly increased, for those NFP’s to take an active role in issues in the community. Many times the list of people on the boards of these not-for-profits is almost indistinguishable from the list of names on the Evansville Regional Business Committee.
Weinzapfel certainly understood how a not-for-profit could be used to advantage with the creation of Evansville Brown Fields to knock down and haul off a good portion of residential Evansville. The EVSC has attempted to use its NFP, the EVSC Foundation, to circumvent the competitive bidding process that is the backbone of publicly financed projects. When consolidation was being debated virtually all of the NFPs influenced by a lot the same people on the Evansville Regional Business Committee were pushing for consolidation. BTW the Evansville Museum receives some of your tax money in the form of a grant from the EVSC every year
So, politicization of NFPs seems to be a fact of life. I would think that if you created your NFP for altruistic reasons that you would want to focus your efforts in that area, especially if you were dependent on public donations. Which seems to be what Mr. Dunn is saying: If you are going to wade into political waters with your NFP, then be prepared to face the consequences when it comes to donations.
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Best post on this thread. +1
Very well said. Agree 100%.
For all of you folks calling for the boycott of Mr. Dunn’s properties.
Good luck.
I have never stayed in a hotel in Evansville and I have lived here all of my life. Most peole who use hotels are out of towners. They don’t give a ratt’s bee-hind about Mr. Dunn or the proposed hotel or who the mayor is.
They just want a clean room, convenient location to their next destination, and an ice machine on the same floor.
Starting today my generous financial support given to the Reitz Home Museum shall stop.
Museum Director Matt Rowe is an idiot from pushing the area not-for-profits to take a public stand for the new downtown hotel. He should had push to have the historical McCurdy Hotel project to start.
Common knowledge is that he is a political puppet of Carol and Lloyd. It’s time people need to ask for his public resignation because he openly violated the non-profit status of the Reitz Home Museum.
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