By Andy May
Donations to Greenpeace for 2014 are a reported $318 million. Fund raising costs are reported to be 36% or $116 million. Administration, including generous salaries for the executives, is another 16% or $51 million. Since over half of the money collected is spent on fund raising and salaries they receive a lot of criticism. India recently froze their bank accounts, accusing them of misreporting funds. New Zealand rejected Greenpeace’s charitable status in 2010 with the charitable commission stating:
Two of Greenpeace’s objectives – promoting “peace” and “disarmament” – were political, not charitable.
Greenpeace was involved in illegal activities, such as trespassing; therefore it was not maintained exclusively for charitable purposes as illegal purposes are not charitable.
In 2014 the New Zealand Supreme Court ruled that Greenpeace could reapply to the Charities Board to be a charity. Greenpeace is clearly a political organization, however the Supreme Court says that is not enough to exclude an organization from charitable status. The court did state that illegal activity, such as trespassing on ships or drilling ships, is disqualifying. So, the Greenpeace application may still be rejected on this basis.
Greenpeace has admitted using lying and propoganda in their regular affairs. As many of the Greenpeace founders have famously said:
“It does not matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.”