logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Smoke and Mirrors: The Case of the Missing Members at US Pain

Ruth McCambridge
December 17, 2018
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

December 14, 2018; Pain News Network

Just in case there was any wonder why some people may be losing faith in nonprofits…

When the US Pain Foundation claimed to have 90,000 members, 1,000 volunteers, and 250,000 social media followers in a 2017 US Pain press release, few had any reason to doubt the claim. It was also, after all, raising millions from big pharma like Pfizer, Lilly, AstraZeneca, Novartis, and Johnson & Johnson. But the organization recently revealed that along with “undergoing a complete revamp of its transparency policies and procedures…it has reduced its own estimates of its membership from 90,000 to 15,000.” It’s also revising its claim to 59,000 Twitter followers to about 13,000 after a purge of fake and inactive accounts.

All this follows the resignation of its founder and CEO, Paul Gileno. The board chair, Nicole Hemmenway, was installed as interim CEO in May and paints herself as reform-minded, but one has to wonder where she was when the organization filed its 990 in 2013, which showed no unpaid board members. Well, actually, we know where she was—she was receiving a salary or some sort of compensation as the vice president/director of the INvisible Project. It is unclear from the organization’s 990s from 2013–15 who was acting as board members. No one was listed as the chair. But Hemmenway says, “As the new leader, I am heading up a review and revision of our governance and transparency policies.”

No 990s have been filed for 2016 or 2017, and Hemmenway says they are working hard to get them filed before the organization sees its status rescinded, but a quick review of the ones already on file reveals more issues than missing board members. Among them is that Gileno jumped from no salary to a salary over $400,000 and amounting to close to a third of the organization’s revenue in 2015. Perhaps more intriguing is the 2014 report that shows revenue and expenses that are exactly equal, at $791,657. Both 2013 and 2014 show “0” in net assets and fund balances. These figures at least raise questions, in that they would be highly unlikely.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Hemmenway blithely blames Gileno for not filing the latest tax documents, perhaps forgetting that she was—maybe—not just a board member but (perhaps) an officer. “Because of the inaccurate and incomplete information provided by the former CEO, it has taken a significant amount of time to compile accurate books and records,” she said. “The organization has been working diligently with its new team to prepare the 2016 and 2017 returns, with the goal of filing them by the end of the year.”

On top of all of this, US Pain Foundation was cited in a 2018 Congressional report called Fueling the Epidemic for its close ties to opioid manufacturers. “The US Pain Foundation,” according to this report, “received the largest amount of payments during the 2012–2017 period—almost $3 million—which includes $2,500,000 in payments from Insys.”

The conclusion of that report reads as follows:

The privacy the advocacy groups discussed above have guarded for their donors has come at a high price for the public debate on chronic pain and opioid use in the United States. As a 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health noted, a tension exists between the status of advocacy organizations as “among the most influential and trusted stakeholders in US health policy,” and the reality that their “positions closely correspond to the marketing aims of pharmaceutical and device companies.” The findings in this report indicate that this tension exists in the area of opioids policy—that organizations receiving substantial funding from manufacturers have, in fact, amplified and reinforced messages favoring increased opioid use. By aligning medical culture with industry goals in this way, many of the groups described above may have played a significant role in creating the necessary conditions for the US opioids epidemic.

—Ruth McCambridge

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
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.

More about: Big PharmaBoard ChairsBoard Governanceexecutive compensationNonprofit Newsopioid addiction

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
Are Your Organization and Its Board “Access Able”?
Katherine Schneider
Gaming the System: How 51 Corporations Boosted CEO Pay amid COVID-19
Steve Dubb
Navigating Succession: Four Exiting CEO Mindsets
Aparna Anand Joshi, Donald C. Hambrick and Jiyeon Kang
Overdose Deaths Appear to Spike in Pandemic’s Wake
Ruth McCambridge
McKinsey’s Values-less Consulting: Time for Philanthropy to Cut Them Loose?
Martin Levine
Survey Finds Vast Shortfall in Diversity Efforts of Leading Boston Nonprofits
Steve Dubb

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Foundation Giving Numbers for 2020 Show 15 Percent Increase
Steve Dubb
Strike MoMA Imagines Art Museums without Billionaires
Tessa Crisman

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.