Replies to post #14769 on LEE KRAMER'S ROOM: With Views

[PegnVA]

Now make that THREE...

THREE FUNDRAISING GIANTS CANCEL PLANS FOR GALAS AT MAR-A-LAGO
Three fundraising giants decided to pull events from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach on Thursday, signaling a direct blowback to his business empire from his comments on Charlottesville’s racial unrest.

The American Cancer Society, a high-dollar client at the club since at least 2009, cited its “values and commitment to diversity” in a statement on its decision to move an upcoming fundraising gala. Another longtime Mar-a-Lago customer, the Cleveland Clinic, abruptly changed course on its winter event only days after saying it planned to continue doing business at Mar-a-Lago, a leading venue for charitable events in the posh resort town.

The American Friends of Magen David Adom, which raises money for Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross, also said it would not hold its 2018 gala at the club “after considerable deliberation,” though it did not give a reason. The charity had one of Mar-a-Lago’s biggest events last season, with about 600 people in attendance.

The cancellations will undoubtedly squeeze revenue for the private club Trump calls the “winter White House,” where similar-size events have often brought in fees of between $100,000 and $275,000 each.

But the Florida club may face an even deeper crisis of confidence from the local business community. The head of the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce, of which Mar-a-Lago is a member, called the business “morally reprehensible” on Thursday and said she expected more charities to defect.

“The glitter, the shine has gone from the club,” chamber executive director Laurel Baker said, “and I can’t help but think there will be more fallout from it.”

The rapid rejections of one of the president’s signature businesses revealed a possible financial vulnerability for Trump, who has been fiercely criticized this week for equating the actions of white supremacists and neo-Nazis with counterprotesters during a violent weekend in Charlottesville.

They also come days after Trump faced condemnations from corporate executives on two of the White House’s top business advisory groups, which were disbanded in a stinging rebuke to Trump after his controversial message.

The White House referred questions about the charitable events to the Trump Organization, which did not respond.

At least seven other groups that frequented Mar-a-Lago — including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in New York and the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami — have announced in recent months that they would choose other venues, citing reasons such as political differences and security hassles.

[The banquet business was booming at Mar-a-Lago. Then Trump became president.]

Mar-a-Lago’s upcoming winter season, the peak of Palm Beach social life, looks as though it will be the slowest period for charity events in at least a decade, according to a Washington Post analysis of upcoming events.

The Cleveland Clinic, one of the nation’s leading medical centers, abruptly canceled its event plans Thursday, and spokeswoman Eileen Sheil told The Post that “there were a variety of factors” behind the cancellation. “We’re not elaborating,” she added.

Shortly afterward, the American Cancer Society announced that it was backing out, saying in a statement: “Our values and commitment to diversity are critical as we work to address the impact of cancer in every community. It has become increasingly clear that the challenge to those values is outweighing other business considerations.”

Both health-related groups faced growing pressure to reconsider their support of the president’s business amid Trump controversies. But the cancellations don’t come without risk: The Cleveland Clinic said it had raised about $1 million a year for medical equipment over the past eight years at Mar-a-Lago.

[At Mar-a-Lago, the star power of the presidency helps charities — and Trump — make more money]

Baker, head of the Palm Beach chamber, spoke vigorously against Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, saying that her directive to nearby charities was “If you’re looking at your mission statement, can you honestly say having an event at Mar-a-Lago, given all that has transpired, is the best stewardship of your efforts?”

“The club is a member of the chamber. But right is right,” she added in an interview. She said her mantra this week is “ ‘The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.’ Especially for nonprofits. Especially for groups who help people who can’t help themselves.”

The Cleveland Clinic had still intended to host its ninth gala there as recently as last week. The move followed weeks of public turmoil, including a letter signed by 1,600 health professionals and others last month that said the Mar-a-Lago booking “symbolically and financially supports a politician actively working to decrease access to healthcare.”

The clinic’s chief executive, Toby Cosgrove, was among the business leaders on the president’s Strategic and Policy Forum who agreed to disband Wednesday. Trump said on Twitter that he would end the forum and a separate American Manufacturing Council “rather than putting pressure on the busi­ness­peo­ple.”

Mar-a-Lago has faced growing scrutiny from supporters of Trump’s “buy American, hire American” agenda because of its recent requests for foreign workers. The club, which has sought dozens of H-2B visas for foreign employees because it argued that it can’t find Americans to do the work, was absent last week at a job fair in West Palm Beach.

The charity moves are a welcome development for other venues, such as the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa, where spokesman Nick Gold said calls have increased from groups looking to hold fundraising events.

“There’s a lot of concern from these charities, where their boards of directors are probably not wanting to be at Mar-a-Lago for a variety of reasons,” including reasons related to Trump, he said.
-Wash Post, August 17, 2017

[PegnVA]

TRUMP'S MAR-A-LAGO CLUB LOSES ITS NINTH BIG CHARITY EVENT THIS WEEK
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trumps-mar-a-lago-club-loses-its-ninth-big-charity-event-this-week

Another Palm Beach charity announced Saturday that it was canceling plans to hold a gala at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club — the ninth to cancel a big-ticket charity event at the club this week.

The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, a charity focused on the ritzy island’s architectural landmarks, had planned to hold a dinner dance at Mar-a-Lago next March. The foundation was a new customer for Trump’s club, and a potentially lucrative one: It spent $244,000 on rent and food on a previous gala at another site, according to tax filings.

But on Saturday, the foundation said it would find another venue.

“Given the current environment surrounding Mar-a-Lago, we have made the decision to move our annual dinner dance,” Amanda Skier, the foundation’s executive director, said in a written statement. She did not say which new venue the foundation would use.

That decision meant that Trump’s club had lost nine of the 16 galas or dinner events that it had been scheduled to host during next winter’s social “season” in Palm Beach. At least three other groups have also canceled charity luncheons there this week.

Those losses could reduce the club’s revenue by hundreds of thousands of dollars by each event, and deny President Trump his dual role as president and host to the island’s partying elite. If he returns to the club for weekends next winter, the president could often find its grand ballrooms quiet and empty.

These cancellations all followed the president’s remarks on the march of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups in Charlottesville, in which the president said their side had included some “fine people.”

On Friday, the Salvation Army, the American Red Cross and Susan G. Komen joined the growing exodus of organizations canceling plans to hold fundraising events at the club.

Susan G. Komen, the nation’s largest breast-cancer fundraising group, said it would seek another venue after hosting its “Perfect Pink Party” gala at Mar-a-Lago every year since 2011.

The Salvation Army, which has held a gala at the club every year since 2014, said in a statement that it would not hold its event there “because the conversation has shifted away” from its mission of helping those in need.

And the American Red Cross said it would cancel its annual fundraiser at the club because “it has increasingly become a source of controversy and pain for many of our volunteers, employees and supporters,” the charity said in a statement.


In a letter to staff Friday, chief executive Gail McGovern said, “The Red Cross provides assistance without discrimination to all people in need — regardless of nationality, race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation or political opinions — and we must be clear and unequivocal in our defense of that principle.”

[Three fundraising giants cancel plans for galas at Mar-a-Lago]

Trump’s club earned between $100,000 and $275,000 each from similar-sized events in the past.

But the cancellations also reveal a widening vulnerability for Trump, who, unlike past presidents, refused to divest from his business interests when he joined the White House.

The Trump Organization has not responded to requests for comment.

The charitable groups join three other large event cancellations from Thursday: the Cleveland Clinic, the American Friends of Magen David Adom and the American Cancer Society, which cited its “values and commitment to diversity” in its decision to abandon the club.

Some of the club’s most notable local boosters, with long fundraising histories and deep Palm Beach roots, were also in outright rebellion Friday against the club. Lois Pope, a Mar-a-Lago member and philanthropist who heads the Lois Pope Life Foundation and Leaders In Furthering Education, said she had told her foundation’s board to move its well-known December gala from the club.

“The hatred, vitriol and anti-Semitic and racist views being spewed by neo-Nazis and White Supremacists are repugnant and repulsive,” Pope wrote in a statement. “And anyone who would demonstrate even a modicum of support for them by insisting that there are ‘good people’ among them is not deserving of my personal patronage or that of my foundations.”

One of the cancellations cut close to home for the Trumps. Big Dog Ranch Rescue said Friday it would no longer hold an upcoming event at the club and would instead move it to the group’s facility nearby. Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, was scheduled to co-chair the event.

The Autism Project of Palm Beach County also said Friday that it is not planning on hosting an event at the club, President Richard Busto told The Post Friday. The local group has held “Renaissance Dinner” galas at Mar-a-Lago every year since at least 2008.

The Ryan Licht Sang Bipolar Foundation on Friday also announced it had canceled its annual medical briefing luncheon at the club and will move it to another venue.

“We stand with the community,” the foundation’s co-founder, Dusty Sang, told The Post Friday. “I think people are standing up for what they believe.”

Another group, the Unicorn Children’s Foundation, said it is “currently exploring other options” for a previously planned luncheon at Mar-a-Lago and would make its final decision next month.

The groups’ cancellations follow rebukes from business executives this week, who heavily criticized Trump’s comments that white supremacists and counterprotesters equally shared the blame for a deadly weekend in Charlottesville.
-Wash Post, August 19, 2017