Meet Ed Snow: The "Fundraiser"

[_Daniel Peterson]

Maybe I'm dense (okay, I probably am), but what's the big deal about an organization employing a point person for fundraising? Seems logical to me.

To me, too. I don't understand why this is thought by some here to be so sinister, underhanded, and shocking.

And, while I'm at it, I don't understand why they think we've somehow been hiding our fundraiser:

http://maxwellinstitute.BYU.edu/isparts ... n&whois=14

https://maxwellinstitute.BYU.edu/purcha ... pe=Liahona

And, beyond that, it's his job to meet with people, talk with people on the phone, write to people, and so forth. Not a very good way of concealing his existence.

[_Jersey Girl]

Maybe I'm dense (okay, I probably am), but what's the big deal about an organization employing a point person for fundraising? Seems logical to me.

To me, too. I don't understand why this is thought by some here to be so sinister, underhanded, and shocking.

And, while I'm at it, I don't understand why they think we've somehow been hiding our fundraiser:

http://maxwellinstitute.BYU.edu/isparts ... n&whois=14

https://maxwellinstitute.BYU.edu/purcha ... pe=Liahona

And, beyond that, it's his job to meet with people, talk with people on the phone, write to people, and so forth. Not a very good way of concealing his existence.

So what you're saying is that when Scratch wrote this:

I was curious about this, and tried to dig a bit more deeply into the matter. Somewhat later, DCP (perhaps in a moment of weakness) admitted that the key "fundraiser" is a gentleman named Ed Snow.

All he ever really needed to do was search the website he's criticizing?

[_Daniel Peterson]

All he ever really needed to do was search the website he's criticizing?

Yup.

[_Gadianton]

Funny Trevor, funny.

Skippy,

It is logical. Many things are logical. For instance, cheating on taxes within certain parameters is logical. Organizing a smear campaign against a critic is logical. But for an organization that condemns ministries who according to them are small potatoes, broke, and unimportant --- yet somehow do it "all for the money," it's very interesting that apologists have highly paid fundraisers, an apologetic board raking in hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands in marketing campaigns that have been "tossed aside" as no big deal, and a 1,000,000 + yearly operating budget.

Oh, and let's not forget, the back of every pathetic EV counter-cult ministry pamphlet begs for loose change to help their operation and this makes them money-hungry opportunists while FARMS automatically enrolls you in their $1,000 Liahona club and drops the number of a fundraiser who is, by the way, on public record for his intimidation tactics, hoping to squeeze as much as possible from the pocketbook. Up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars if possible.

But oh no, how dare anyone suggest FARMS has an interest in money.

[_Jersey Girl]

All he ever really needed to do was search the website he's criticizing?

Yup.

Daniel,

Now don't take this as being hypercritical, but when you reduce a thread like this to issues of common sense, it tends to rob us of the daily dose of dramatic overload we've grown accustomed to. Please don't do that again, okay?

If he just starts using links, what will become of the informants exploding in his PM's? You really are an ungenerous sort, Daniel.

[_The Nehor]

Now that Brother Snow's cover has been blown by this moment of weakness we better send him into hiding quickly. Our 'hide in plain sight' campaign has failed.

[Guest]

Now that Brother Snow's cover has been blown by this moment of weakness we better send him into hiding quickly. Our 'hide in plain sight' campaign has failed.

Before you have him go into hiding, make sure he watches this how to video on hiding effectively.

[Guest]

Organizing a smear campaign against a critic is logical.

Nice way to slip that false accusation in without actually making it. Very deft.

But for an organization that condemns ministries who according to them are small potatoes, broke, and unimportant --- yet somehow do it "all for the money,"

FARMS, a.k.a. the Maxwell Institute, has never done that.

it's very interesting that apologists have highly paid fundraisers,

What is Ed Snow's salary? Do you know it? I don't. But you apparently do. Please do share.

an apologetic board raking in hundreds of thousands

We don't even have a board anymore, silly! We haven't had one for four or five years.

But they were never "raking in hundreds of thousands" in board fees. This is pure fantasy.

hundreds of thousands in marketing campaigns that have been "tossed aside" as no big deal

Again, pure fantasy. Absolute rubbish.

Scratch/Hack was able to find one year in which, all together, our marketing of our publications, etc., ran somewhat over a hundred thousand dollars -- which presumably included our full-time marketing person's salary, benefits, and travel expenses. At that time, we were publishing, distributing, and marketing our books and other publications entirely on our own, so we needed somebody to get them into libraries and bookstores. We no longer have such a person or such a program. But it was absolutely never the lavish thing you're fantasizing.

and a 1,000,000 + yearly operating budget.

You think editing and publishing four periodicals annually along with a number of books and a regular newsletter, and running digitizing operations in Italy, and producing databases of ancient documents, and doing multispectral imaging projects in Mexico and Jordan, and providing fellowships for graduate students, and sponsoring academic symposia in Israel, and commissioning and publishing dual-language editions of Islamic and other Middle Eastern texts, producing documentary films (including a non-LDS one entitled Golden Road, about the ancient Arabian frankincense trail), and creating traveling exhibits on the Dead Sea Scrolls and etc. comes free?

Oh, and let's not forget, the back of every pathetic EV counter-cult ministry pamphlet begs for loose change to help their operation and this makes them money-hungry opportunists

???

while FARMS automatically enrolls you in their $1,000 Liahona club and drops the number of a fundraiser who is, by the way, on public record for his intimidation tactics

?????

And, again, ?????

hoping to squeeze as much as possible from the pocketbook. Up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars if possible.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a nonprofit foundation having a fundraising arm. They typically do.

But oh no, how dare anyone suggest FARMS has an interest in money.

Nobody has denied that the Maxwell Institute needs money to carry out its projects. So do the Red Cross, the Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, the American Cancer Society, and UNICEF.

This is sheer foolishness. Do you have a job in the real world?

[_Daniel Peterson]

Now don't take this as being hypercritical, but when you reduce a thread like this to issues of common sense, it tends to rob us of the daily dose of dramatic overload we've grown accustomed to. Please don't do that again, okay?

I'll try not to. Really, I will.

But this is becoming so unspeakably bizarre.

The Maxwell Institute requires money to function? Shocking! Scandalous!

As a non-profit operation that can't survive without donations, it makes use of a fundraiser? Unheard of! Appalling!

Sorry, but this is just idiocy.

If he just starts using links, what will become of the informants exploding in his PM's? You really are an ungenerous sort, Daniel.

I know. He thrives on a frisson of secrecy and conspiracies. If it becomes widely known that our hyperclandestine fundraiser's picture and bio are up on our website, and that we supply contact information for this supersecretive fellow, send him out to meet people, encourage him to talk with people, and expect him write to people, Scratch's attempt to depict our fundraising efforts as sneaky and covert might begin to strike rational members of his audience as . . . umm, a bit less convincing.

[_Gadianton]

Dr. Peterson,

Have you ever read "The Old Cash Nexus" By Louis Midgley? It was published by FARMS.

http://farms.BYU.edu/display.php?table=review&id=282

I think you need to read it.

Do you really think printing "To Moroni With Love" was free?

And no, I don't have a job in the real world.

(just as you've never been paid for apologetics ;)

p.s.

As far as the semantic game over whether 150k should be rounded down or up, to singular or plural, let's blast it all out of the water with this:

In consideration for providing fund raising services, FARMS took a $300,000 note from AG Marketing, Rulon W. Cluff, and ... The balance owed ... is $330,813