Hot on the heals of the Bernie Madoff scandal, South Florida finds itself reeling from the next wave of cultural investors gone wrong. Welcome to Hurricane Stanford.Blowing in from the west R Allen Stanford made a name for himself in South Florida / Palm Beach County through his association at the Stanford Field polo grounds which is a local brokerage firm in Boca Raton.
Hurricane Stanford rose to a CAT5 storm with the news of the SEC's filing a formal complaint following a January visit to Stanford Group's Florida offices. There state and federal investigators made copies of computer hard drives. According to rumor mill Stanford actually managed more funds than Madoff!
Hurricane Stanford had an impact on our county where he was a supporter of the arts and he donated tens of thousands of dollars spread to a variety of cultural groups, according to the Palm Beach Post. Among the group which received much needed funds to operate is our own Boca Festival of the Arts of which Stanford gave $10,000 last year.
South Florida was most recently hit by Tropical Storm Madoff and is still recovering from the financial hit the Ponsi Scheme Manager had on the residents of Palm Beach. Now comes Hurricane Stanford…
Given the enormity of the monies being lost by the supporter of the arts in South Florida what is a cultural institution to do? Perhaps it is time to go back to basics. Many local cultural / art organizations are using the “coin jar method.” This method no longer concentrates on the “major
” donors who donate $50,000 and up but the donations that start at $5 dollars and can come from anyone at anytime. This gives the organizations the much needed cash to remain operating and brings in new philanthropic donors.
How ever the arts and cultural associations decide to handle the recovery / relief from these two major storms you can be assured that all organizations will be more skeptical with who and how there monies are managed.
Given the enormity of the monies being lost by the supporter of the arts in South Florida what is a cultural institution to do? Perhaps it is time to go back to basics. Many local cultural / art organizations are using the “coin jar method.” This method no longer concentrates on the “major
” donors who donate $50,000 and up but the donations that start at $5 dollars and can come from anyone at anytime. This gives the organizations the much needed cash to remain operating and brings in new philanthropic donors.How ever the arts and cultural associations decide to handle the recovery / relief from these two major storms you can be assured that all organizations will be more skeptical with who and how there monies are managed.
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