Complaint and cheeky response

“What Would the Dalai Lama Do?”

By Will Collette

Reacting to the latest installment in PC’s Lisa DiBello investigative series, Charlestown reader Patricia A. Curry Almeida sent Progressive Charlestown this e-mail:

Dalai Lama

Spirituality concerns our own motivation, while secular activity implies working in the world. Because motivation pervades all action, it is important that we have a positive motivation. Whatever we are involved in, whether it's politics, education, medicine, law, engineering, science, business or industry, the nature of our motivation determines the character of our work.

Your cheeky blog has become mean spirited and evil.

No one can really know what is in another person’s heart – I’m sure the Dalai Lama probably said some variation on this – so I leave it to readers to decide whether what I write (or what my PC colleagues write) is “mean-spirited and evil.”

In the latest installment of the DiBello series, I covered whether DiBello has met the basic requirements the government places on tax-exempt charities for accountability and transparency. I believe I provided concrete evidence that she does not.

But being challenged by Ms. Curry Almeida with the words of the Dalai Lama made me think – Does the Dalai Lama follow the rules when it comes to accountability and transparency? Here’s what I found out.

The Dalai Lama has two principal non-profit organizations in the United States that support his work – The Dalai Lama Trust and the Dalai Lama Foundation. The Trust is in New York. The Foundation is in California. Both are tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations – like Lisa DiBello’s A Ray of Hope.

But unlike Lisa DiBello’s A Ray of Hope, the Dalai Lama files his IRS-990 reports, religiously if you will, and they are easily accessible through the most popular website for the purpose, Guidestar.

You can find the most recent IRS-990 report for the DalaiLama Trust here. 

For the Dalai Lama Foundation, click here 

There also is the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Though not based in the US, they do solicit donations from US citizens. When money is donated to the Center through the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation, they are tax-deductible.  This is a common arrangement for international organizations headquartered outside the US.

Glenn Beck spins his yarn about the Tides Foundation

The Tides Foundation is a pretty interesting and unique funder of causes. They are ultra-progressive. They make direct grants, donor-directed grants and sponsor fledgling groups and special projects.

Last year, they achieved some unwelcome fame when they became a special target for right-wing crank Glenn Beck. On his now-cancelled Fox News program, Beck made dozens of comments about Tides being the heart of a conspiracy of evil (and probably mean spirited) left-wing organizing. Beck is blamed for inspiring the alleged assassination attempt by Byron Williams against Tides Foundation employees. 

Byron Williams, arrested while headed
to Tides office to assassinate staff

Williams was headed for Tides’ office to allegedly kill its staff when he was stopped by California Highway Patrol officers for traffic violations. Williams drew his gun and fired at officers and was arrested after being wounded by return fire.

Anyway, that’s got not a whole lot to do with Lisa DiBello’s compliance with the law. In fact, we wouldn’t even be getting into it, if only Lisa DiBello had followed the Dalai Lama’s example and filed and disclosed her IRS-990 reports as the law requires.