The MORE Project is Misusing Funds?

If you donate money to the American Cancer Society because your dad died of cancer would you be okay if they used the money to buy food at a homeless shelter? I wouldn’t be okay with that. If I wanted my money used in that way, that’s where I would have donated it in the first place. Sorry, I think that’s very important and it speaks to the integrity of the organization.

Actually, Inc. 500 magazine commented on their process right here. Basically any CPA willing to sign off is good enough for them. It’s worth noting that since MonaVie has had people with checkered pasts on it’s advisory board (Dr. Alex Schauss) and as speakers (Dr. Paul Clayton), it’s really not too hard to believe they could pay a CPA a good amount to sign their name. This is complete conjecture on my part and I’m open about stating that. However, even if all the audits are on the up and up, it’s worth reading the whole article on the Inc. 500 “award.” It is essentially meaningless and Inc. Magazine gives similar awards to other companies that Dateline has shown to fraud customers.

MonaVie should be a debt-free company. I would be a debt-free company too if I sold $3 for $30 on a pile of illegal medical promises. Crack dealers and prostitutes are also debt-free.

You are right, your Ruby and Black Diamond friends have not been ripped off and it is quite the opposite as you suggest. They are the ones who are doing the ripping off.

When I buy a car from a car dealership, they don’t recruit me be a car dealer… so no it’s not what every business is about.

The problem with your statement about people judging the success of others is that people in MonaVie aren’t successful overall. It’s like claiming that one shouldn’t be critical of the lottery because there are successful people who buy tickets. So we are going to suggest it’s a successful financial plan to buy lottery tickets? More ridiculous things have never been said.

TheTruth,

I’ve heard the same thing about Amway 15 years ago. It is not huge. It mathematically can not be huge… see the graph at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme.

Not only that, but interest MonaVie has been declining for two years: http://www.google.com/trends?q=MonaVie.

There’s no evidence that people can be helped in any way by MonaVie and a lot of evidence that they can be hurt.

I’m glad that we agree on one thing… I’m am beating on the dead horse that is MonaVie.

Scarlett, you’re RIGHT ON THE MONEY. Scam will eventually give in. You watch. He knows, like you said, if he put in to Monavie the time he puts into this Monavie hate-forum, he’d be a black diamond right now earning approximately $28,000/week. But he doesn’t care about the money. He cares about the people? Yea right!!!

See you at Family Reunion Scam!!!

p.s. I saved your posts Scarlett in case Scam doesn’t want folks to see the truth and deletes them.

Potential donors to a charity should be given access to detailed reports that outline how donations are being spent. Some charities are outright scams; other are inefficient and spend very little of the donations on charitable projects (most of it going to pay staff and “expenses”). Just because a charity exists doesn’t mean that it is necessarily doing a good job in dispersing the donations they receive. Guidestar.org publishes the IRS990 Forms that registered charities are required to submit (their annual tax reporting). This allows the public to assess the effectiveness of the charity and whether they are spending donations efficiently and in a manner consistent with their stated purpose.

In the case of the MORE Project, no details have ever been published on how donations are spent. We have no idea of their operating expenses, the amount of money raised, or who the major donors are. This information is not provided on the MORE website and they do not have their IRS990 published on Guidestar.

There are a number of other disturbing details about the MORE Project. We see that veteran snakeoil (i.e., Royal Tongan Limu) scammer Dallin Larsen employs one of his family members (sister-in-law) as the charity’s director; we see that the Monavie company is heavily leveraging the MORE Project in product advertising; we see at least one example of the MORE Project allocating funds in a manner entirely inconsistent with the charity’s charter and the pretense under which funds were raised (i.e., raising money to help poor children in Brazil and then giving it to fire relief in California). You Monavie drones may not be aware of the fact that it is illegal and unethical to do this; or perhaps you just don’t care. Either way, you are going to great lengths to justify yet another deceptive and illegal practice on the part of those involved with Monavie.

It is also appears that the company itself does not donate any fixed portion of sales (as has been claimed by distributors on numerous occasions) and that they do not claim to have made any direct donations to the charity; instead they merely soak donations from their already exploited and cash-strapped distributors and then ride the wave of their largesse to make it look like the company itself is the benefactor. Distributors are pressured to donate to MORE and if they don’t, they risk falling out of favor with their upline (e.g., “you’re not a being a good team player”) and being ignored when it comes to getting support in building the business. This kind of coercion in the workplace is also highly unethical (and often illegal). Imagine that you work in another company, and the before filling out your annual performance review, your boss makes a pitch for you to donate to his wife’s favorite charity. Obviously inappropriate right?

Lastly, we have to consider the reputation of the people behind this charity — i.e., the Monavie organization — which is littered with thieves, liars, felons, and fraud artists (a fact that we have demonstrated quite conclusively already), and whether they are the kind of people that should be trusted to be involved with a charitable organization (obviously not).

As with your crap juice product, the onus is on you to establish the legitimacy of the MORE Project and to demonstrate why potential donors should give money to MORE as opposed to a reputable well-established charity that operates transparently, is not affiliated with a company dogged by scandal, and does not leverage itself for product advertising.

This is very simple. If the MORE Project is a reputable charity, prove it. Provide an IRS990, or concede that you really don’t have a clue what they’re doing beyond what you’ve gleaned from the superficial trickle of information that the Monavie organization provides. As it stands, MORE should not be trusted, and if you want to change that, then take the necessary steps to provide even a modicum of transparency and accountability. Until they do, they should stop using pictures of poor kids and sobbing Monavie shills to promote their dreadful product and notoriously poor business opportunity. The practice is transparently manipulative and a highly offensive appeal to people’s emotions.

Scam loves to use the car dealership analogy…interesting…is there a scam-car dealership connection?

[Editor note: off-topic rant deleted]

Truth is, TheTruth, there are several truths as are there faiths.

Often said: There are three truths, yours, mine and the real truth.

Faith may help many a lost soul, why not believe in a beverage and get cured/saved?
Might even be worth paying for…And if life is empty, why not become a missionary for a berry or a bottle of juice and get some pocketmoney meanwhile?
A star in your book, new friends and a fatherfigure are important ingredients in the community, it is nearly like the sundayschool, and everybody feel good! And like in religion or football, we are on the right side and the others in the dark.
This company makes money from hopeful people´s basic needs for belonging and reward. Much more so than from any product.
The day most of their salesmen recognice the trick and that they are cheated, no more cashflow upwards to the already wealthy. Acai will flow back to Brazil or stay ( it does today )on the market like any other ingredient, and
next favored product may well be marrowbones or carrotjuice, or….just wait and see : )

I’ve heard the same thing about Amway 15 years ago. It is not huge. It mathematically can not be huge… see the graph at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme.

Yea, except Monavie is not a pyramid “scheme”.

[Editor's note: Removing stuff about Amway because it's would take things off topic.]

And we got your answer… thanks.

[Note: I’ll go back and delete these two comments (this one and the one by TheTruth above) and new ones along this line… I’m just letting him know that I didn’t dodge since his e-mail address bounces.

What’s Monavie Scam doing to help children? Are you involved in any charities? Are you building homes and schools for children? What kind of things are you doing please enlighten us

Pearman 7 (nom de jour) said: “The MORE Project is an independently operated 501-C3 nonprofit organization.”

We’ve already pointed out that it’s 501C3, but it ertainly isn’t independent of Monavie. Monavie exec Charlie Brink was initially the project’s director, then the position was handed to Dallin Larsen’s sister-in-law, Katy Holt-Larsen. MORE is run by Monavie out of their Utah office. The MORE Project is and always has been a pillar of the Monavie sales and recruitment pitch; it is used as a lure, much the same way that Monavie’s worthless juice is used a lure for the Black Diamonds to sell promotional and training materials to distributors. There is no question as to the primary motive behind the establishment of this so-called charity, and to paint MORE as “independent” of Monavie is just another extreme example of deception.

Pearman 7 (nom de jour) said: “MonaVie is committed to paying 100% of the MORE Project’s operational costs.”

Which operational costs are those? Dallin Larsen’s sister-in-law’s salary? What other operational costs are there? The cost of fuel and hotel accommodations for Dallin and the gang when they fly off in that offensive MV jet to Brazil to snap pictures of street kids that they can plaster on Monavie brochures?

It is the distributors who are really footing the bill for MORE. At Monavie meetings, those scumbag execs onstage pass the collection plate around as though their second-rate meeting room were the Mormon Tabernacle.

Can you provide even a SINGLE verifiable detail about the actual amount of the annual operational costs of the MORE Project or any evidence that Monavie Inc. has covered even a nickel of those costs? No? I hear crickets chirping.

Pearman 7 said: “This means that every dollar donated goes directly to in-the-field operations.”

Prove it. There is no reason for MORE to not publish its financial statements. Reputable charities don’t shroud themselves in secrecy like this; they post their financials in the public domain every year so that people can see that they are operating in good faith and verify that the charity is being run efficiently and living up to its mandate. Monavie should be posting their annual IRS990 on Guidestar, but since they don’t, they shouldn’t be trusted — end of story. No one would be worse off if MORE ceased to exist — there are a lot of reputable charities that do better things than the MORE Project.

“Additionally, the MORE Project benefits from the contributions and volunteering of many MonaVie distributors.”

Additionally??? We already know that distributor donations foot the bill for everything; but in what way are these lying jackass profiteers and scumbags qualified to be around children in the slums of Brazil? Seriously! You mentioned a lot of projects that involve educating and counseling kids. Why risk enabling these unvetted and unqualified miscreants to be in the proximity of little kids. Do you guys have a “Lou Niles House” where the favela kids can sit in Uncle Lou’s lap while he reads bedtime stories about raping women, and the things weak men resort to when they are in military prison?

If some Monavie distributor is willing to foot the bill (as required for MORE expeditions) to go to Brazil to help build houses for the homeless (and I’m sure that such an event is at best an extreme rarity), I’m all for that. But such an act would have nothing to do with Monavie. It would be a personal effort, and one that the benefactor should make regardless of whether or not they hustle fruit juice. You either care about the kids in Brazil or you don’t, and if you do, your money and effort would best be spent through a transparent, honest charity that isn’t affiliated with a disreputable company or its scummy executives.

[Editor's Note: The name this person used was inappropriate and would have caused much confusion, so I've decided on a name based in part on his email address.]

Wow Vogel you have a hateful heart.

Sergio Ponce is the director of the project he runs the organization out there. They build homes and schools for these kids. They are doing a great and very positive thing. Yes Distributors can donate but it isn’t mandatory. You think Dallin and other top guys don’t donate to help this project?

[Editor's Note: The point is that MonaVie does not donate at all. Yes distributors can donate or not. Everyone else in the world can donate or not. So why do we care about MORE if we are talking about MonaVie? We only care because MonaVie is getting all the benefits of good press without evidence of doing anything.]

It’s hard to say if Dallin is or not. Where can we tell? Even if he is, scamming people of millions and giving a small percentage back to charity does not absolve you from the scam. If I rob a bank of millions, I can give $100 to the American Cancer Society and we’ll just call it even?]

Get real please you are really a disturbed individual. Everything Monavie does you think is all corrupt but yet you have no hard facts to prove anything and you really have no idea of anything the company consists of.

[Editor's Note: Vogel is the only one this site bringing hard facts. He had multiple links backing up his comments in his comment. You have no links or facts to back up anything. In fact, all you are spreading is hate of Vogel because it makes people think and disrupts your business.

All that comes out of your posts is hate which is sad.

[Editor's Note: It is not hate, it is constructive criticism. This charity is doing a horrible, horrible job in many ways... and doesn't even appear to be a charity at all, but more of a bullet point to get people to buy into MonaVie. That is sad.]

Operational costs such as paying teachers to teach these kids building schools, building homes those seem like operational costs to me.

[Editor's Note: Sorry they seem like they'd come from the distributor donations to me.]

Monavie isn’t just donating to this charity they actually are doing the hands on work.

[Editor's Note: Hmm, previously a distributor said that it was a completely independent charity. Funny how that can happen while MonaVie is doing hands on work - and we have no records of that work.]

http://www.monavietv.com/monavietv?from=widget&mode=video&vid=7548

What a sham!!!! Get real man they are doing gret things over there and just seeing those kids smiling is great……

Man wake up stop with your false perceptions there are positive things in this world and the More Project and Monavie is one of them

Well that seems like all marketing. How about an independent source?

Would anyone like to join me on a visit to the more project? I think it was best said buy someone before. “anytime someone is striving to do something great, more people will line up to throw stones than those willing to join in to do good” I’m curious Scam, what is your purpose in life? That’s not too deep for you is it? What are you really protecting people from??? I think Big Pharma deserves your attention,,, or are they paying your salary??? Have you ever attended an educational event? I’ve never seen a statue erected to a critic have you? Why can V8 be trusted but Mona-vie can’t? How much do you know about V8′s leadership or charities???

Since you are so very interested in protecting everyone, I thought you’d pay your own way. You could consider it a right off for charity just like all the wonderful work you are doing here.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion. I have made the best choice for my family! Good job editing my post Scam. You must work for the media. if not you’d fit in nicely. God Bless.

“People of integrity expect to be believed and when they are not, they let time prove them right!” -Unknown

Time will be the judge here friends. This sites’s credibility was lost for me with the fact that they’re encouraging readers to put their faith in government agencies. I’ve learned enough to know that it is much more empowering to people when we encourage them to seek their own education.(instead my protection) God bless!

Rich wrote: “Time will be the judge here friends. This sites’s credibility was lost for me with the fact that they’re encouraging readers to put their faith in government agencies. I’ve learned enough to know that it is much more empowering to people when we encourage them to seek their own education.(instead my protection) God bless!”

**But Rich has no problem putting his faith in a multilevel marketing company. I believe that the circuitry in his brain is compromised.

You needn’t put your “faith” anywhere. What you should have is an intelligent thinking process based on the scientific method.

This is your best tool to shield you from flimflam operations such as MonaVie.

Someone wrote: “Rich (who, ironically, is probably poor) said:” lol. Well sir, I guess that depends on your definition of poor doesn’t it. What may I ask, is your definition of wealth?
Fact is that, ideas have consequences. Simply being dept free today in my mind is a big plus.
“What you really mean is that we shouldn’t trust ANY source that speaks negatively about Monavie but that we should trust any source that speaks positively about Monavie.” NO not what I said at all. I’m not giving any suggestion to what anyone should or shouldn’t do or think. I simply said seek your own education… I do happen to think that the biggest companies (food co’s or otherwise) are using their influence in Washington and the main stream media to stay big, at the expense of quality to us the consumers. (High Fructose Corn Syrup and other product additives to lower cost and/or increase shelf life. To give a common example)
My wife and I have allowed new information to enlighten our choices and some of our habits. As a result our family happens to be much better off and getting better each day because of it.
I have done nothing to you guys and here you are attacking me. I ask why? Answer: because I have a different idea than yours… Seems to me that the 3 of you are the ones pushing to force your objectives against a very great company!
Lastly, what is “vain” about honoring our creator??? God Bless!

Rich said: “I have done nothing to you guys and here you are attacking me. I ask why?”

That’s extremely disingenuous of you to say that Rich, and it’s certainly not the first time that I have witnessed a crooked Monavie distributor go on the offensive and then later feign that they are the victim. It is you who is the victimizer.

In your very first post (at least the first under the name of “Rich”; I suspect you have posted already using other names), you were condescending and insulting towards Lazyman and you accused him of being paid off by “Big Pharma”. Do you really think we could forget so quickly what you said:

Rich said: “I’m curious Scam, what is your purpose in life? That’s not too deep for you is it? What are you really protecting people from??? I think Big Pharma deserves your attention,,, or are they paying your salary???”

Then you continued to act like a jerk by trying to dismiss the site’s credibility and you seethed with contempt for our government and its agencies (even though we haven’t even been discussing those agencies here in the context of the MORE Project).

Rich said: “This sites’s credibility was lost for me with the fact that they’re encouraging readers to put their faith in government agencies.”

You haven’t put a single fact on the table; you have ignored every fact and reasonable argument that has been presented; you insulted the blog’s host without reason; you tried to sow the seeds of mistrust against the government in an attempt to whitewash the MORE Project; and you invoked the lord’s name in vain in a misguided attempt to take the moral high ground and to exonerate yourself and the MORE Project from blame. It is an insult when a godless scammer like you tries to offer blessings.

And post your distributor ID# already, like you are supposed to. I understand why you don’t — it’s much easier to post under multiple user names when you don’t identify yourself properly. It also leaves you free to make whatever BS claims you want without having to take any responsibility. Your contract DEMANDS that you post your ID#. Are you so ashamed and dishonest that you can’t bring yourself to follow company policy?

That’s exactly true Steve. The More Project isn’t making it’s financial information for review. If they are doing a great service, they can at least be a reputable charity and show their financial information.

Thanks for posting that video though. It’s MonaVie using charity to promote it’s product. If I rob a bank (or scam people out of millions) and write a check to American Cancer Society for $100, does that make it right? The $600,000 is a small investment to getting the thousands of people excited to sell the juice. It’s essentially advertisement. They are using words like “divine appointment” and “miracle” to make it seem like they are doing religious work. The music in the background is for further show.

They mentioned that these are special cases of juice, but I missed why they were special. Did anyone else catch it? (Not trying to be wise, I really couldn’t tell and can’t go back to the video at this time.)

Hmm, so they used a different bottle. It would seem that they needed something for the stage – something for the show. $100,000 for each of these people is a joke. Doing a little math, it’s about 38 people’s juice for a year ($100,000 / ($1.80 retail an ounce * 4 ounces a day * 365 days a year) = 37.6). $600,000 is 226 people drinking the juice. One can make a strong business case that this show is to make an impression to get distributors more excited to work their less than minimum wage jobs. That enthusiasm in enough distributors will sell more juice. Plus it’s tax deductible, so it’s really a lot less money to these people than it seems. It would be far more interesting to see that they are quietly giving money to MORE and not trumpeting it on stage as a motivation tool.

MonaVie openly admits that zero percent of it’s sales goes to the More Project. That’s what Vogel is saying. Executives may be donating themselves on their side in efforts of showmanship like this, but it’s not a case where if I buy a bottle of MonaVie, X% goes to the More Project. There’s a very large distinction to be made there.

You don’t see Google’s CEO saying that their search engine was God’s doing or anything of that kind. You do see leaders of cults invoke religion. I leave it to the reader of these comments to decide which seems more like Jonestown.

It is completely not obvious that they are doing something very powerful. If someone wants to do something very powerful, take the money you would have wasted on this juice and put it directly towards charity. Don’t fall for the very, very little donation that these executives are making as making a difference. The income disclosure statement shows that royal black diamonds made $3.4 million on average just last year. There were 7 of those people, so a minimum of 23.8 million dollars could have gone to help homeless in Brazil from just this group if people redirected their juice money towards a real charity.

The More Project’s money trail isn’t showing up on Guidestar as it should. The charity isn’t recognized by Charity Navigator as it should. I mentioned this earlier in the comments: http://www.juicescam.com/the-more-project-is-misusing-funds/#comment-4388 and no one had much of a response on why that is. If you are going to defend the charity start with explaining that point.

Steve said: “Anyways this was a one time donation back in 09? I am sure over the years Dallin and the others have donated plenty of money as well as Brig Hart.”

We don’t care what you’re sure about if you can’t back it up with evidence. The MORE website says that the COMPANY (not the executives personally) support ONLY the amdinistrative costs (which as I pointed out, includes salary to Larsen’s family). We’ve also seen evidence that the recipients of Monavie’s aid are asked to WORK to pay them back. That’s not very charitable:

“In return, we ask that they make a contribution by volunteering their time and energy to the M.O.R.E Project,’ Brink says.”
http://www.drinkacaijuice.com/index47fb.html?pg=da_more_project

If the company ever files its IRS990 and we can see exactly how they are spending the donations, then we can decide whether MORE is doing anything good for anyone. For now, all I see is a bunch of lying con-men rubbing their faux generosity in everyone’s faces, exploiting and coercing their labor force, and leveraging the MORE Project for Monavie advertising and recruitment.

We’ll stop mentioning the striking resemblance between Jonestown, the MORE Project, and Monavie devotees when you all stop selling purple Kool-Aid and acting like brainwashed cultists. And when I hear Dallin Larsen spewing his retarded BS on the stage, or Brig Hart’s frothing at the mouth with contempt for the world outside Monavie, I most definitely think of the Rev. Jimmy Jones.

BTW, it was no mistake when you made that Freudian slip and referred to MORE as a “profitable organization”. That’s its raison d’etre — MORE money for Monavie’s execs.

Your misplaced trust is more of a reflection of your intellect than a typo here and there. Mastercard lets anyone have an affiliate with them. It’s simply a volume game to them. If MonaVie says that they’ll pay distributors via Mastercard, then Mastercard is happy to set that up because they get 2% back of all that scamming money.

If you didn’t lack the ability to read about the About page, you would know about my network marketing history – and you’d realize your statement was off by a long shot. You’d also know that I didn’t happen to “come across some information on the internet”, that’s like saying that LeBron James “came across a basketball career.”

It’s called blogging… proofreading is not necessarily a measure of intelligence in this manner. I’m not writing a scientific paper… I’m trying to get as much information out as quickly as possible. If you want to be a stickler for PROPER ENGLISH, you’d realize that you can’t use “etc.” after only one item. From Wikipedia, “The phrase et cetera is often used to delete the logical continuation of some sort of series of descriptions.” “Affiliations with Mastercard” is not a series of descriptions.

If you want to be my editor, you are welcome to the job. I could pay you more money than I make from this site and you’d probably still be fishing in the couch for change to buy a pizza at the end of the week.

Hope you don’t mind JS, but I’m taking the liberty of reposting some of my recent research from the Lazyman site here for the ebenfit of your readers:

MORE Project IRS990

MORE finally posted their 2008 IRS990 on Guidestar. http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments//2008/203/770/2008-203770594-060859ec-9.pdf

They seem to have scrambled to get this together and they filed it very late (May 17, 2010), after having already requested a 3-month filing extension on August 8, 2009, which stated:

“additional time is requested to gather the information necessary to file a complete and accurate return.”

I can’t imagine a scenario in which any properly-run charity would not have this vital information for the IRS at their fingertips. It seems like this effort was rushed, which is fishy. I have little doubt that they eventually filed and posted their IRS990 in response to our research and criticism. Since at mid-2008, we were having a discussion on Lazyman site about MORE’s lack of transparency and failure to post their IRS990 on Guidestar. Juicescam published its first critique of the MORE Project on May 15, 2009.

Interestingly, Guidestar still does not indicate that MORE has filed IRS 990 forms for 2006 and 2007, back when the organization was not claiming to be a US registered 501c3 non-profit and was being run directly by Monavie executives (i.e., Charles Brink, Monavie exec VP and cofounder, served as executive director of MORE until to the appointment of Dallin Larsen’s sister-in-law, Katy Holt-Larsen, in 2008). Allegedly, MORE was founded in 2005 by Monavie executives Dallin Larsen, Randy Larsen, and Henry Marsh, and became a registered 501c3 non-profit in 2008. Funding decisions for MORE are made by an advisory board that consists of MonaVie officers, employees, and distributors.
http://www.themoreproject.org/about-more/organizational-information
http://www.themoreproject.org/about-more/our-story
http://web.archive.org/web/20070202203440/www.themoreproject.org/giving.asp

== Where Did The Money Go? ==
According to the 2008 IRS990, MORE took in a little more than $4 million; they paid out about $2.8 million in program expenses and about another $1.1 million in “operating expenses”. These operating expenses included a six-figure salary for Kay Holt-Larsen and a $33,422 “fundraising” fee paid out to AB Funding Solutions, which in reality is the DOB name of Andrea Barnes, who happens to be a MORE Project senior staff member (Director of Development).
http://www.themoreproject.org/about-more/more-staff
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andrea-barnes/7/715/b00

The 2008 expenses also included $173,568 in advertising, which is mystifying considering that MORE’s only obvious advertising initiative is its website, which should cost no more than a couple of thousand dollars. If MORE is advertized at all, it is done so for free by Monavie LLC and its distributors, who use it as a mainstay of their sales pitches.

Other 2008 expenses included $125,713 in professional services (for what???), $91,554 in travel expenses (who is doing all this traveling and why?), $58,219 for “occupancy” (presumably rent paid to Monavie HQ for giving Katy an office and a desk), $47,485 for video and media production (the only MORE videos I’ve seen are those used by Monavie as part of their advertising), $35,000 in investment management fees (seems excessive), and $14,378 for conferences/meetings. Lastly, there was a black hole of $339,642 in unspecified expenses listed in the “other” category, most of which was designated as going towards “management and general expenses”.

So in summary, greater than 25% of MOREs 2008 income got eaten up by operational costs here in the U.S. Of the $4,055,560 million raised, only $2,795,145 of it went, allegedly, towards programs. More than $1 million was spent on non-project related expenses, some of which are highly suspect.

There are no reliable details about how the $2.8 million that allegedly that went towards programs in Brazil was allocated. This should not have included any employee salaries, according to the IRS990, but I suspect that a decent portion may have been spent on undisclosed salaries, since the IRS 990 claims that MORE has an office in Brazil with 50 employees. There is ample opportunity for massive waste and inappropriate expenditures on the ground in Brazil: e.g., money spent on facilities (20 residences in “Village MonaVie” [see 01/20/09 post in Lazyman archives]) for lodging of distributors and other company workers when they visit on photo-op/gawking expeditions; and potentially awarding of supplier/building contracts to Monavie clients, nepotism, and sweetheart deals for people like Sergio Ponce (MOREs Brazilian director, who nobody knows anything about other than he was allegedly a former orthodontist and minister in Brazil).
http://www.networkingtimes.com/nt/08/01/2016.phtml

== How Much Did Monavie Contribute? ==
I don’t see any evidence that Monavie is picking up a significant amount, if any, of the operational costs of the MORE Project, which would contradict Dallin Larsen’s claim that:

“In 2009, MonaVie, its employees, and distributors donated more than $2.3 million to The MORE Project. MonaVie pays all of MORE’s administrative costs, and the executives and distributors travel there often to volunteer.” [NB: the total donations in 2009 of $2.3 million were down more than 40% from the $4+ million claimed in 2008]
http://monavie.net/wordpress/dallin-a-larsen/#respond

The MORE website goes out on the same limb claiming:

“MonaVie is committed to paying 100% of the MORE Project’s operational costs. This means that every dollar donated goes directly to in-the-field operations.”
http://www.themoreproject.org/about-more/monavie-and-the-more-project

Monavie even uses the advertising slogan “Monavie Gives Back” in reference to MORE. But none of the claims above are supported by MORE’s IRS990. In fact, and this is the smoking gun, the IRS990 specifically identifies Monavie as a “related organization” but the only subsidy that MORE received from Monavie LLC was (a) “shared facilities, equipment, mailing lists, or other assets” totaling $4,600 and (b) “sharing of paid employees” amounting to $143,846. That’s less than $150,000 total — a far cry from the claims about Monavie “paying 100% of the operational costs” and that “every dollar donated goes directly to in-the-field operations.”

== MOREmonism? ==
Another area of potential concern about MORE is its use as a vehicle to proselytize for the LDS, as this would contravene the charity’s mission statement as stated in their IRS990, which describes MORE as “non-denominational”. Given the very heavy LDS inclination of the Monavie and MORE organizations, it’s difficult to imagine that MORE is not actively proselytizing in Brazil. The Monavie flock is basically being tithed for donations to MORE, and judging by the comments below and elsewhere, MORE seems to be very religious in nature, rather than a non-denominational organization.
http://monaviemediacenter.com/blogs/message-from-dallin-a-larsen
http://www.faithsqueezings.com/2009/12/how-mona-vie-facilitates-law-of-christ.html

But the smoking gun here is this archived copy of MORE’s website from June 2008, which states specifically that MORE was providing bible classes to children as part of the “Believer’s Project”.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080224132251/www.themoreproject.org/believers.php

== MORE-phans? What Is MORE’s Real Mission? ==
Monavie distributors have often claimed that MORE exists solely to serve orphans:

“Each bottle you purchase donates to feed two orphans” [posted by liquidglass]
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/making-money/107731-monavie-acai-berry-plus-18-other-fruits-health-make-money.html

“We love it. Don’t forget, Helping to save the orphans of Brazil and helping to preserve the rainforest.”
[Debby and Pete Rondeau]
http://monaviesuccessstories.blogspot.com

“The M.O.R.E. Project not only stands for MonaVie’s Operation Rescue, but to the orphaned children of Brazil, it also represents More Hope, More Health, More Caring, and More Love”
[Becky Lupinek Enoch]
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116699345121

However, Monavie’s mission statement in the IRS990 says nothing about dealing with orphans; it merely says impoverished people/children. Money donated to MORE (at least the fraction of it that makes it to Brazil for projects) does not even necessarily get spent on children (adults are included in the aid programs also, and they are expected to work as volunteers in return).

“Father’s House provides a safe home for young men ages 18 to 25, offering their employable skills. ‘In return, we ask that they make a contribution by volunteering their time and energy to the M.O.R.E Project,’ Brink says. ‘These young men are desperately waiting to be loved, embraced and trusted’.”
http://www.drinkacaijuice.com/index47fb.html?pg=da_more_project

In light of the donation allegedly made by MORE for California wildfire relief, donations may not even necessarily get spent in Brazil.

MOREs mission statement is like a moving target. In 2006, MORE was “dedicated to caring for disadvantaged children in Brazil and around the world.” However, it appears that MORE never spent a penny on children in any place other than Rio de Janeiro. The mission statement in the 2008 IRS990 says that MORE “seeks to provide impoverished people, especially children, with the tools necessary to become self-sufficient” and to “empower those who society has left behind”. A page on the MORE website claims that MORE is “a humanitarian project in Niteroi, Brazil serving to educate and thus help free the peoples of the slums from the evils of the drug gangs that have taken control of their village.” The official mission statement, however, says only that MORE “seeks to change lives and restore families living in poverty in Brazil”. The previously alleged international scope is gone, the charity is not (and never was) focused solely on children, and they aren’t fighting any evil drug gangs.
http://web.archive.org/web/20061105164605/www.themoreproject.org/aboutUs.asp
http://www.themoreproject.org

== MORE Refuses to Comply With BBB Charitable Standards ==
The MORE Project is also currently facing a PR crisis with the Better Business Bureau, which very recently posted the following damning statement about the MORE Project:

“Despite written Better Business Bureau requests in the past year, this organization either has not provided current information or has declined to be evaluated in relation to BBB’s charity standards. While participation in BBB’s charity review efforts is voluntary, BBB believes that this lack of cooperation may demonstrate a lack of commitment to transparency. Without the requested information, BBB cannot verify if the charity adheres to BBB charity standards.” [Report ID# ID: 22241870]
http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/charity-local/more-project-in-south-jordan-ut-22241870”

It is quite unusual that you’d bring God into the discussion of selling juice. That is an interesting religion you got there. It gets more interesting in that your God supports people scamming others, and doesn’t support those trying to prevent people from being scammed. Good luck with that one.

The only comment I will make to Chibuzo is “the author of the 49th comment of “The MORE Project is Misusing Funds?” will find that he is an octopus from outer space.”

So just because I put a statement in quotes, does that make it true?

And according to that “comment,” prosecuting attorneys will all go to hell.

Or how about this one. This one might make more sense: “The one who sees evil and lets it pass him is guilty of that very evil”

Apparently your religion says you should turn a blind eye to evil, and instead embrace it, otherwise you’ll go to hell. Which is cool. I’m not one to criticize other people’s religions. But I’m just saying, that’s sort of… like, satanic or something.

Chibuzo sounds gravely disturbed. Or perhaps it’s another side effect of drinking Monavie! Sheez…

Nice website, a shame some people didn’t see it before getting sucked in,
always the same people, dreamers.
And now they have weight loss juice…. being tested by the CEO I think, who is JUST drinking the juice (and running 20miles a week!) and miraculously is loosing the weight….must be the juice. ha ha

Actually you are missing the point. When people donate money to charity, they expect the money to go to the cause that the charity stands for. It is fraudulent for them to decide to put the money in a cause that the donors didn’t intend. If the donors wanted the money to go to the Red Cross, they would have donated the money there.

Personally I think that Scam is talking to himself via some of his people I believe he is insane and made his own friends to take his side and make him look better. Of ocurse that’s just my opinion. As for scarlet and the truth. I think you guys are right on the money. However PLEASE!!!! For the love of all that is holy in every religion do not engourage that psycho lunatic to join Monavie if any one is so stupid as to add him reconsider. He’s poision his mouth is the drudges of the gutter. He has horrible Karma and would is very likely rotting from the inside with the putridity of his clogged arteries that iroically if he drank the juice would not be so. Personally I think every distributor EVERYWHERE should black ball this guy. Besides he’s probably one cheese burger away from a heart attack. With that mouth ushering forth such negativity I’d be scared to temp fate. One day this site will go silent and that will be why…. massive coranary!

Is Ramona saying you are a cheeseburger addict MS? I kind of got lost in that train of thought. Kind of funny when you consider the fact that in Ramona is calling others psycho in her babbling ramble.

No, no…Vogel & Mackwiz, I DEFINITELY think she is saying that MS’s gutters are full of black balls. My God, do you two still not know how to read & interpret ‘crazy’?? We have been reading the distributors posts long enough, we should be experts in “their” language. I am very disappointed in you two.

BTW, what the hell is a “coranary”? Is that death by ingesting a canary and washing it down with a Corona? Things that make you go hmmmmm….

I’m gonna have a t-shirt made with Ramona’s immortal quote:

“He’s poision his mouth is the drudges of the gutter.”

I’m thinking of going with a basic black…lots of skulls and bats too.

I would buy a t-shirt Vogel! We could raise some money for people like Izzy & others who have lost everything due to this cult!

Yeah, I know, I had to read her post eleventyhundred times to see where one “thought” started and the other ended. I could just picture Ramona standing before fire and brimstone spewing out this nonsense….

Ramona, I wish that I could convince you of the harm you are doing to people being involved with this company but you won’t get it…until you get it.

Ramona ran out of steam quick. I consider what she wrote more a form of blog graffiti than an actual comment. Tag and run!