It's Important to Know What You Don't Know

[Res Ipsa]

It was still there as of March 2021, and then changed in the middle of 2021.

It is possible that they simply "forgot" to change the donation link. But if any donations were made during those 6+ months, they all went to the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy PayPal account.

Thanks. I’ve been searching the Wayback Machine, too . They domain was originally registered by a Canadian company that provided consulting services for charities. Then it was for sale for several years. The first example of the current incarnation I could find is from spring 2015, which includes the current logo and references the Faith Matters Foundation. Weirder and weirder. I think I need to hunt down an earlier Faith Matters Foundation.

[drumdude]

It was still there as of March 2021, and then changed in the middle of 2021.

It is possible that they simply "forgot" to change the donation link. But if any donations were made during those 6+ months, they all went to the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy PayPal account.

Thanks. I’ve been searching the Wayback Machine, too . They domain was originally registered by a Canadian company that provided consulting services for charities. Then it was for sale for several years. The first example of the current incarnation I could find is from spring 2015, which includes the current logo and references the Faith Matters Foundation. Weirder and weirder. I think I need to hunt down an earlier Faith Matters Foundation.

These LDS groups and the church itself seem to deliberately make their finances and connections about as clear as mud. Tax exempt status should require much more financial transparency.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Faith Matters is hq’d

https://www.guidestar.org/profile/85-2759608 <- edit: NOTE - you may only get one look at the site before you’re forced to sig. up for whatever

Principal Officer

DAVID TURNBULL
Main address

2929 W Navigator Dr Ste 400
Meridian, ID 83642 United States

Which is the hq for Brighton Corp:

https://www.brightoncorp.com/our-team/

Which is a development corporation headed up by:

https://faithmatters.org/david-and-kristin-turnbull/

It appears Faith Matters is a shell company to funnel tax free monies into real estate development.

You’re welcome.

- Doc

[Res Ipsa]

Faith Matters is hq’d

https://www.guidestar.org/profile/85-2759608 <- edit: NOTE - you may only get one look at the site before you’re forced to sig. up for whatever

Principal Officer

DAVID TURNBULL
Main address

2929 W Navigator Dr Ste 400
Meridian, ID 83642 United States

Which is the hq for Brighton Corp:

https://www.brightoncorp.com/our-team/

Which is a development corporation headed up by:

https://faithmatters.org/david-and-kristin-turnbull/

It appears Faith Matters is a shell company to funnel tax free monies into real estate development.

You’re welcome.

- Doc

Uh, nope. In fact, the only funneling shown on the 990s is the other way.

[Res Ipsa]

Thanks. I’ve been searching the Wayback Machine, too . They domain was originally registered by a Canadian company that provided consulting services for charities. Then it was for sale for several years. The first example of the current incarnation I could find is from spring 2015, which includes the current logo and references the Faith Matters Foundation. Weirder and weirder. I think I need to hunt down an earlier Faith Matters Foundation.

These LDS groups and the church itself seem to deliberately make their finances and connections about as clear as mud. Tax exempt status should require much more financial transparency.

Okay, here’s how weird it gets: There is no Foundation for Religious Diplomacy. It’s a DBA for the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy, which is still an actual entity in Utah. Wild.

More weirdness: here’s a page for Charles Randall Paul on the Faith Matters website: https://faithmatters.org/charles-randall-paul/

Now, go to the website and try to find his page, from the menus or using the search function.

[drumdude]

This guy made a boatload of cash working commercial real-estate deals for Trammell Crow:

Charles Randall Paul
Area Partner Trammell Crow Company
Jun 1972 - Jun 1988
I developed over 40 commercial real estate projects with my partners totalling[sic] over $450,000,000 in value before starting a second career. In 1988 I retired from full time business to study practical ways to engage ideological conflict

https://web.archive.org/web/20120224083 ... ganization

The Foundation is organized to promote and facilitate communication between people experiencing conflicts inspired by religious differences. It seeks to enroll and train religiously bi-lingual “interreligious diplomats” who can engage in deep dialogue encounters to decrease ill will and build trust even while in the midst of difficult conflicts.

Foundation membership affiliation is open to all persons who are willing to engage in respectful interreligious diplomatic exchanges and receive training from the Foundation. Members of the same religious or ideological persuasion are encouraged to inquire about forming chapters of the Foundation, guided by FRD principles and methods but directed by local members working to achieve their goals for interreligious communication.

Global Scholarly Publications is a subsidiary of the Foundation that promotes intercultural learning by publishing books and journals (especially bi-lingual texts), and by organizing workshops and conferences. Its current executive director is Parviz Morewedge (Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles). Visit the Global Scholarly Publications website to see a listing of its various publications.

The Foundation's directors, advisors, members, and supporters are religiously diverse, and they often disagree in their own worldviews and ultimate beliefs. The Foundation neither supports nor opposes specific religions, ideologies, multi-religious unions, councils, or movements, however, it does oppose unethical, coercive, or violent efforts to impose religious or ideological influence on human conscience.

Global Scholarly Publications is yet another defunct website/project from this guy. It seems his ambitions vastly outpaced his abilities.

[Res Ipsa]

Okay, I think I’ve got the general outline of events. Faith Matters did indeed begin as a project of The Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy dba The Foundation for Religious Diplomacy.

It appears that the World Table also began as a project of the FRD. It ended up being owned by The World Table Pbc, a private corporation founded by the Executive Director of the FRD — Charles Randall Paul.

As Drumdude found, the FRD website is kaput. The most recent 990 filed by the FRD (2020) shows it to be seriously underwater. It owes over 300K in loans — 120K from Paul. Its major asset is a 300K investment in the World Table [Pbc?], which is worth ??? (The World Table itself was a complete bust). And the 990 also says that Faith Matters was separated financially for reporting, whatever that means. And 2020 was the year in which Faith Matters Foundation was incorporated in Idaho by the Turnbulls.

So, how did Faith Matters get salvaged from the FRD Financial Trainwreck? I suppose we could ask the three FRD Directors who have served In those positions from the FRD’s founding through at least 2020:

Charles Randall Paul
Gerald T Snow
Daniel Peterson

If you’d be so kind, Dr. Peterson, how did that go down? Are the four Turnbulls the members of Faith Matters? If not, who’s in charge?

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Faith Matters is hq’d

https://www.guidestar.org/profile/85-2759608 <- edit: NOTE - you may only get one look at the site before you’re forced to sig. up for whatever

Principal Officer

DAVID TURNBULL
Main address

2929 W Navigator Dr Ste 400
Meridian, ID 83642 United States

Which is the hq for Brighton Corp:

https://www.brightoncorp.com/our-team/

Which is a development corporation headed up by:

https://faithmatters.org/david-and-kristin-turnbull/

It appears Faith Matters is a shell company to funnel tax free monies into real estate development.

You’re welcome.

- Doc

Uh, nope. In fact, the only funneling shown on the 990s is the other way.

Bummer. I was hoping for something scandalous. What can I say? I'm a sucker for tabloid material.

It's weird. Last year Faith Matters pulled in $311k in donations, or a donation - I can't seem to find who donated to it. It appears none of the main actors take any money from it, again, from what I see. Basic expenses like traveling, conference fees, marketing, etc. Perhaps Mr. Turnbull is using Faith Matters as a write off mechanism? I dunno, because it most certainly isn't making waves. Is Faith Matters a good faith effort at starting up a movement that let's people know, and feel, that faith matters? Or do businessmen create bogus charitable orgs so they can conduct business under the guise of conducting charitable business for a better tax bill?

= Doc

[Res Ipsa]

Uh, nope. In fact, the only funneling shown on the 990s is the other way.

Bummer. I was hoping for something scandalous. What can I say? I'm a sucker for tabloid material.

It's weird. Last year Faith Matters pulled in $311k in donations, or a donation - I can't seem to find who donated to it. It appears none of the main actors take any money from it, again, from what I see. Basic expenses like traveling, conference fees, marketing, etc. Perhaps Mr. Turnbull is using Faith Matters as a write off mechanism? I dunno, because it most certainly isn't making waves. Is Faith Matters a good faith effort at starting up a movement that let's people know, and feel, that faith matters? Or do businessmen create bogus charitable orgs so they can conduct business under the guise of conducting charitable business for a better tax bill?

= Doc

It’s complicated. For starters, it doesn’t have to identify donors for the first five years of its existence. With the exception of what are called “unusual gifts.”

The Turnbulls don’t really need a write off mechanism. Brighton Company has a foundation through which it donates to various charitable organizations in the Treasure Valley. I’m guessing it’s a private foundation. And, as I mentioned, Brighton Corporation donated to Faith Matters in 2020. It’s not uncommon for private companies to make donations to charitable organizations they feel are worthwhile.

Family Matters started as a project of the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy. Charles Randall Paul’s focus was on improving dialog between religious sects, including Evangelicals and Mormons. It produced materials to teach teachers how to approach religion in the classroom to avoid either avoiding the issues or presenting them in a confrontational manner. It produced a documentary about Mormon who traveled to the Bible Belt to experience how evangelicals viewed Mormons. The focus was on promoting respectful interchange of ideas among religious sects. To that end, the foundation established chapters centered around different faiths. The Evangelical chapter was established in Utah. A Buddhist chapter in Portland. Maybe others.

Paul himself has proposed these ideas outside of the interfaith area — advocating for the same approach to dialog between people of faith and others in the public square. So, even though the founding directors of FRD were LDS, the focus was on interfaith relations.

That’s the environment in which Faith Matters was originally created. The present incarnation is focused on Mormonism. Gun to the head, I’d say that someone decided there was something worth saving in what the FRD-created Faith Matters website, and split it off and sold or gave it to a new Foundation created for that purpose. But it was also retooled at some point as a Mormon focused effort.

Who decided to rescue Faith Matters from the FRD and how that was done? I have no idea. There is one additional curious aspect of the Faith Matters Foundation that I find odd. Upthread I compared the anti-conflict of interest clause in the FMF Articles with that of the original Bonneville Charitable Foundation. Both organizations were set up the same way: unidentified “members” were given complete control of the organization by giving them the power to appoint and fire members of the governing board. But “members” is conspicuously absent from the provision in the FMF articles. This means that the Articles do not prevent net income of the FMF from being distributed to members, as long as the members are not private individuals.

This is the kind of mistake that lawyers get paid the big bucks not to make, and the articles were drawn up by an experienced lawyer. (He’s almost certainly the “incorporator.”) So, if it’s not a mistake, who is the member entity that the FMF can transfer net income to? That adds to my curiosity about who are the members that control the FMF.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Just bumping the thread because it’s interesting. From the Trib:

https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2023/05 ... -car-than/

The survey was commissioned by Skylight and conducted by the Boston-area research firm City Square Associates. Skylight was launched in 2020 by the Radiant Foundation, a nonprofit organization associated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and partially funded by the Deseret Management Corp., which manages entities affiliated with the Utah-based faith.