Further Financial Questions

Small Victories Talks Finances
Generosity, Exaggeration, or Another Giant Lie?

One of the tactics Small Victories uses is to accuse other pro-life groups of just being “in it for the money” while presenting themselves as a very generous ministry that commits to helping needy families for long periods of time. And while this might sound legitimate and laudable, this seems to greatly conflict with the financial information they have presented to the IRS.

To begin with, there is an excerpt below by the President of Small Victories on the radio April 14th, 2011. She was asked by a caller on the Al Gross Get Together* how long Small Victories would commit to helping out families who are in serious financial need.

Here is the clip

*This was broadcast locally and over the internet on The Al Gross Get Together on KXEN AM 1010 (St. Louis), no longer being aired at the date of this release.

And while the caller was very impressed with her answer, we wonder what his response (and the radio host’s) would have been if he had actually seen their financial records? Would he have still believed her? Would he have been shocked if he knew how little of the money people gave to Small Victories actually ended up providing supplies to needy mothers and babies? Do these statements she made to potential donors on the airwaves line up with what they reported to the IRS? Well, let’s take a look.

First of all, let’s estimate how much it costs to raise a newborn. According to babycenter.com , the 2010 annual price to raise a baby for a single woman in Illinois $7,530 per year**. (For comparison purposes, if you want to factor in inflation, that comes in around $6,723 per year in 2005 dollars^.)

Let's next take a year like 2005 when they claimed to have helped 850 women on their tax return (link to 2005 return). Let's say they provide serious support to 10% of these women - that's 85 women. We will define serious support as providing 1/2 of the support for the baby during the year. That comes out to over $285,000^^ in one year!   If that caller expected numbers like this, no wonder he was impressed!! However, em…..they only spent an estimated $9,930 dollars (link to 2005 financial analysis)!!! That couldn’t work. Let’s try again.

Let's say they gave serious help to just TWO people of the 850 they helped. Now that might have been do-able. It would account for $6,700 in costs and could conceivably have been done and been consistent with what they reported to the IRS. But wait a minute! What about the other 848 women they helped?!? They may try to argue that the help was available for all those women, and it’s just that nobody took them up on their offer. That only leaves an estimated $3,230 for them. That would average out to just $3.81 for each woman for the entire year! How much formula and diapers is that going to get you??

ONE MORE TRY.   Let’s just say they helped out ONE woman of the 850. It’s not as impressive as two, but at least it would be really helping one needy person. That would have accounted for $3,350 in costs, but still only leaves an estimated $6,580 for 849 women, or $7.75 for each woman. I wonder if the caller above sought out help from Small Victories, and received a total of $7.75 of support for the year, what his response would be?? Would he think that Small Victories performs a “laudable” service? Would he think that God is greatly blessing Small Victories? Would he then want to hear what Small Victories has to say about the gospel? Imagine the shock to the radio host if she were to have answered that they will help one woman substantially, and only give $7.75 of help to everyone else! How would that go over in their many fund raisers if they were straightforward with what they have actually spent on needy women over the years?

While Small Victories habitually bashes other pro-life groups, arguing that these other groups have financially selfish and/or alternative motives, they want the world to believe they are a truly wonderful, generous ministry that is greatly blessed by God. However, under scrutiny, their amazing claims don’t match up to what they reported to the IRS in those years - not even close. It just appears to be more self-serving propaganda designed to fool the unsuspecting, uphold a false image, and bring in more donations. For further information on exposing the questionable and erroneous finances of Small Victories, see the prior financial sections (Finances & Taxes Page 3, Financial Fraud? Page 13,), and stay tuned for an analysis of their 2010 IRS return, hopefully coming soon!

**Here is the babycenter.com reference:

^from babycenter.com website
"NOTE: These figures are averages drawn from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2010 Annual Report "Expenditures on Children by Families." (PDF) <http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/CRC/crc2010.pdf> College costs assume four years of college, and are averages drawn from the report "Trends in College Pricing: 2010," (PDF) <http://trends.collegeboard.org/downloads/College_Pricing_2010.pdf> compiled by The College Board. Annual costs are averaged and adjusted for inflation. Your actual costs may vary. "

^CPI reference - April 2005 vs. April 2010 is about a 12% increase in inflation.
<ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/cpi/cpiai.txt>

^^Here is the math:
850 x 10% = 85 total women helped    $6,723/2 = $3,361.50 x 85 = $285,7