USA Charity Spent 12% of Its Funds on Food in 1985

USA for Africa spent $7.61 million on foreign assistance in 1985, with about 12% of those funds used to purchase food items and 66% to buy equipment or transportation, according to its federal tax statement filed last month with the state of Connecticut.

USA for Africa’s revenues in 1985 included $31.65 million from its record and video sales; $3.1 million from television royalties, and $3.4 million from merchandise royalties.

The Los Angeles-based organization--whose officers and directors include musicians Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson and Harry Belafonte--has earned more than $52 million in the last two years from its hunger anthem “We Are the World.”

(A spokesman for the organization said in Los Angeles that as of Friday, it had allocated or spent $49.4 million out of a total raised of $52.1 million.)

Lawsuit Dropped

Copies of the organization’s tax statements were required by Connecticut for USA for Africa to register as a charitable organization. The state filed a lawsuit to obtain financial information, but dropped the case in November after USA for Africa complied with its request for the material.

USA for Africa submitted its final documents to Connecticut on Nov. 20 and the attorney general’s office gave the Associated Press copies of the material on Wednesday.

According to the tax statement, the organization spent about 22% of the money, or $1.62 million, on medical supplies and medical equipment. More than $5 million was used to purchase a variety of trucks, to transport food and clothes and to construct facilities such as silos. The $869,900 for food included the purchases of seeds and “nutritional supplements.”

USA for Africa made donations to 16 groups such as Save the Children, Africare, World Relief Corp., World Food Program, World Vision, Euro Action Accord, CARE and UNICEF.

Those charitable organizations used the funds to purchase needed items for Burkina Faso ($800,000); Chad ($1.1 million); Ethiopia ($37,154); Mauritania ($150,900); Mozambique ($1.17 million); Mali ($393,000); the Sudan ($1.55 million) and Niger ($589,582).

The records show that more than $1.3 million was used to purchase items for use in various, unspecified countries.

Funds Bought Vehicles

The bulk of the funds was used for transportation or to buy motor vehicles. A total of six tractors and 51 motor vehicles were purchased with the USA for Africa donations, including 10 all-terrain vehicles for use in Chad, 10 tractor-trailer trucks for Mozambique and four trucks for Mali.

The major food items were seed and “nutritional supplements,” while donations for medical supplies purchased vitamins, midwife kits, rehydration salts, vaccines and a hospital in Burkina Faso.

The organization distributed $265,000 for domestic programs.

The tax forms also revealed salaries paid to its staff and other costs of operating the charity in its first year.

Executive director Martin H. Rogol was paid $46,500 in 1985. He was also reimbursed nearly $6,000 for telephone and travel expenses, the records show.

The only other employees whose salaries were listed in the documents were those for the deputy director, $36,490, and the director of procurement, $34,992.

Ken Kragen, the group’s president, received no salary and he supplied an office at no charge to USA for Africa. But his production group billed the organization $204,240 for its Thanksgiving television special.