A charitable foundation like the one Danny has set up is only required to distribute 5% of the assets each year for charitable purposes. This distribution is required only after the expenses of the foundation are met. So, if SHF has several employees who are receiving a salary, the required charitable distribution may be small each year.

SHF may well have taken in several hundred thousand dollars already (or maybe much more), but after expenses, required distributions may be minimal. The purpose of the minimum required distribution is to allow the foundation to continue to exist over time without depleting all of its assets.

When the markets go down, and the assets in the foundation decrease, the size of the distributions will decrease. The IRS scrutinizes these organizations, and they generally will apply for non profit status vis a vis the IRS.

Charitable foundations do a world of good, but it is possible to set them up, put the entire family on the pay roll, and in effect spend more of the foundation money on expenses and family than on the required yearly distributions. That’s why it is important to inquire about operating expenses prior to donating to a foundation such as SHF. You want to make sure it’s not just a front for the family business.

The IRS does have oversight to some degree, and can revoke the organization’s tax exempt status if the behavior at the charitable foundation is improper, but caution is warranted.

I’m not implying in any way that Danny’s organization has excessive administrative costs or that it is set up for the purpose of putting the family on the payroll, I’m just trying to explain how these things work and why only a small amount of money may have been distributed already.

For such a foundation to operate successfully, there really needs to be at least several million dollars in it.

Foundations are great, but in reality, the money that is going into SHF is probably money that would have gone to another charitable endeavor. All the foundations out there compete for funding and gifts from wealthy charitably inclined folks.

There are already MANY charitable foundations in the US.

Props to Gokey for attempting to do good in this world; can’t really fault the guy for that. We should all talk less and do more. Even though he talks too much sometimes, he obviously tries to follow through with action.

I’m more interested in his music. Not impressed so far with what has been put out from season 8 (officially and unofficially). Hopefully the upcoming albums will be better.

I’ve been away for awhile, but I haven’t forgotten about my idol favorites. I just had swine flu, a two year old with swine flu, a copperhead snake in my house, lived in hotels for two weeks, no Internet access where I am, blah, blah, blah.

At any rate, I didn’t really find anything objectionable about Danny’s blog. I personally thought it was interesting to read his feelings on the matter. I don’t believe for a second that the average person who happened upon this blog would find anything to gripe about. When it comes to Danny, I really believe his ‘punishment’  always far exceeds any ‘crime’  he may have committed. You can take just about anyone’s words and pick them apart and make them seem a heck of alot worse than they are. And that’s what I always see happening to Danny.

Quite frankly, as a fan of both Danny and Adam, I found Adam’s Details interview to be WAY more off putting than anything that Danny said in his blog. Sure, I still like Adam, but if that interview was all I had to go on about him, I probably wouldn’t.

Bottom line: If you already don’t like someone, and you read their blog entry, you are going to find something wrong with it. You are coming in with a negative view. If you like someone, you read things with the most positive view, and if you still find it objectionable, you just forgive them for it, like I did Adam.

At any rate, AI blog posters can say what they like about Danny creating this ‘hate’  for himself, but I have never met any American Idol veiwer in the real world(does not go to AI sites online) who didn’t have a positive view of Danny, whether he was their favorite or not. This tells me that people are highly influenced by what they are reading online. I sometimes wonder how I would view Danny if I hadn’t started reading AI blogs this year until late April. I had solidly formed my views on the contestants by then, and was shocked and baffled to find out that so many online were so extremely negative about him. If I had been online the entire season, I wonder if Danny would have been one of my favorites in the end. Would all the negativity have driven me away from him? I’d like to think not, but who knows?

At any rate, I’m ready for Danny’s album. I hope he gets some good music, because in the end, that’s what’s going to matter.

Hey aek. I hope that you are feeling better. I agree with your posts as always. I too am definitely awaiting more news of Danny’s album. I am glad to hear about things like him having a photoshoot for his album. I am definitely excited and interested to hear his single, and about other stuff that will be happening.

Are there any types of country songs out there, that you could see Danny singing?

Hi Jx223! I hope I haven’t missed you, this is a very interesting question. I wasn’t familiar with the songs that you listed, so I listened to them on youtube. I liked the “Red Light” one, I agree that something like that would be good for Danny. I thought that the Due West one was kind of similar to the Rascal Flatts types of songs, and those work for him. The Lady Antebellum is a nice song but I don’t think it’s the type of song that would really leverage his strengths.

I don’t know the modern country music landscape well enough to speak in terms of current artists/songs that are the types of things that I’d like to hear from him. But there are two areas that I think of for him, each of which focuses on one of his great strengths. One is his ability to deliver songs that inspire the heart or touch deep emotions, the “I Hope you Dance” and “I Wish” kinds of things.

The other area is one that would leverage that bluesy/husky quality that he has that so many people love. I really like a lot of music that’s at the intersection of rock music and country. A lot of Southern rock, which sometimes has a great blues influence as well. Danny is not going to even try to sell an “outlaw” persona like a lot of those boys do, but I think it would be great if he would kind of explore this neighborhood to see what might work for him, since it would be a great way to show off that voice. Maybe a sound in the neighborhood of Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page”. Turn up the blues element and it might sound kind of like the Fabulous Thunderbirds “Tuff Enuff”. Turn it way up and it might have aspects that are reminiscent of something like Robert Cray’s “Smoking Gun”. I’m not suggesting that these songs would be good for Danny, or that they’re what’s currently considered “radio friendly”. But I think this kind of sound is where Danny could really blow the roof off, and could be positioned reasonably well on a country album. I want him to mix it up, and go for some complexity in his work…I don’t want it to ever turn into “oh, here’s another tearjerker from Danny”. Just some random thoughts there!

Here’s the Fabulous Thunderbirds for you, in case you don’t know them (I lhave always really liked this song).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxBx0nfRp9s

p.s. aek, I’m so glad that you’re better!

I’m deleting off-topic posts. That is, if you aren’t talking about Danny, you are OFF TOPIC.

Please don’t discuss the thread or criticize or comment on posters..

They don’t however explain very clearly their administrative overhead that more than likely comes off the top before funds are passed through to specific schools.

Each DonorsChoose project clearly lists “operating costs” in the Project Details and Costs. This “supports the labor performed by DonorsChoose.org”; it’s “18% of the total project cost”.

My guess is that this foundation is staffed by relatives of Sophia which is understandable being that this is created in her memory. I can’t see this organizaton becoming national in scope but more founded for local people in Milwaukee to benefit. It’s not really comparable to Donorschoice other than they are both charities of some sort.

Sophie’s Heart lists no one. Not a single person. Why?

BTW… 10K for an insurance company is small change. Publicity for sure.

If Danny keeps up his association with Habitat for Humanity, I’ll be impressed.

hmmmm, being gay is not a lifestyle, Gokey.

ITA! Unfortunately it is probably what his church calls it. He doesn’t know any other way to reference it.

I think this is stupid.

If he really wants to get all his thoughts out once and for all regarding the Adam drama, he should say it straight. “People thought I had a problem with Adam being gay.” Otherwise, it’s just more wishy washy politically correct speech that doesn’t accomplish anything. Except for rile some people up because of his word choice in saying “lifestyle” instead of “orientation.”

There’s no point for him doing this except for to let his feelings out and have a last ditch attempt to have everyone ~forgive~ him. It doesn’t accomplish anything because it’s just one more statement from Danny about the same topic he’s addressed a lot of times, written in such a vague way that 1) he can’t really be attacked over it but 2) It won’t really change people’s minds about anything. He shouldn’ve just let it be and actually blogged about Sophia’s Heart and his new album.

That said, I appreciate the fact that this blog post is mostly grammatically correct and coherent.

At the event, NWFN presented a $10,000 corporate check to Danny for Sophia’s Heart Foundation. The check presentation is in the youtubes from Danny’s performances at that event. Danny seemed very touched by the support. SHF also received a sizable grant from one of the Milwaukee pro football players who has his own charitable foundation in that area. That was included in local Fox station coverage of an event Danny attended with Habitat for Humanity during the early summer. I don’t think either of those would have taken place without some due diligence on behalf of the insurance company, or the football player and his own foundation.

Danny’s charitable foundation has received donations from a major US insurance company and several high-visibility sports personalities in Milwaukee, to mention just those that are publicly known. I feel quite sure an insurance company, especially, would have done due diligence inquiries before investing money. Danny has said they have an accountant for the foundation. It’s a new activity, and probably will not be completing a full annual statement until the end of this year.

I appreciate your post. I am not sure about the insurance company, but remember a few Packers donating 100K. I also think that was quite awhile back, when the Idols were hot. I’m not saying they didn’t do their due dilligence. Perhaps, but they may have done it for publicity, too. My point is that I don’t want want a football player endorsing a charity’s financials. I want to know who’s running the joint. I think that has been a consistant criticism from the start and it is still not on the website. I’m pretty sure they know it’s a concern and they still aren’t putting that on their site. So why?

I actually know and have met plenty of AI veiwers [sic]. These people have not spent the last nine months reading negative stuff about Danny online. Their perception is totally different.

Being online is not the requirement you think it is to think Danny is a flawed AI contestant. I know people who don’t even have a computer who were turned off by him. You think that everyone who is not an invested fan of Danny’s, who says anything remotely negative, is a hater. That is not true.

And just what was it that turned so many thousands or millions of people off to Danny? You have so many things to choose from: the fact that the show tried to push a sob story to promote a contestant instead of his alleged talent; Danny’s unnerving condescending smirks; his holier-than-thou attitude; his failure to live up to the hype…and dozens more. Take your pick.

But what you’re implying is that anyone who is not a card-carrying fan of Danny is a potential hater, and anyone who doesn’t praise him with utter abandon, or says something remotely negative, is a hater. That’s just not true.

There are so many insensitive Danny apologists out there who are shocked that everyone is not marching in locked step with them as they worship their hero…

And you Danny apologists always blame the Internet, as if it were a rude unruly child who can’t be made to knuckle under and accept the party line, which is that Danny is perfect and incapable of fault of any sort… you Danny apologists will not even admit the most glaring truths about the guy, and want to silence any criticism of him. When Danny drops names like Martin Luther King, Jr., or Mother Theresa, you don’t wonder why he is a name dropper. You just want to silence the people who are raising these annoying questions! Your worship of the guy is total…