Clearing The Air

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

3 ways RWJF violates ethics if not legal business practices

1) Lobbying by a tax exempt organization

RWJF, a tax exempt organization, has provided $446+ million to organizations and urged them to advocate for policy changes (lobby). Even as HHS inspector general has declared grants by tax exempt organizations used for lobbying is illegal.

2) RWJF makes a profit from alternative nicotine products promoted by smoking ban lobbyists

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation owns nearly a billion of dollars in Johnson & Johnson stock, (see p 7 hyperlink) J & J manufactures or owns Nicoderm, Nicotrol,Nicorette, Commit, etc. drugs which RWJF openly promotes once/while smoking bans are enacted. Furthermore, RWJF was started by Johnson & Johnson founderRobert Wood Johnson, so the separation between RWJF and J & J is virtually non-existent.

3) Promotes idea that taxpayer funds (Medicare, Medicaid) should be used to pay for the alternative drugs that RWJF profits from

This pamphlet by RWJF lobbyist American Lung Association (see last page of brochure) promotes the use of alternative nicotine products manufactured or owned by Johnson & Johnson, which as explained above, increases RWJFs financial assets.

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2008/09/rwjf-funds-american-lung-association.html

Finally, the reason RWJFs self serving smoking ban agenda needs to be stopped is that it has eliminated and destroyed hundreds of thousands of jobs as evidenced at following links:

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2007/01/100-bars-and-restaurants-put-out-of.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2012/05/michigan-has-seen-300-bars-restaurants.html

http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2009/03/worldwide-economic-meltdown-and.html

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

RWJF (a 501(c)3 organization, IE. pays reduced taxes on assets) funding to force (lobby) smoke-free laws should draw closer scrutiny by the IRS

From RWJF's website:

GoingSmokeFree.org: A Toolkit for Implementing Smoke-Free Laws

...builds upon more than 20 years of experience implementing smoke-free laws and compelling evidence that smoke-free laws are good for health and business...

http://www.rwjf.org/content/dam/farm/reports/annual_reports/2010/rwjf65763

excerpt:

The (RWJF) Foundation is an organization exempt from Federal taxation under Section 501(c)(3) and is a private foundation as described in Section 509(a) of the Internal Revenue Code....

And further, according to RWJF's own documents:

http://www.rwjf.org/content/dam/farm/reports/program_results_reports/2009/rwjf69101

pg 3 (original exceprt before RWJF edited):

A second, related issue was that of lobbying. In state capitals across the country, the tobacco industry lobbied, and it lobbied hard. Lobbying by tobacco-control advocates would have to be done to counteract the actions of the tobacco industry. But federal law prohibits private foundations from
lobbying, and grantees cannot legally use Foundation funds for that purpose. Legally, the Foundation’s grantees were allowed to use their own resources and matching funds raised privately to lobby. Federal regulations permit foundations to support projects that include lobbying, so long as
they support only the non-lobbying portion of the project. Thus, the Foundation’s conditions of grant expressly prohibited Foundation funds from being used for lobbying.

pg 4 excerpt:

To accomplish these goals, it (RWJF) sought applications from statewide coalitions made up of organizations such as the health voluntaries (the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, and the American Lung Association), state medical societies, hospital associations, and others. The coalitions were to conduct public education campaigns, strengthen prevention and treatment capacity, and advocate for tobacco-control policies (a.k.a. lobbying by CTA's definition). To encourage collaboration among the various organizations working on tobacco control within a state, the Foundation allowed only one coalition per state to apply.

Shows that RWJF realized they could not get caught lobbying directly......and that their grant funds couldn't be used by those surrogates who received RWJF money for lobbying activities......yeah right; I'm sure that happened.

Apparently the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, heir to the Johnson & Johnson / Nicoderm ($500 million annual pharmaceutical nicotine sales fortune), forgot to tell these 500+ closed Twin Cities bars and restaurants just how good those smoke free laws are for their businesses and employees. RWJF also seems to have forgotten to inform these additional 1,000+ closed establishments and tens of thousands of employess just how much they would prosper as well.

More than likely, the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJF) and Johnson & Johnson Company are more concerned with how much they will financially prosper......they have little or no concern regarding the damages caused by their smoke free laws.

This grant (update 9/18/12: http://www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?id=23856&typeid=151 has been removed by RWJF to cover-up clear violation) is an open admission by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that they have supported and funded the lobbying efforts to pass smoking bans around the globe for 20+ years.......some might call this a clear violation of the IRS code as it applies to a 501(c)3 foundation.

At the very least RWJF's very close relationship with the Nicoderm manufacturer Johnson & Johnson (ALZA) makes these same lobbying efforts a rent seeking maneuver pure and simple.

To become a tax-exempt organization, the organization must meet the requirements given by the IRS. Charitable organizations are not to be operated for private interest. The organization cannot support or endorse any political or legislative activities (such as lobbying, or funding lobbyists).

http://www.irs.gov/charities/foundations/article/0,,id=175254,00.html

The IRS Rules on Charitable Organizations | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_7468220_irs-rules-charitable-organizations.html#ixzz1n9w5VYD6