Mr. Magic and a Sullied Pepsi Refresh

Ruth McCambridge

January 7, 2011

January 6, 2011; Source: New York Times | Here’s another one of those “we could have seen this coming” situations. According to Stephanie Strom of the New York Times, Pepsi Refresh, the high profile charity contest which encourages nonprofits to compete for grants by having supporters vote for them, is apparently being sullied by (gasp) bought votes.

Those votes are apparently being organized by a certain “Mr. Magic” who seems to be operating out of India via his accountant in Baton Rouge, La. This violates Pepsi’s rules against both proxy votes and votes from abroad. Some of the contestants have cried foul and say that they have repeatedly complained to Pepsi but with little effect.—Ruth McCambridge

About the author

Ruth McCambridge

Ruth is Editor Emerita of the Nonprofit Quarterly. Her background includes forty-five years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Ruth spent a decade at the Boston Foundation, developing and implementing capacity building programs and advocating for grantmaking attention to constituent involvement.

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