"No good deed goes unpunished ... you see the need ... you want to do good, you want to help people, but all of a sudden I'm getting smacked around for it."

NOTE from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... This is the story that the newspapers just won't let die.

A little over a week ago, an Indiana paper ran a story titled:  Rep. Buyer-linked foundation draws attention ... that story here ...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfoct09/nf101209-4.htm

Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) is the Ranking Member on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.  Use our search engine for more about Buyer ... here ...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?q=buyer&op=and

Now, The Indianapolis Star has joined the fray.

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Rep. Buyer's scholarship fund hasn't helped a single student

Steve Buyer defends his scholarship foundation, which has yet to help a single student.

By Mary Beth Schneiderand Maureen Groppe

http://www.indystar.com/article/20091018/NEW
S05/910180398/Rep.+Buyer+raising

The biggest accomplishment so far of U.S. Rep. Steve Buyer's scholarship foundation has been to send the Indiana congressman to play golf with donors at luxury locales such as the Bahamas and Disney World.

The fundraising golf outings have raised more than $880,000 for the Frontier Foundation that Buyer founded in 2003. Almost all the contributions are from 20 companies and trade organizations that have interests before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on which Buyer serves.

The foundation has yet to award its first scholarship, and it has handed out only $10,500 in charitable grants.

Of those grants, $4,500 went to a cancer fund run by the chief Washington lobbyist for Eli Lilly and Co. That lobbyist, Joe Kelley, said he is refunding the money because Lilly is among the groups that have supported Buyer's foundation.

In addition, the foundation gave $1,450 in 2008 to the National Rifle Association Foundation.

The lack of scholarships, plus the fact that the foundation's money is coming from groups that might want to curry favor with the congressman, has come under fire by Democrats.

Buyer, a Republican whose district stretches from Monticello in the north to Mitchell in the south and includes western Marion County, said the attacks are off the mark and unfair.

"No good deed goes unpunished. That's how I feel at the moment," Buyer said Friday. "It's one of these things where you see the need, you want to put it together, you want to do good, you want to help people, but all of a sudden I'm getting smacked around for it."

Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker, however, said Hoosiers should be raising questions about the setup.

"No good deed goes unpunished? Where's the good deed, if they haven't given out any scholarships?" he said. "It looks like this organization is a shadow campaign organization that's utilized to fly him around the country raising money from corporations that he can't legally raise (contributions from) to his campaign committee."

Who's behind the board?

The foundation is at the same Monticello address as Buyer's campaign office. From its inception until August, when a new person was hired, the only paid staffer was Stephanie Mattix, who works on Buyer's campaign and also is paid by his political action committee, Storm Chasers.

Buyer said the board is made up solely of people with close ties to him, including his daughter, Colleen, who was president until 2008 but who remains on the board; son Ryan; Maria Vandersande, a former press secretary in his congressional office; and Sandra Danford, who joined in August as the lone paid staffer and replaced Mattix.

Buyer said there currently is no board president and his children have never been paid, though the foundation's 2003 tax filings show a $2,250 payment to Colleen Buyer. The congressman serves as honorary chairman and says he takes no part in day-to-day activities.

Buyer said all he's trying to do with his foundation is help Hoosier children, and that his detractors "are saying some very vicious and ugly things."

The first report filed by the Frontier Foundation shows it began with $25,000. Buyer said he doesn't know the source of the initial funds. Neither Mattix nor her replacement, Danford, returned calls.

Although the original intent was to hand out scholarships once the fund reached $100,000, Buyer said it quickly became apparent that to be self-sustaining and not require ongoing fundraising, the foundation would need to raise at least $1 million. Once that goal is met, he said, scholarships will be awarded.

"I don't want to stay in the fundraising business," Buyer said.

The fund raised $883,272 from 2003 through 2008 and had expenses of $268,636, leaving a balance of $614,636.

Of those expenses, 4 percent went to grants it handed out, such as $2,000 to a Monticello man whose home burned down in 2004, and 30 percent went to employee wages.

More than half of the expenses -- 51 percent -- went to fundraising, including more than $48,000 for travel.

Lesley Lenkowsky, professor of public affairs and philanthropic studies at Indiana University, said the foundation's decision to not award scholarships until building up a sizable fund is "certainly within good practice." And, he said, its expenses are not out of line.

"New organizations typically spend a large proportion of their revenues on fundraising and PR," Lenkowsky said. "He's actually about where some people think the benchmark should be."

One concern, he said, is the lack of an independent voice on the board.

"That is a weakness," Lenkowsky said. "Good practice basically would mean you should have some people on the board who have some independence from you."

Buyer, though, said that when he decided to create the foundation, "you turn to people who you trust, and that's what I did."

Scott Ullman, who works with The Foundation Center, which tracks charitable organizations, also said the spending by the Frontier Foundation does not seem out of line.

But, he said, donors might want to see their money devoted to scholarships sooner rather than later, and the public might want to see less spent on internal expenses.

It's "not fun for me"

Buyer said it's necessary to spend money to make the foundation a success.

In 2004, the first Frontier Foundation golf fundraising event was held at the Fenwick Country Club in New York. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, Buyer said, the golf outings were held at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. The outings in 2008 were at Atlantis and the Boulders resort in Phoenix, and at Boulders and Disney World this year.

At each, Buyer said, about "seven or eight foursomes" of contributors attended.

Bennett Weiner, chief executive officer of BBB Wise Giving Alliance, a national charity monitoring organization, said that "golf tournaments are sometimes one of the more expensive ways of raising money. That doesn't mean that they can't do that. Obviously it's their choice, if that's how they want to raise funds. But it may not always be the most financially efficient way to do it."

Buyer said that given his frequent travel as a member of Congress, jetting to these golf outings is "not fun for me."

"I know someone else may look at that and go, 'Wow, he got to go on trips. He got to go to great places other people don't get to see.' But for me? It's work."

Asked if the foundation could raise funds without the pricey golf outings, Buyer said that "donors expect a meaningful experience."

That meaningful experience, however, includes access to something valuable: a congressman's time.

"This is another loophole that special interests use to buy access and influence. Certainly their hope is that by donating this money to Congressman Buyer's private foundation, that he will be more accessible to them," said Mary Boyle, spokeswoman for Common Cause, a nonpartisan group founded to hold elected leaders accountable to the public interest

Nearly all of the $883,272 the foundation has raised came from groups that have issues before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, of which Buyer is a member.

The most generous single contributor was the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America -- the trade association for brand-name drug companies, known as PhRMA -- which gave $200,000.

Ken Johnson, senior vice president of PhRMA, said the group wasn't trying to curry favor with Buyer.

"The fact that Congressman Buyer is on the Energy and Commerce Committee doesn't have anything to do with it," he said. "But the fact that Congressman Buyer's district is in the backyard of Eli Lilly has everything to do with that, in the sense that we became aware of (the foundation) through our association with him.

"When we attend one of these events, it's designed to first and foremost support the foundation's work and, secondly, to have a little fun."

Eli Lilly and Co. also donated to the foundation, giving $25,000 each year from 2005 through 2007.

"It seemed to be a worthy cause," said Ed Sagebiel, a Lilly spokesman. But he added that Lilly has not supported it the past two years because of declining resources and a more competitive process for granting contributions.

Buyer said he'll review the foundation's activities.

Continuing the foundation given the scrutiny and criticism, or stepping up the timetable for handing out scholarships, is up to the board.

One option could be to discontinue the fundraising events and try to reach the million-dollar goal through investments of existing funds, Buyer said, "which means it's going to have to be delayed, and students may not be able to benefit for a decade.

"That's pretty unfortunate, but maybe that's what happens."

Additional Facts

Raised, spent
U.S. Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., formed the foundation in 2003 to give scholarships to Hoosier students. No scholarships have been awarded, as Buyer said the goal is to first raise a sustaining fund of $1 million. Here's a look at sources of the money and how it has been spent:

Revenue
The foundation raised $883,272 from 2003 through 2008.

Sources are:
• Pharmaceutical interests: $465,000.
• Telecommunications interests: $215,148.
• Tobacco and alcohol interests: $65,000.
• Health insurers: $60,000.
• Other: $53,124.
• Unknown: $25,000.

Expenses
The foundation spent $268,636 from 2003 through 2008.

The recipients
Although no scholarships have been awarded yet, the Frontier Foundation has made $10,500 in other charitable donations.

They include $4,500 to the Virginia Sheldon Jerome Foundation. It's run by Eli Lilly and Co.'s chief Washington lobbyist, Joe Kelley, in honor of his late wife, who died of cancer. Kelley is refunding that money to Frontier because Lilly has been a contributor to the Frontier Foundation. Here's a look at the foundation's giving:

2003:
$1,500 to the Virginia Sheldon Jerome Foundation.

2004:
$2,000 to Monticello fire victim George F. Todhunter.
$1,500 to the Virginia Sheldon Jerome Foundation.
$400 to Muscular Dystrophy.

2005:
$1,500 to the Virginia Sheldon Jerome Foundation.
$750 to the American Red Cross.
$200 to the White County Community Foundation.

2006:
$950 to the American Red Cross.

2007:
Nothing.

2008:
$250 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tenn.
$1,450 to the National Rifle Association Foundation.

Source: Frontier Foundation's Form 990-PF filed in 2009

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TOPICS: veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs, Rep. Steve Buyer, scholarship foundation