RANKING VETERANS COMMITTEE MEMBER LETS LOCAL VETS GO UNHELPED and RUNS "QUESTIONABLE" CHARITY
By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor
Stories from Indiana Star by Marybeth Schneiderland and Maureen Groppe and Eyewitness 13 News by Sandra Chapman
For some time, veterans from Indiana have been complaining about Rep. Steve Buyers and his unwillingness to work for their interests. Holding the rank of Colonel, standard fare for many Congressmen with law degrees, Buyers is the ranking Republican on the House Veterans Committee.
Questions raised over Indiana charity
A recent tax exempt filing by the Frontier Foundation links directly to Buyer’s office – starting with the first contact for the organization.
Sandra Chapman/Eyewitness News
Monticello – Questions are swirling about an Indiana charity raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for college scholarships and its ties to Congressman Steve Buyer. The money is failing to reach students, but not the National Rifle Association.
In Monticello, home of Congressman Steve Buyer, a recent 990 tax exempt filing by the Frontier Foundation links directly to Buyer’s office – starting with the first contact for the organization which is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for college scholarships. The money comes from groups with high stakes in legislation under scrutiny by committees Buyer serves on.
Stephanie Mattix, Buyer’s finance director, provides her name and Buyer’s office number as the point of contact.
According to the 990 filing, the address given is the address for the Frontier Foundation. But that’s news to the company that owns the space. According to them, the lease was for Steve Buyer.
Real estate owner Greg Vogel said the foundation wasn’t leasing there now. "We’re not subleasing it," he said.
Eyewitness News’ message was forwarded to the Frontier Foundation’s Sandra Danford, who said Mattix was no longer with the foundation.
Danford is now trying to quash concerns.
"I have a hard time with understanding why people want to attack someone who’s going to do good. I mean, in reality, this is truly hurting our students," said Danford.
But students have yet to receive one dime of the reported $800,000 raised.
"We basically want to raise a million dollars in scholarship money. We don’t want to be a foundation that starts providing scholarship money and then in 3 or 4 years we dwindle," said Danford.
According to the 990, Frontier Foundation paid the NRA, (National Rifle Association) nearly $1,500 for educational programs.
Eyewitness News asked Danford if the foundation was willing to give money to organizations like the NRA, why not just take the money and give it to a student?
"I can’t really answer that. I haven’t had time myself to research all the expenses, expenditures, what’s going into all the fundraisers," Danford said.
Congressman Buyer’s offices were closed for the holiday. Sandra Danford says she took over August 1st, and defends Buyer, saying he helps Frontier Foundation and other organizations with their fundraisers.
hru most of his career, he has been the lowest rated member of Congress by the Disabled Veterans of America and among the lowest for the Vietnam Veterans of America yet was chosen to his position for his service as a military lawyer. Read what his local paper has dug up about his scam charity. You can’t help but admire how companies around the US have been helping this fat cat stick the rest of us for a long time:
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
Posted: October 18, 2009
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."
The ACCOUNTING:
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
Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.
Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.
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