Government Efficiency and Nonprofit Integrity: Unpacking the Real Cost of Financial Mismanagement | Episode 206

Government Efficiency and Nonprofit Integrity: Unpacking the Real Cost of Financial Mismanagement | Episode 206

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Financial accountability shouldn't be a one-way street where ordinary citizens face strict consequences while powerful institutions operate unchecked. This provocative conversation dives deep into the troubling disparities that exist in our financial systems.

What would you do if you could legally avoid taxes or receive $43 million annually without much effort? While most of us dream about winning the lottery, the reality is that some organizations effectively do—receiving massive funding with minimal oversight. Justin Alan Hayes examines how small businesses and individuals must meticulously account for every dollar while some government agencies haven't faced proper audits for over a decade.

The spotlight turns to Elon Musk's newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is uncovering billions in wasteful spending across federal agencies. Perhaps most shocking is the revelation about a Haiti-focused organization run by Chelsea Clinton that reportedly received $43 million annually but allocated $10 million toward a mansion and $3 million for a wedding. When the math is done, this misallocation meant meals supposedly costing $1,400 each—a staggering example of mission drift.

The contrast couldn't be more striking: while the world's wealthiest man sleeps in a sleeping bag on office floors during his government efficiency work, some nonprofit leaders divert donations to personal luxury. This isn't about politics but about basic integrity—whether organizations uphold the missions they promote when soliciting funds. As Hayes poignantly observes, when we lose confidence in the financial integrity of our institutions, it affects more than our pocketbooks—it impacts our collective mental health and trust in the systems that govern our society. Join us in this eye-opening exploration of what true accountability should look like, regardless of one's power or position.

Financial accountability should be universal, whether you're an individual filing taxes or a government agency receiving billions in funding. We examine how the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is uncovering wasteful spending and revealing troubling disparities in how different entities are held accountable.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Introduction
• 1:35 Questions About Tax Obligations
• 6:26 Department of Government Efficiency Explained
• 10:24 Government Auditing and Accountability Issues
• 15:16 Chelsea Clinton's Haiti Organization Controversy
• 24:07 Nonprofits, Salaries, and Public Transparency
• 28:39 Mental Health Impact and Conclusion

Transcript

Justin Alan Hayes: 0:01

Welcome to this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, justin Allen Hayes. Thank you for joining us today and thank you for all the support you've given our organization. If you could give us a big thumbs up, share, like comment, that would be very much appreciated so that we can head towards that goal of helping 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. So it's a huge goal and those things don't cost anything to do. So we would appreciate that. And, as you know by now, you can find us everywhere. You can find us every Wednesday on Hudson Community Television, here in the Western Reserve, northeast Ohio area, if you have Spectrum, and you can find us on YouTube, rumble and all the audio platforms. Whether you like Spotify, whether you like Apple Podcasts, we're there for everybody.

Justin Alan Hayes: 1:14

So thank you again for joining us, and we're going to kick off this episode by really asking a couple different questions. So the first one is how many of you would like to either not pay taxes and or not be audited every year? So we're coming into the time where the IRS is asking individuals, organizations, to file taxes for the previous year, the previous quarter, and if we don't do that, we could be in big trouble. We could face thousands in fines and, depending on the situation, situation, we could find ourselves in jail, and so I would think that any individual or organization who would benefit from not having to pay extra money to for the, for the taxes, or be audited every year, would do that if it was legal, and so this is again a hypothetical. So that's kind of the first part. The second part is how would you like it? And I'm even asking my own self the question how would I like to get 43, 45 million dollars every year for an organization? So Voices for Voices is an organization and I can tell you right now we don't get 43 million, 45, 1 million, and so I think we could also agree that if there was a way, like a lottery, that we could basically get money for free without having to do a whole lot, we would do that, and so would we have that extra money to potentially pay for a wedding, pay for a house.

Justin Alan Hayes: 3:31

That would obviously be something that wouldn't be a good thing, because that would be kind of going against the grain, because as an organization, right, we have missions, we have visions, we have goals, objectives, and that's what we're supposed to be held to, that high standard of following. So if there is a grant available or there is a foundation or a gifting or donation or a sponsorship opportunity, that comes along. When that comes along, the individuals and or organizations are putting their money into an organization for a particular reason, and the particular reason are having something to do with the mission, the vision, the goals, the objectives of that particular organization, and so that's how things should work. I mean, it's pretty much common sense. I would think that you know if we're giving money for a particular reason, that we're using it for a particular reason, that we're using it for that particular reason. So let's start with that first question and dig a little bit deeper about not paying taxes and or having an audit each year for our organization or for us individuals and households, for our organization or for us individuals and households.

Justin Alan Hayes: 5:06

So that's what's been occurring in our US government. So you may be watching, listening, from a country outside the United States and so you'd have to look at your own individual situation in your government. So if you're in Italy, or we've been actually picking up a lot of you followers and listeners and viewers in Japan and Australia the last month, month and a half, so you'd have to look at that particular instance for yourself. But, speaking in the United States, that's where our organization resides, where I reside, and many organizations within the United States federal government I think the surprise to a lot of people, regardless doesn't matter politically what side of the aisle you're on, just common sense would say it would be a good thing to be audited, to look at the books, see where money is being spent, if it's really being spent, where the money is supposed to for a particular project, supposed to for a particular project.

Justin Alan Hayes: 6:24

And so that's been occurring across a wide variety of agencies here in the United States, and so there's been a lot of uproar, I would say, about the world's most wealthy individual, the individual Elon Musk, coming in as a non-elected member of the administration, the Trump administration, coming in and forming what has been dubbed as DOGE D-O-G-E, the Department of Government Efficiency, as DOGE D-O-G-E the Department of Government Efficiency, and so that's the organization or the group that is going into all the agencies within the federal government and looking to make sure that again, the organizations that have been receiving millions and can you believe it, billions of dollars year over year over year without really any extra thought going into it, just oh well, this organization got $3 billion last year, so we're going to put them in for $3 billion next year and the like. So those things have been going on and we all know that there's always a few not good apples out there. But to find as much as what Elon and his team has in just a few weeks as far as waste going to organizations who, coming back to what we talked about at the beginning have an organization mission, a vision of what the money is supposed to be used for, whether it's the individual running the organization or it's money coming from the federal government in the form of potentially grants or other organizations who are on board with the mission and the vision. And so billions has been found, just up until the taping of this show, to be wasteful spending. And I think how that ties into the taxes and auditing what also has been found with kind of this frivolous spending within some of the agencies and organizations within the government.

Justin Alan Hayes: 8:51

All those agencies haven't been audited every single year to again look at the books, find out what money is coming in, what money is going out, where it's coming from, where it's going. And that's alarming to me as an organization leader who, every year, we have to again, we have to file our taxes, we have to show where the money's coming from, where it's going, and that has to be submitted to the federal government. And so why are organizations like Voices for Voices, why do we, with way less money, donations, sponsorships coming in? Why should we have to do things a particular way? But if you're within the federal government, oh well, you know there have been agencies that's been found 10, 15 years. They haven't had an audit and even when they did have an audit, the audits failed. And that's very just troubling as an individual, because if we take that step back, look at ourselves as an individual, and if we miss filing our taxes for 15 years, I can almost guarantee that you and I would be in a lot of trouble from the IRS, the Internal Revenue Service, and so that's really what's happening.

Justin Alan Hayes: 10:24

And another step to that is we think about, oh well, elon. He's not elected and we can all have our opinions, but what we can't really move away from the fact is, here is the world's wealthiest man. Here is the world's wealthiest man and he is actually sleeping on the first floor in a sleeping bag in some of these office buildings that he's doing the now audits that should have been done and continued year after year, and so he's not staying at the Ritz-Carlton, he's not staying at the Ritz-Carlton, he's not staying at the W. Here's an individual, and so to me that just shows that an individual is dedicated to what they're doing. So Elon is just kind of a vehicle that is going in and finding again he's not looking to.

Justin Alan Hayes: 11:27

You know, if an organization is doing well and they've been doing things by the books, you know, filing their taxes, they're being audited, actually being occupied which is another little sliver into that conversation of how many buildings that Elon and his team have gone into that you and I are paying here in the United States. If you're watching or listening from a different country, you're probably paying taxes, some form of money, to your government, and that money is being spent how they see fit, and so you would think right that that money would be going to good use, that if we have five agencies, we have five buildings and now that we are still in that post-COVID era, and so COVID is still a thing, but it has really dialed back from when it first came out. So that was one of the big reasons how we got into doing heavy remote meetings, you know, on the Zooms and the like, and so that's just another sliver into, you know, wasteful spending, because you and I, wherever we're living, if we're living in an apartment, a condo, a house, we're paying some type of monthly fee until we talk about a house and a condo. If we pay those off, then we're still having to pay taxes every year so we can have our homes paid off. But again there comes that T word, the taxes, and so we're being audited every year as individuals and organizations like ours Voices for Voices and so we should have that expectation. But well, so should the government. The government should be audited. They have a building. It should be, let's just say, there should be more than zero as the number of the individuals, as Elon and his team go into certain agencies where there's literally cobwebs around. So that might be a little bit extreme that there's cobwebs, but that just goes to show that there's some agencies that nobody has been in or very few people have been in in quite a while, and so that just wraps around that efficiency, making sure that our tax money is being spent a little bit wiser.

Justin Alan Hayes: 14:33

We can't guarantee everything and this show and episode isn't going to change everything. This is really just kind of like a newsflash of what's been happening. And you may have a different take than I do and we do, and that's okay. We can agree to disagree. But again, at the end of the day, I bet you're paying taxes and I bet you're paying it every year, and if you're not, I bet you've had fines added onto the amount of taxes that your organization would owe.

Justin Alan Hayes: 15:11

And this isn't just isolated to the common individual. Celebrities are in the same boat. I know, years ago, wesley Snipes. I remember him playing Willie Mays Hayes in the movie Major League and I thought he was funny in that movie and he had been in other movies. But there was a period of time where he wasn't paying his taxes and he kind of or the IRS kind of caught up to him and I'm not quite sure where that ended up. But I know that at a minimum he would have to pay the taxes because he wasn't paying for, I think 10 or 15 years. It was quite a long stretch that he wasn't paying the taxes on. So that's really what we're talking about, and how does that affect mental health?

Justin Alan Hayes: 16:05

Well, if we don't have confidence in our own government, that can make us feel a little bit uneasy about what prerogative the leaders and the people have been running the country for not just the last four years, but many, many, many administrations. Just the last four years, but many, many, many administrations, even going back to the, you know, to the 60s. You know nobody really stepped in. You know we want to think that. You know we can help and fix things across the world, but if we can't fix things in our own backyard, then what use is that? And so that's where the second part of this episode.

Justin Alan Hayes: 16:51

We talk about having organizations that are specifically their vision and mission and goals are to help help other countries, other causes outside of the United States, and that's a good thing. And it really just comes back to what is our organization? What is again, what's the mission, vision, goals, objectives, and are we using the money that is coming in for what that is supposed to be meant for? So if we have a project where we're, let's say, for the example, to really kind of round things out, let's say that we have a nonprofit organization, organization where we are using the donations to pay for lunches for individuals from Haiti, because we still know that Haiti is still reeling from the earthquake and natural disasters that have happened, and so that's a good thing to do. And as an organization, that can be, you know, part of the organization or if the organization was specifically set up for that. So if you know a particular amount of money comes in a million dollars comes in darn close then a million dollars should go out. Dollars comes in darn close to a million dollars should go out to pay for those meals. So what's that have to do with anything?

Justin Alan Hayes: 18:36

So there's been reporting, and these have been backed up by Elon and his team, and we've all probably heard in the United States at this point about an organization called USAID. So USAID is an organization and it happens to have US at the beginning. So one would kind of think that the organization, if we take the acronym out, that it would be United States Aid, not Haiti Aid. And again, that's not to say that we don't want to help other places in the world, and I'm not one to kind of go off on that tangent, because as an organization, we've been to Ukraine, we've been to Poland and we've done things, but the difference is the money that's coming in is very minimal and so darn near 98%, 99% of the money that was spent to do those mission trips, they were spent by me. That was my money. It wasn't money that was coming in from an organization, a sponsorship, and so that's kind of where we really split off. So if we have things that we want to do a little bit on the side but are still part of that mission, if it's outside the United States, we should be using our own money. We shouldn't be using money that's coming in for a grant unless that grant is for that particular reason.

Justin Alan Hayes: 20:08

So Chelsea Clinton the daughter of past President Bill Clinton and past Secretary of State Hillary Clinton she has an organization and her organization was to do just that, was to pay for meals, for lunches, for people living in Haiti, and she was, and has been receiving close to $42, $43 million a year into that organization. When the books were kind of as the books were kind of being going through, elon and his team found that out of that $43 million, $10 million went to buy a mansion. So again, that comes back to you know how would you like to just get free money, win the lottery, we would love that, right, and so we don't have to pay the money back, it's just money that's here. And then we want to buy a book, we want to buy a camera, a phone, a car, we want to buy a private jet, whatever that may be, and so $10 million went to pay for a mansion so that's just a fancy term for a big house and $3 million went to pay for her wedding. And having been married and gone through that process, it can be quite costly. And I can tell you right now I never received my wife never received $3 million, $2 million, $1 million, $500,000, $400,000. We didn't receive that.

Justin Alan Hayes: 22:00

And so we call that kind of the bait and switch right and kind of think of the car dealer as an example. So let's say there is a Ford Fusion being advertised for $399 a month for a particular period of time, and you or I are in the market for a new car and we're like, oh wow, this car is what we're looking for, it has all the features and it fits within our budget. And so we go to the dealer and we ask one of the representatives about that and say, hey, I'd like to look at the Ford Fusions, the $399 a month. That was on the advertisement that I saw on TV or on YouTube or Spotify as an ad. However, that advertisement came through and the representative of the car dealership says, oh, that's not for the Ford Fusion, that's actually for the Honda Accord. And so we're thinking like, okay, well, these cars are similar in certain ways and dissimilar in certain ways. And so we come back and say, well, but the Ford Fusion is what was advertised and that's what we want for this price. And they say, oh well, if you want that, that's actually $450 a month or $499 a month. Again, I'm giving these as hypotheticals, but that would be what we99 a month and that would qualify for what you saw on television or you heard on Spotify. Or if you're mowing the grass and listen to music and you don't have the premium version. Like, I don't have the premium version, so ads come in here and there, and so that's what we call the bait and switch. And so that's when we back that up and go back into the story about the organization that Chelsea has, by taking that money under the pretense that the money was going to be spent for a certain reason and that was to pay for lunches for people living in Haiti. Instead, she took that $10 and $3 million, so that $13 million, and bought things personally.

Justin Alan Hayes: 24:35

Now as an organization, some dollars, and it really comes down to your board of directors and being up front with your donors. Just because an individual or a team works for a nonprofit doesn't mean that they wouldn't get paid at some point. We can think of, right here in Northeast Ohio, the Cleveland Clinic's a non-profit. We just had the Super Bowl. The NFL's a non-profit, which is incredible to think about because of I think it was $8 million or so for a 30-second ad. So that money is going to the network and the networks are on the back end paying the NFL, and then all that network and the networks are on the back end paying the NFL. And then all that merchandise, all the jerseys, the hats, the towels, those ones that are licensed by the NFL they're getting a percentage of that. And oh, by the way, roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, again, which is a nonprofit, is pulling in. I believe last check was around $30 million a year.

Justin Alan Hayes: 25:46

So when we pull all those layers back and we talk about this Chelsea Clinton organization, a, let's say a it wouldn't be something that house and to buy the mansion, buy the house and then pay for the wedding, and so let's say it's $50,000 a year or whatever that amount is. So the board of directors are on board with that. So the board of directors are on board with that. If there is literature on a website that mentions that with the financials, then that is something that would be in a better position than what's actually occurred, because when the curtain is pulled back, it's showing that $10 million and $3 million going to the mansion and the wedding, which would mean the leftover money that would, or the leftover meal money that was supposed to be sent to Haiti, came out to somewhere in the $1,400, $1,500 a meal, and so that's just crazy, if you really think about it, that a meal would cost $1,400.

Justin Alan Hayes: 27:26

Well, when you start doing the numbers and we did an out-of-studio episode about numbers and how they're all in our lives one way or another I'm watching the clock right now of how long we have on the show there's different cameras and so, just right there, there's numbers that I have to be somewhat familiar with. So, as an organization, we should kind of do what our mission and our vision is, and then you know if we want to talk about salary, then that money has to be again approved by the board as well as letting the general public know. So if an individual is donating $10, that they know that maybe a dollar of that is going to go to salaries versus. Oh no, we got this organization and here's what we do, and all the money that comes in goes for this particular thing. Well, that particular thing did not occur and is not occurring.

Justin Alan Hayes: 28:29

So we rewind to the beginning of this episode and, as we were talking about DOGE, department of Government and Efficiency, this USAID, and how they were spending money on causes outside of the US, outside of our national security posture, the organization that Chelsea runs came to the top and it's probably because she's a big name right, she's a daughter of a former president and a former secretary of state, so it's kind of like pulling a celebrity out and making an example of them.

Justin Alan Hayes: 29:11

And so that's what Elon and his team are really doing. They're trying to come in and not just trying. They are. They're coming in and they're looking for organizations to be run efficiently, and where there's money being spent outside the scope of what it's supposed to be spent on, outside of that mission, vision, goals and objectives, then that needs to stop, and so that's really what's occurring. So, for me, my mental health is a little bit better just knowing that there's things going on that are going to help push our government a little bit closer to what we have to do as individuals and voices for voices, and that is to pay our taxes and to do what we say we're going to do with the money that we receive from donations. So until next time, thank you for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. Again, if you can give us a big thumbs up like share comment, we would appreciate that, and so until next time, please be a voice for you or somebody in need.