How many of you Googled the name Joseph Kony this morning? An awareness campaign by Invisible Children Inc likely has someone you know and love learning all about Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the bad shit he's been causing in Uganda in the name of Christianity.
Here's the video that's gone viral. IMHO, it's far too long, but if you have 30 minutes to burn you might want to watch this.
I'm not here to piss on the fine work Invisible Children is doing. Kony's one bad dude, and for the record, I'm against all war criminals that use children as soldiers and sex slaves. I just thought this might be a good time to look at Invisible Children, Inc's financial statements.
On page 6, for example, we learn that they spent $1.7m on salaries. Film costs exceeded $350,000 and production costs were another $851,000. Travel expenses were a whopping $1.07 million. In total, you'll see almost $9 million in expenses.
But wait, there's more! On page 12 we have prepaid expenses, which include $751,000 in computer equipment. There's $1.2 million in property and equipment alone.
Again, I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade. What Joseph Kony is doing is atrocious and I love the fact people are checking Facebook and catching wind of what the LRA is up to in Central Africa, but when you give your money Invisible Children, only expect 31% to make it to the children.
