Official at ACORN Funder to Head Corporation for National and Community Service

President Obama announced he plans to nominate Patrick Corvington to be chief executive of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America. Big Government readers will remember that “the Corporation” assumed a prominent role on the infamous NEA Conference call, where ”the Corporation’s” Nell Abernathy joined White House and NEA officials to nudge artists to produce works supporting the Obama Administration’s legislative priorities.

Although the charity Corvington works for, Annie E. Casey Foundation of Baltimore, Maryland, has granted funding to ACORN during his tenure, it is unclear if Corvington has ties to ACORN.

Nonetheless, Corvington is part of the same cluster of organizations that provides financial and other support for ACORN which is a longtime fixture in the activist community.

Since 2001 the Annie E. Casey Foundation has pumped at least $1,705,500 into the ACORN network, according to philanthropy database information.

Of the $1,705,500, at least $850,500 was earmarked for ACORN operations in Baltimore, Maryland, home of the ACORN branch office first shown in the recent undercover videos that debuted on BigGovernment.com. Those videos show James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles pretending to be a pimp and a prostitute and receiving mountains of advice on evading laws pertaining to tax evasion and prostitution (among other things).

Looking at just the first letter of the alphabet, its grant recipients are labor federation AFL-CIO, abortion rights think tank Alan Guttmacher Institute, and liberal policy shop the Aspen Institute.

Although most of its grants go to groups on the political left, the foundation has funded at least one think tank on the political right. It has provided a few grants to the American Enterprise Institute.

Here's a little something about what the Corporation for National and Community Service have been doing lately.

Corporate Affinity Group Meets with Corporation for National and Community Service October 5, 2009

Yesterday’s news about Patrick Corvington’s nomination reminded me that we hadn’t posted about this yet. Last month, Washington Grantmakers’ Corporate Philanthropy Affinity Group had lunch with representatives from the Corporation for National and Community Service to learn more about the Obama Administration’s views on corporate community investing.

Guest speakers, Gretchen Van de Veer and Daphne Doyle Benbow, provided an overview of recent legislation affecting corporate philanthropy and outlined three new initiatives: the Social Innovation Fund, the Nonprofit Capacity Building Program, and the new Billion+ Change Initiative which challenges corporations to collectively donate $1 billion in skilled volunteering and pro bono services over the next 3 years.

I had forgotten about Obama's plan to co-opt philanthopic groups and control corporate giving as well. This all just keeps getting worse and worse by the day.

Patrick Gaspard intentionally keeps a low profile, preferring to work behind the scenes. It makes him effective.
Michael Gaspard

Patrick Gaspard’s brother Michael Gaspard works for The Advance Group. Michael apparently keeps a lower profile than his brother. He does not appear on lobbyist disclosures for The Advance Group in the State of New York. Nonetheless, he works there. Ms. Lewis’s contacts list confirms Michael Gaspard’s employment there.
Tying Bertha Lewis to the Gaspard Brothers

The level of detail Bertha Lewis has for contacting Patrick Gaspard suggests a closeness between the two.

Ms. Lewis has Patrick Gaspard’s office number, home number, and cell phone number. Patrick’s information still contains the 212 area code, which suggests it has not been updated since he moved to Washington, D.C. However, only 131 of the 1,894 contacts, or 7% of the total, list home phone numbers, let alone home, office, and cell phone numbers. For perspective, only 31 of the 1,849 contacts have home, office, cell phone, and business email addresses listed. Patrick Gaspard makes that list.

Gaspard’s contact information also contains his private personal email address making him among the most detailed contacts on the list. Only Wade Rathke, the founder of ACORN, and a handful of others have as much personal information in Lewis’s contacts list as Patrick Gaspard.

Bertha Lewis also has Michael Gaspard’s office number and cell phone. In addition, as noted above, Michael Gaspard works for ACORN’s registered lobbying organization and with ACORN’s national spokesman.
Other Administration Connections

A cursory view of Ms. Lewis’s contacts lists shows a couple of other obvious administration contacts too.

It will come as no surprise that Ms. Lewis keeps up with Shaun Donovan. Mr. Donovan is now the Secretary for Housing and Urban Development. Before that, Mr. Donovan was the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). In New York City, he worked on affordable housing initiatives right up ACORN’s alley. His contact information has not been updated since he left the HPD.

Then there is Karine Jean-Pierre. She originally worked for John Edwards. In fact, Ms. Lewis’s contacts list still has her listed with John Edwards’ campaign, but also has Ms. Jean-Pierre’s personal and presumably still working personal email address, etc. Ms. Jean-Pierre left there to work for Congressman Anthony Weiner, then became Barack Obama’s regional political director.. She is now the White House liaison for the Department of Labor. That’s a handy contact.

The web of connections from Ms. Lewis’s contacts list goes straight into the White House and out the other door into the Departments of Labor and Housing and Urban Development, circling back to ACORN’s lobbying operation.

With the White House trying to distance itself from ACORN, Ms. Lewis’s contacts there might make it more difficult. She has clear ties to Patrick and Michael Gaspard, the President’s fixer and the man who gets ACORN projects and money.

http://www.resistnet.com/profiles/blogs/remember-this-name-gaspard

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