Oops; Got Caught, Again

by Gary Snyder


Terri Crisp agreed in a 2007 settlement with California officials not to “serve as an officer, director or trustee or in any position having the duties or responsibilities of an officer, director or trustee, with any nonprofit organization” for at least five years. It seems that Ms. Crisp’s handling of $8-million raised by Noah’s Wish to rescue and care for animal victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 ended up with an agreement that the charity to return $4-million in donations. 


Crisp headed that California-based animal rescue charity. It is alleged by insiders that Crisp hired her daughter and used the money as if it was hers. Both made six-figure salaries. 


A CNN investigation into SPCA International found that the charity raised close to $27 million to help animals worldwide but spent nearly all of that money on fund-raising expenses paid to a direct-mail company.


In 2010, SPCA International owed $8.4 million to Quadriga Art and its affiliated company, Brickmill Marketing Services, according to publicly available Internal Revenue Service 990 tax records. Of the $14 million raised in 2010, SPCA International reports it spent less than 0.5% -- about $60,000 -- in small cash grants to animal shelters across the United States. 


Now the California attorney general’s office is reviewing whether SPCA International impermissibly gave a leadership role to the former head of an animal-rescue charity who was ordered to return millions of dollars in donations to her old organization.






Nonprofit Imperative gathers its information principally from public documents...some of which are directly quoted. Virtually all cited are in some phase of criminal proceedings; some have not been charged, however. Cites in various media: Featured in print, broadcast, and online media outlets, including: Vermont Public Radio, Miami Herald, National Public Radio, Huffington Post, The Sun News, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wall Street Journal (Profile, News and Photos), FOX2, ABC Spotlight on the News, WWJ Radio, Ethics World, Aspen Philanthropy Newsletter, Harvard Business Review, Current Affairs, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, St. Petersburg Times, B, USA Today Topics, Newsweek.com, Responsive Philanthropy Magazine, New York Times...and many more Nonprofits: On the Brink (2006) Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector (2011)