Nevertheless, his main contention is that GiveMeaning Foundation has spent more money building the GiveMeaning brand and service than it has raised money for its projects. This is not only not in dispute but not surprising to anyone that knows anything about a start-up business. GiveMeaning launched its re-vamped website in late September of 05. Prior to that, our web presence was in Beta and very little transactions flowed through. The numbers that Baines is reporting on is our first full year of collecting tax-receipted donations in Canada for the GiveMeaning website. Given that our
average donation through the website is about $40, our first-year tally of money raised for projects is not surprising. It’s also not surprising to anyone that understands the nature of a start-up that in the first few years of operation that start-up costs will exceed revenues. It took eBay eight years to make a profit. Source: The $5 philanthropist: My response to David Baines’ article this past Saturday

I’ve talked with Tom on several occasions and even met him in person.  I find talking with him energizing and inspiring.  I think any organization like GiveMeaning is going to attract scrutiny.  Personally I like Tom’s response, it’s clear and straightforward.  I hope that now this will put any and all questions to rest.

Update Feb 21, 2008:  It’s been almost a month since I wrote this post and as of this moment there are 63 comments on it.  I have a lot of mixed feelings about this post.  At first I thought, wow Tom is getting a bad wrap.  But I’ve been reading the comments with an open mind and well now I don’t know.

A couple weeks ago Tom emailed me privately to express his concern about some of the comments.  He asked that I take down defamatory comments, or he will be forced to take legal action.  I read through all the comments, as did the content and executive team of b5media, and found one that I thought was over the line so I deleted it.  Since then I haven’t been approving all comments.  There have been two in the last couple days that I will not post.

After deleting the one comment, I told Tom and offered that he could be on my BlogTalkRadio show to give his side of the story.  Tom hasn’t replied to that offer.  This week I received a letter from GiveMeaning’s lawyers, which is now in the hands of our lawyers.

I stand by freedom of speech.  I stand for open conversations.  I can’t abide ad hominem attacks though.

I decided to update this post to let you know that I still read all the comments and my offer to Tom is still open.  If Tom accepts I would have callers on the line unless he agrees.

I also still believe the idea of GiveMeaning is great, however I think there are legitimate questions about the site/company/foundation that need to be answered and addressed.

I would like to know if all the questions and criticisms can be answered.  Right now, however, I have my doubts about that as well.

Post from: EveryJoe

Post Updated: Tom Williams responds to David Baines’ Vancouver Sun article