The Freedom Concerts Scam

It's that time of year again. The days are growing longer, the air is getting warmer and the kids are looking forward to summer vacation. Which also means it's time for Sean Hannity to start plugging his "Freedom Concerts" series on his TV and radio shows.

"It's all to raise money for a great cause," Hannity says, "the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund, which gives scholarships to the children of slain heroes." Great idea - kids whose parents died while serving our country certainly deserve all the help we can give. Lord knows they've earned it.

But the Freedom Concerts aren't as advertised. Only a tiny fraction of the ticket money ever gets to the people who need it.

While the fine print has mysteriously disappeared from Hannity's website, a number of bloggers preserved it for posterity: "The following fees are included in the above ticket prices: $4.75 facility fee, $4.25 parking fee, and a $4.00 donation to the Freedom Alliance." (Note: This is from 2007, but since Hannity no longer tells anyone how much of the ticket price is actually donated, let's assume nothing has changed.)

Putting aside the fact that parking costs more than the actual donation, the amount given is the same no matter how much you spend on a ticket - four dollars. Ticket prices can go to $300 or more, but let's say you get one of the cheap seats at $75, which means 5.3% is donated.

Now that you have your ticket, take a moment to note the fine print - the $4 does not go directly to the scholarship fund, but rather to the Freedom Alliance as a whole. This tax-exempt group, founded by Iran-Contra scoundrel and Fox News talking head Oliver North, exists primarily to push all sorts of right-wing causes. According to their website, "the Mission of Freedom Alliance is to advance the American heritage of freedom by honoring and encouraging military service, defending the sovereignty of the United States and promoting a strong national defense."

Oh yes, and they also throw a few bucks to the troops here and there. The FA's most recent Form 990 (the IRS form filed by tax-exempt groups) says they took in $12,459,317 in 2007. But if you keep looking, you find some surprising information on what was spent where:

• Salaries: $1,063,018
• Postage and shipping: $1,424,627
• Printing and publications: $1,151,428
• Grants and allocations: $895,347

That works out to 7.2% of their revenue being spent on grants. (By comparison, the United Negro College Fund spends 56% of their revenue on grants.) And if that doesn't grab you, consider that they actually spend more just on stamps than on the people who are supposed to be getting help.

But wait, it gets worse. If you run down the list of scholarship grants as given in the Form 990 (none of which are more than $6000, a small fraction of actual college costs) and add everything up, you get the grand total of $597,500.

$597,500 out of $12,459,317 is 4.8%. Combine that with the 5.3% of the cheap-seats ticket price and you get a final percentage of 0.25% of your money actually going for scholarships.

And if you get one of those $300 tickets, just 0.064% goes to the supposed purpose.

So when Hannity and his ilk flog their Freedom Concerts as a fundraiser for the kids of dead soldiers, they are actually perpetrating an extraordinarily cruel and heartless scam. They are ripping off well-meaning concertgoers who think they're helping the children of America's fallen warriors. Raking in the dough, they keep most of it for themselves while giving a pittance to those who need it the most.

There should be a special place in hell reserved for people like this.