Why KONY 2012 Is Complete Crap

Unlike most people, I have this tendency to watch where I step, because quite frankly, there's usually a big pile of crap where you least expect it to be. So when Invisible Children's Kony 2012 video suddenly went viral last week, I treated it like every other video that goes viral-- with a great big proclamation of "I CALL BULLSHIT", smelling the complete over-hype. I'm not the only one. PrisonPlanet.com reports:

According to Jason Russell’s appearance on the Today show several days ago, over 500,000 action kits have been ordered at $30 a piece, meaning this campaign has brought in a minimum of $15M in revenue this week. This is great news: at least 500,000 people are “advocate[s] of awesome” according to the group’s webstore! So where’s that money going? I’ll leave it to Jedidiah Jenkins, Invisible Children’s Director of Ideology:

“Thirty-seven percent of our budget goes directly to central African-related programs, about 20 percent goes to salaries and overhead, and the remaining 43 percent goes to our awareness programs. […] But aside from that, the truth about Invisible Children is that we are not an aid organization, and we don’t intend to be. I think people think we’re over there delivering shoes or food. But we are an advocacy and awareness organization.”
Yes, you heard it from Invisible Children: more money goes to awareness than to Africa.

Oh, so only about 30% of the money from those mini Shepard Fairey kits are actually going to help anyone. If that. In other words, Invisible Children will probably pocket about $9 million of the $15 million they raised. OK. But, oh, there's more...

More detailed breakdown from the Guardian’s Julian Borger, John Vidal, and Rosebell Kagumire in Kampala, Uganda...

“Invisible Children’s accounts show it is a cash rich operation, which more than tripled its income to $9m (£5.68m) in 2011, mainly from personal donations. Of this, nearly 25% was spent on travel and film-making. Most of the money raised has been spent in the US. The accounts show $1.7m went on US employee salaries, $850,000 in film production costs, $244,000 in “professional services” – thought to be Washington lobbyists – and $1.07m in travel expenses. Nearly $400,000 was spent on offices in San Diego.”

OK, granted they spend a lot of money, but at least we know where the money's going...right? Well, about that...

[Invisible Children]  have also been criticized by the Better Business Bureau for refusing to provide information necessary to determine if IC meets the Bureau’s standards.


Additionally, IC has a low two-star rating in accountability from Charity Navigator because they won’t let their financials be independently audited. That’s not a good thing. In fact, it’s a very bad thing, and should make you immediately pause and reflect on where the money you’re sending them is going.

So before you put on your red shirt (which is a great color to hide in when you're putting up those posters at night, by the way), take a minute, and resist the urge to be swayed by images of poor little kids and horrible stories of brutality. I'm not saying that Kony is The Pope, but what I AM saying is there's a lot more to the story than meets the eye here. And if Rihanna's for it, that should give you enough of a reason to question it based on that alone.

A few more people who are pissed off about KONY 2012: