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Yellowstone Forever Heading In New Direction As An Organization

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A new CEO is expected to lead Yellowstone Forever on a course to success/NPS file, Jacob W. Frank

A new CEO is expected to lead Yellowstone Forever on a course to success/NPS file, Jacob W. Frank

A new CEO is to take the helm at Yellowstone Forever next week, a move expected to begin a transition for the troubled nonprofit organization that the National Park Service seriously had considered jettisoning from its role as the main fundraiser for Yellowstone National Park.

The appointment of the CEO, an individual well-versed in nonprofits and fundraising on a national basis who also is very familiar with Yellowstone, is seen as way to pull Yellowstone Forever from the flames of self-immolation spurred largely by a lack of financial oversight.

Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly for weeks had been debating whether it made sense to sever the Park Service's operating agreement with Yellowstone Forever. In the end he decided that would create untenable risks, including the loss of key assets used by the Yellowstone Institute.

"I think if you want to look at the fastest way to get the institute restarted, it’s to stay under the umbrella of YF," Sholly said Saturday. "If you pull it out it's very vulnerable. All the assets and things don’t come with it.”

When Yellowstone Forever arose in 2016 from the merger of the Yellowstone Association and the Yellowstone Park Foundation, its proponents believed it would become a giant in nonprofit fundraising for the park. But rapid spending, frictions between the board members brought together from the two predecessor organizations, and questionable accounting hamstrung the organization.

Earlier this year Yellowstone Forever's leadership shut down the venerable Yellowstone Institute and terminated a great number of staff, including its vice president of operations and the teams that worked under him. The organization also invited real estate agents to look at some of its properties, decided it couldn't afford to run institute programs even on a limited basis this summer due to Covid-19 and the associated costs, and has been continuing to explore further cost-cutting.

"This is a way for us to get the institute restarted as quickly as possible," Sholly said Saturday, pointing to the incoming CEO and some transitions on the current YF board. "I think we can make some adjustments to that business plan that the team worked on already that can be implemented."

There have been calls for Sholly to sever the park's relationship with YF. In a Facebook post to the superintendent, Gardiner, Montana, resident George Bumann said the organiziation's board was unredeemable.

"Ample proof has shown that the requisite change will not come from within; therefore it must come from without. If a dissolution of the YF/YNP cooperating agreement is not possible, shall we call upon all individuals and resources at our disposal to enact maximum legal, financial, media and political pressure to bring this organization to order or an end?" wrote Bumann. "Wasting further energy on this current board is a non-starter and it needs to be refocused on what’s next."

While Sholly said he appreciates the passion, the emotions, and the concerns of those who want the board out and the Yellowstone Institute restarted as soon as possible, even possibly as a free-standing entity, he said that's more complicated than it sounds. There's the matter of untangling assets and liabilities, organizing a new 501(c)(3), getting funding and personnel, having to purchase vehicles to conduct programming in the park, and finding housing for staff, since a severing of the current agreement likely would send YF into bankrupcty and force it to sell the assets used by the institute.

"I don’t think they understand the consequences to the institute. It’s not as easy as, 'Let’s separate and go it on our own.' There’s a lot more to it," the superintendent said.

The Yellowstone Association brought assets of $13.6 million to the 2016 merger; among them the "Arch House," which was designed by Robert Reamer, the same architect who designed the Old Faithful Inn, near the north entrance of the park in Gardiner; the "NEC," or Northeast Education Center that accommodated Yellowstone Association staff, and; the 80-acre Yellowstone Overlook Field Campus, which the association acquired in 2010 for $2.25 million.

If Yellowstone Forever were to default on the $3.6 million taken out from its lines of credit, those facilities could be lost, said Sholly.

During the past two months the superintendent has been in discussions with National Park Service leadership in Washington, D.C., about how best to handle the situation, and has searched for possible donors who could save the institute's assets if YF headed towards bankruptcy. He even reached out to NatureBridge, a nonprofit organization that runs interpretive and educational programs in Yosemite and Olympic national parks, to see if it could operate the institute programs, but that organization has largely reined in its operations due to Covid-19.

The current approach seemed to make the most sense to Sholly.

"I have a lot of confidence in the CEO they’re bringing in. To me, if we didn’t have a high-quality CEO candidate, I think it would be a more difficult decision," the superintendent said. "But we do, and I think people are really going to like her. I think the liabilities are clearly something that are hanging over the organization’s head, and those have accumulated over years at different times for different reasons, but it’s a large amount of money."

In addition to the $3.6 million owed against the lines of credit, Yellowstone Forever earlier this year received a $1.5 million PPP loan from the federal government, though Sholly was fairly confident the bulk of the loan would be forgiven under the PPP guidelines.

A strong month of fundraising in June helped YF get its operating overhead under control, aided the search for a CEO, and if the trend continues could relatively quickly get the organization back on its feet, said Sholly.

"The credit line I feel like we’re going to be able to pay down pretty quickly. I believe in 12 months, 12-18 months, we won’t have everything paid off, but we will have substantial progress in the right direction, including the Institute back up and running," said the superintendent.

Depending on how things go with the organization and with the Covid-19 situation, the institute might be able to offer some of its winter programs later this year, he said.

"There’s a lot of work that has to be done there, a lot of relationship mending that needs to be worked on." Sholly said. "I feel good that the new CEO is going to make that happen. What I need is an open mind from those who understandably have the emotions that they do and perhaps wanted to see a completely different type of setup. That’s not going to happen.

"The faster than people kind of get their head around that and start rowing in the right direction with us, the better that it’s going to be for the institute."

Along with a new CEO coming aboard, the board's chair, Kay Yeager, left the board this week, and "several other board members have transitioned off over the past months, and additional transitions will be forthcoming once the CEO is in place," according to Sholly.

At the end of the day, the superintendent acknowledged the faith he's putting into the current approach to saving YF.

“We’ve been talking to a lot of people, and a lot of people wanted to help," he said. "They did want to see some changes and some restructuring. I feel like this is going to go faster than you think and it’s going to be different.

"If it’s not, it’s on me.”

Looking around the National Park System, Sholly said there are a lot of great cooperating associations that Yellowstone Forever can learn from.

“There are some good things that we can take from some other park partner success stories and bring them in,” he said.

Still to be resolved is an intensive review of YF's accounting.

"I think that’s a good thing, for us to make sure that we know where money went, where it was allocated," Sholly replied when asked if there still needs to be a forensic accounting of the books. "I think there’s some truth to some issues with financial accounting, and I think there’s some hyperbole around it as well. I think it’s important to kind of separate those two.”

Comments

This is a nice newsy article as far as it goes; however, it's built on a cutesy little snippet of carefully crafted "non-information" that is clearly being run up the flagpole to see how many of the terminally gullible will salute.  Timothy Snyder gives us twenty rules for thwarting the kind of authoritarian corruption we now face in his bestselling book "On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century" and "Do Not Obey in Advance" just happens to be Rule Number One.  Yet, obey in advance seems to be exactly what Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly wants us to do as he apparently tries to "tease" and "bait" us into getting psychologically ready to cheer in advance for an unnamed new Yellowstone Forever (YF) CEO who he asserts is "well-versed in nonprofits and fundraising on a national basis" as well as familiar with Yellowstone.

Well, maybe; but, we heard that about Heather White, then John Walda, then Edna Johnson and all they did was pilfer the net assets of the old Yellowstone Association and drive the organization so close to bankruptcy that Sholly is now using YF's own financial malfeasance as the rationale for keeping them in place.  Now, isn't that convenient?  It's almost like it was planned.  If Sholly is so convinced that bringing in one new manager and shuffling a few corrupt board members, while leaving much of the current YF gang in place, is a good idea, why "tease" us with this amateurish bit of last minute suspense and mystery?  Why not just get the names and changes out there without the peek-a-boo "let's look at which way the wind is going to blow the flag" theatrics?

It's time to revisit some of YF's history and see if that might help explain it.  YF was formed through a seemingly unfriendly merger of two previous 501(c)(3) nonprofits, the much older Yellowstone Association and the Yellowstone Park Foundation, a more recently created outside fundraising group that argued that they, being more sophisticated corporate business types, could bring higher levels of business and fundraising expertise to the old Yellowstone Association's operations while also eliminating what they asserted was the wasteful redundancy of two nonprofits supporting Yellowstone in parallel.  The argument worked and YF effectively began operating as a single entity in the fall of 2016.  Through that merger, the newly created YF and its new Board of Directors gained control of the much older Yellowstone Association's already established relationship with the NPS and thus control of the park's visitor center bookstores and the Yellowstone Institute.

Unfortunately, not much of those touted higher levels of business and fundraising expertise made it through the merger.  By the time of the merger, the old Yellowstone Association had been operating since 1933, successfully running the Yellowstone Institute without any need to shut it down since 1976, and brought more than $13 million in net assets to the table in the merger while the Yellowstone Park Foundation contributed less than half as much.  Since the merger, YF has wrecked itself in less than four years, as publicly celebrated larger fundraising revenues and higher annual park support contributions turned out to have been inflated by borrowing and a depletion of the net assets inherited from the old Yellowstone Association.  Over $5 million of those net assets are now gone, not including the recent taxpayer subsidized federal loans that Sholly now says will be forgiven.  I am one taxpayer who is not inclined to be so forgiving.

By the late summer of 2018, the new federal administration was in control and regional newspapers, including the Great Falls Tribune, were reporting friction between Sholly's predecessor, Dan Wenk, and now disgraced former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke over Wenk's perceived lack of enthusiasm for the continued culling of Yellowstone's Bison, along with other disagreements.  By the fall of 2018, Zinke had personally forced Wenk out and replaced him with Sholly and Sholly has since been seen as a better fit with the current administration.

In a previous NPT article entitled Yellowstone Forever Crippled By Overambition, Lack Of Financial Transparency, Kurt Repanshek reported that Zach Park, Director of Operations for the Yellowstone Institute at the time he was let go this past May, described how the Yellowstone Park Foundation Board just "took over" and how, prior to the merger, the Yellowstone Institute was thriving, absolutely thriving.  Zach claimed that the Yellowstone Institute was on an upward trajectory as far as revenues and program participation.  Despite having to work around the renovation of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, which impacted many of their programs, the staff of the Yellowstone Institute "were looking at what was about a 10% increase in tuition revenue over the previous year...  so it was a real great year."  According to Zach, they were trying to get that message out; but, it wasn't a message supported by folks at the top of YF.  Although the Yellowstone Institute was actually succeeding, "now they're trying to say the Institute loses money, and the only way I can explain that is the only reason we lose money is all the expense that was allocated to our department."  Zach claims that, when the numbers were prepared for YF's tax statements, the Yellowstone Institute's financial position was artificially dragged down.  That's fraud.

Zach, as former Director of Operations for the Yellowstone Institute and now recently forced out, stated that the "actuals we got from our finance office, our CFO, showed for that period of time our expenses were about $1.3 million..." including "allocations like HR, IT, cross-departmental allocations.  But then, after they showed it to us, they dumped about another $2.3 million in allocated expenses below the line."  According to Zach, the Yellowstone Institute went from being a half-a-million dollars in the black that fiscal year to being $1.7 to $1.8 million in the red.  And, it had everything to do with a huge amount of organizational expense that YF's finance people had conspired with YF's Board to reallocate, "knowing that how they allocated and how it appears" on tax filings serves to support a "narrative that they've been trying to spin."  Yep, that's fraud committed in pursuit of a political agenda.

According to Rob Bush, YF's recently laid off Vice President for Operations, Zach Park's description of how his budget was suddenly weighed down by $2.3 million of other departments' expenses was not an isolated episode.  "If money is being utilized by a particular department to raise money, but those expenses are allocated somewhere else, when you look at the net, it looks better than it really is  ...and it may be perfectly legal to do so..." Mr. Bush said.  Only it generally isn't perfectly legal to do so; the activities to which Zach Park and Rob Bush attested actually seem to constitute the creation of fraudulent business records, potentially fraudulent tax records, tax fraud, or even tax evasion.

Even Mr. Bush seemed to sense how this kind of "false or bad accounting" can mislead donors, seducing them into donating to efforts that are not actually viable, while avoiding support for efforts that are, and it can similarly distort policies, often to benefit a political, social, or cultural agenda or even steer resource allocations toward corrupt purposes.  Kurt Repanshek reported that Mr. Bush noted, "if you're making business decisions on that, which is really bad business by the way, if you're making business decisions on that kind of thinking, you essentially look at it and say, 'We're doing great; let's keep doing this because it's working.'  Well, it's not working."

Well, it's working for somebody, it's just not working ethically or legally.  And, let's look at that legality part for a moment.  An organization that holds 501(c)(3) status enjoys very potent tax advantages; however, to enjoy those advantages, it must comply with specific rules, regulations, and laws, including prohibitions against many types of political activities.  We need to ask whether YF used "false or bad accounting" to create a false narrative as a way to make the closure of the Yellowstone Institute falsely appear to be due to bad financial performance or even bankruptcy when, in truth, it was a long planned, deliberate, and politically motivated effort to cull the role of the Yellowstone Institute in pursuit of a partisan political agenda.  If so, that could easily be a violation of the tax law provisions governing their 501(c)(3) status.

So, where was Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly while all of this was happening?  Let's look at that.  Yellowstone Forever is, again, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which, only through the relationship with the NPS that it inherited from the old Yellowstone Association in the merger, is allowed to operate retail outlets and collect public donations in the park's visitor center bookstores, on federal property, in federal facilities, for relatively little or no conventional rent and with relatively little oversight, in a prestigious national park, with annual access to millions of dollars in well-intended public contributions as a result.  Much the same applies to the Yellowstone Institute.  This shabby little YF gang inherited the Yellowstone Institute from the old Yellowstone Association in the merger.  At least in its current form, YF is completely dependent on the NPS, specifically on the NPS in Yellowstone, for its existence.

Cam Sholly is the park superintendent, a Senior Executive Service position, and the highest ranking federal official on the site.  Yet, there is plenty of evidence that Sholly has been aware of the depth of the YF fiasco for some time.  Michael Wright reported, in his Bozeman Daily Chronicle (BDC) article of November 10, 2019, that a National Park Service (NPS) analysis of the nonprofit's finances obtained by the BDC showed "spending outstripped revenue in all facets of the organization" and that revenue from the bookstores grew by 4% while bookstore expenses increased by nearly 14% over the same period.  Wright quoted that same NPS analysis as also flagging "a massive reduction in the nonprofit's cash on hand" with the addition of multiple "highly compensated individuals to the payrolls with no commensurate improvement in financial performance."  Clearly, Sholly was or should have been aware of such a scathing review done by his own NPS staff.  Then, Rob Bush also claims to have been in "multiple meetings" where "Cam Sholly was present...  even when Heather was here and Cam met with Heather, myself, the interim CFO, where he held her and us to task."  According to Mr. Bush, Sholly was so concerned about YF's bookkeeping that he told the board, "You've got to come clean."  If Sholly held Heather White to task, then Sholly must have known about the fiasco prior to White's departure in early June of 2019.  So, Sholly has known of the situation for well over a year, perhaps longer; yet, did he take concrete steps to correct it and, if so, when and in what way?

As park superintendent, in a Senior Executive Service position, and the highest ranking federal official on the site, Cam Sholly didn't need to "pay lip service" or take YF "to task" in some meeting and should never have stooped to do so.  He had the authority to direct YF to either clean up its improper practices immediately or prepare to vacate the park while he, himself, came clean about the situation and began the process of establishing a relationship with a replacement entity and he should have done so and made his actions openly known well over a year ago.  Why didn't he?  Did he take action to correct YF's purge of older, experienced, retail staff who knew too much that took place, on his watch, in the spring of 2019?  Why not?  Did he respond to what is now being called the "Great Purge" that took place, on his watch, earlier this spring?  Why not?  What action has he taken to correct the "false or bad accounting" that both Zach Park and Rob Bush cite as generating the excuse to close the Yellowstone Institute?  Has he taken action to reverse the actual closure of the Yellowstone Institute that occurred on his watch?

Kurt Repanshek correctly reported that, since YF acts in partnership with the NPS in Yellowstone, the park superintendents have a seat with YF's Board of Directors; but, Sholly said he wasn't there to influence decisions on personnel or finances, he was more of an observer.  If Cam Sholly thought his responsibility as park superintendent was to spend more than a year just observing obvious "false or bad accounting" that amounted to the creation of fraudulent business records, potentially fraudulent tax records, tax fraud, or even tax evasion, along with partisan political activities, including the closure of the Yellowstone Institute, that were in potential violation of YF's 501(c)(3) status, without taking action or, worse, if he didn't know enough to comprehend these problems when he saw them; then I want to know who in the world thought him worthy of promotion into the SES ranks and why?  The SES ranks are not hereditary positions.  The bottom line is that Cam Sholly allowed improper and potentially illegal activities to take place and continue.  What could induce a man in his position do that?  Don't bother to tell me; I know.

I'm not comfortable taking the word of a Ryan Zinke approved and appointed park superintendent.  After reviewing his and the current administration's past performance, I'm not impressed that he has "been in discussions with National Park Service leadership in Washington  ...about how best to handle the situation" and believes YF can just "make some adjustments to that business plan that the team" has prepared.  I'm disgusted that he's satisfied just blowing smoke about some unnamed new YF CEO selection who will, like Heather White, make everything fine.  William Barr sure didn't make everything fine.  I'm not ready to start cheering.  I'm not ready to start obeying in advance.  Finances be damned, I believe multiple felonies have been committed here and that Sholly has been derelict in his duties and I want a full, thorough, and honest investigation.  If Sholly wants to clear the air, he can testify for the prosecution.


That's an interesting perspective Humphrey. I believe most of the debt was incurred well before Mr Sholley came to the park so I'm not sure how his appointment or politics has anything to do with a situation that was clearly a mess from long ago? Do you know something we don't? Maybe you should stop pontificating about an investigation and get one going. Your long winded huffing and puffing is a bit nauseating. Stop talking and do it.  


Says an anonymous commenter. Which is kinda nauseating, I guess. And what you are doing about the same problem?


Yes, Anonymous. (with a period), I do know something you don't and thank you for asking.  As far as why I don't just go ahead and get an investigation going, the answer has two parts.  First, I have done just that; but, second, as long as this historically corrupt current administration is in office and as long as the perversely cynical GOP controls the US Senate, getting a proper investigation going through the normal channels is difficult at best.  A complaint to the Department of the Interior should be one of the first steps in this kind of situation; but, that route is now pretty much worthless because under disgraced former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and now his often even worse replacement, David Bernhardt, the Department of the Interior has been turned into an active accomplice, if not mastermind.  The Department of Justice has been neutered, if not outright corrupted.  The Inspectors General are under fire and keeping their heads down, at least the ones still attached.  In normal times, I might go to the Internal Revenue Service about 501(c)(3) violations; but, that agency, like almost all others in this administration, is tightly controlled by sycophantic bought-and-sold minions and it's only focus is on protecting the guilty long enough to enable them to make their getaways.  And, at this point, we can't even trust the Government Accountability Office or subcommittees due to the many insider leaks and crosstalk.  But, you probably already know all of this because people like you never invite an investigation without already knowing that the visible investigative mechanisms have already been safely rigged and that, in this administration, any formal complaint or challenge will just get you, at best, in through the revolving door, whirled around, and spit back out again.  At worst, you'll be targeted for vicious retaliation as a whistleblower.  But, let me explain more of why I join you in being nauseated by this Yellowstone Forever (YF) scam.

In his previous NPT article entitled Yellowstone Forever Crippled By Overambition, Lack Of Financial Transparency, Kurt Repanshek tried to euphemistically soften his reporting by suggesting that YF suffered from too little financial transparency and oversight.  I wish I could be so generous and understanding as to just chalk up this destructive scam to those kinds of rookie mistakes.  But, although too little financial transparency and oversight can be feigned as a means of providing cover or plausible deniability, I fear too little financial transparency can't explain the YF story or how their actions came to so closely resemble those of a racketeer influenced corrupt organization.  Let's get specific.

The old Yellowstone Association (YA) had, prior to the merger, successfully worked on behalf of Yellowstone National Park since 1933, successfully run the Yellowstone Institute since 1976.  But, there was, for some political partisans, flies in that ointment.  The old YA was a real conservation group, genuinely dedicated to supporting and protecting Yellowstone, its environment, and its wildlife and it had grown internationally influential.  Under its guidance and management, the Yellowstone Institute offered both information and training on environmental and wildlife protection, became a gathering and information exchange point for international expertise on these topics, was a supportive force behind the reintroduction of wolves, coordinated citizen science on Yellowstone's Bison, and was more recently caught talking about whether trophy hunting Grizzlies was the right thing to do given their already damaged gene pool.  Folks associated with the Yellowstone Institute were also associated with the fight over the Crowne Butte Mine in the New World Mining District and more recently with debates over environmental protection in the Crevice and Emigrant Mining Districts.  Scientists at the Yellowstone Institute were even talking about climate change and global warming.  No, for some political partisans, the old YA and the Yellowstone Institute were bad business and bad for business, too much conservation and, even worse, science.

Then, along came another group, based in Bozeman, who had a different view of conservation; some of them obsessed with dogma associated with using business models to improve environmental quality through free market approaches to environmentalism.  These rightwing philanthropists funneled their money through a more recently formed fundraising group, the Yellowstone Park Foundation.  They aimed contributions at some of Yellowstone's most cherished conservation efforts and convinced conservationists of their intentions.  Some of those associated with the Yellowstone Park Foundation were soon claiming that they, being more sophisticated corporate business types, could bring higher levels of business and fundraising expertise to a new, larger, merged organization and eliminate the wasteful redundancy of two nonprofits supporting Yellowstone in parallel.  Their marketing campaign worked.  By the fall of 2016, both the Yellowstone Park Foundation and the old YA had disappeared and Yellowstone Forever was born, with a new name that shuffled its history.

It's seems generally agreed that most YA stakeholders and members were opposed to the merger and few of the old YA Directors really made it through the merger.  Almost all were gone soon after, which, as Zach Park confirmed in his comments to Kurt Repanshek, left the YF Board of Directors dominated by Yellowstone Park Foundation holdovers.  Again, it's usually considered a "hostile takeover" when the outcome of a merger is opposed and the result is this severely lopsided.  But, it's worth repeating that the old YA had operated since 1933, successfully run the Yellowstone Institute without any need to shut it down since 1976, and brought more than twice as much in net assets into the merger as the allegedly better business types at the Yellowstone Park Foundation.  YF on the other hand has wrecked itself in less than four years, as publicly celebrated larger fundraising revenues and higher annual park support contributions turned out to have really just been inflated by borrowing and a depletion of net assets inherited from the YA.  In essence, a variety of financial tactics have siphoned net assets derived from past public donations, as well as revenues derived from more recent public donations, into what have been obvious sweetheart compensation packages for connected staff and perhaps also sweetheart contract deals in other areas.  When a severely lopsided merger is followed by the looting of net assets, it's called a "hostile takeover" followed by a "corporate raid" in the business world.

At first, I believed the political partisans behind the merger intended YF to be a more or less permanent operation that would embed them in an influential place while also affording them an opportunity to mine sufficient funds for it to pay its own way.  I thought that's how they would effectively get one of the flagships of the conservation movement to both host and pay for a parasitic anti-conservation lobbying effort embedded in its own life support system.  But, again, YF has wrecked itself in less than four years.

Looking at YF's leadership, looking at the Kay Yeagers, the Edna Johnsons, the John Waldas, and the Joseph Marushacks on the Board and the Heather Whites, the Kelly Hermans, the Thomas Cluderays, the Terry Atwoods, the Wayde Austads, and the Kimberley Yablonskis on staff, these are all educated adults.  They know enough about business or, in some cases, the law or both to be able to recognize an operation going this far off its financial rails.  Is it really plausible to believe that people at their levels and so close to the operations would be so oblivious as to bungle such a plan so badly simply from an amateurish lack of financial transparency and oversight?  No, no, it's just not credible.  The reason remains to be proven; but, it seems far more likely the merger was part of some "idiot proof" scheme to simply suck the nonprofit dry, bankrupt it, perhaps disrupt its influence, and perhaps discredit the kind of public participation it represents and thus open the door wider to further partisan privatization of the park or worse.  It looks like something closer to this sort of scheme actually succeeded.  The Form 990s can only lie or hide so much and it looks like YF's leadership pilfered millions, literally millions, of dollars of public donations and mortally wounded one of America's great conservation organizations.  Now Cam Sholly is using the damage done by that criminality as the excuse to keep the perpetrators in the picture.

However, with changes in our national political picture potentially on the way, I began to fear YF would plunder whatever else they can of assets inherited from the YA and try to run before the next administration brought sharper oversight and enforcement.  And, Kurt Repanshek's subsequent reporting soon demonstrated that to be the case.  Of course, YF has tried to make it look like the need to sell more of the remaining inherited assets is out of their control and they have done their best for the park.  I just didn't think the NPS would be so obviously complicit even in this corrupt administration.

Does that give you a better idea of my concerns about this scandal, Anonymous. (with a period)?


Humphrey....most folks want YF to succeed.  Yes they have gone   down the wrong path and taken some well deserved hits, but they are making changes, they are hiring a new CEO, some Board members are stepping down and Cam Sholly is committed to getting the Institute reopened at the proper time. Spouting off about fraud, tax evasion and beating up on volunteers does not appear to be constructive.  If anything it borders on harassment.  Let's give YF a chance to right the wrongs and lay off the new Superintendent!  Methinks you are way outta line.


Who is going to be the new CEO of Yellowstone Forever?  It seems strange that so much confidence is to be placed in this individual to make things right, yet the name of the person in this article remains unreported. 


 

Humphrey -

I normally wouldn't enter a comment on an article, but after a few people pointed out what you've written, I wanted to take the time to let you know how much I appreciate your comments and perspectives. Your frustrations are very understandable. You seem very familiar to me - perhaps our paths have crossed previously.

A couple of things for you:

Keep in mind that Yellowstone Forever is its own organization and works in partnership with the NPS. While the park does have the ability to sever the relationship, it is not allowed to be directly involved in governance, appoint or dismiss Board members or CEOs. Nor is it allowed to make direct decisions on fiduciary matters. I assume you understand the dynamics and legalities of this relationship, but it seems from your comments that perhaps you don't.

As you may or may not know, 501c3 organizations fall under the jurisdictions of the states in which they're established. In this case Montana. The IRS has jurisdiction over federal tax filings. So while you have traditionally gone to the Department of Interior OIG or maybe DOJ with your previous complaints, I would recommend you contact the State or IRS if you want these alleged "felonies" you outline investigated. Usually that will be the State Attorney General or Department of Consumer Protection.

Despite your misgivings about this "administration" I also highly encourage you to write the OIG or others in the federal government about any dereliction you feel has occurred on the part of NPS since 2016, when this problem actually started. It would be great to get their input and investigative expertise on this difficult situation, especially if they could uncover wrong doing.

Ultimately, we do have power to terminate the agreement. While an option, had I done that (a year ago or now), the organization would have gone into immediate bankruptcy, 100% of the staff would have been terminated, and 100% of the properties and assets would have been lost. I consider it a last resort and would likely be found to be more irresponsible if I chose a path that resulted in those outcomes prematurely.

If our goal is to get the Institute restarted as quickly as possible, and protect valuable properties the Institute needs, which are currently collateralized, making another attempt to recover the organization is the prudent approach, especially with major changes in leadership. It's worth the effort given the alternative. I hope you will join us in trying to make the recovery.

While this may be less than satisfying to those who wanted it to go a different direction, I suggest you (they) truly step through the ramifications of various options, especially if our underlying goals center on restarting the Institute quickly, protecting critical assets that would be lost, reducing debt and liabilities, and preventing even more hardships from future job losses.

While there has unquestionably been very poor decision-making regarding Yellowstone Forever's finances and operations, dating back to 2016, and especially through 2017 and 2018 and even into 2020, I do not share your opinion that many "felonies" have been committed. I have no reason to say otherwise and would be the first to support any investigation if the circumstances and facts warrant it. However, I also don't claim to know every financial transaction of an organization that functions in partnership, but independently from the NPS, and has had so many issues since 2016. 

Perhaps you have previous investigatory experience and see it very differently and have details that can help you more clearly outline the facts that support your accusations to the proper entity with jurisdiction over such matters. I do encourage you to outline any and all evidence to the proper authorities. If it is as compelling as you say, I'm sure an investigation will ensue. As I said above, make sure you're contacting the right organization. Since the State has primary jurisdiction over this non-profit, your political concerns with the current administration shouldn't be an issue.

Finally, if you have real solutions for moving forward, beyond your assertions of felonies being committed, I'd be happy to discuss with you anytime. Keep in mind a lot of people are working hard to make the right decisions at a very difficult period in time. There are no shortages of opinions out there on what we should be doing or how we should be doing it. I very much appreciate yours.

Thank you again for your strong interest in Yellowstone and Yellowstone Forever and feel free to call anytime.

 

Cam Sholly - Superintendent  

 


I've gotta believe that Humphrey is a trifle overwrought, as one might expect of anyone who has observed the foundering of Yellowstone For The Moment (YF) almost since its inception.

Nonetheless, it is a bit troubling that the YF salvation effort is dependent upon Lisa Diekmann, the same person who inaugurated the YPF, the upstart that, in essence, executed the hostile takeover of the Association and seems not to  appropriately value the educational role that has served the park for some 87 years, except as a sort of afterthought.

Then again, the performance of the YPF under her direction was successful in fund raising and seemed not to be controversial then and now really looks good by comparison with YF.

Superintendent Sholly certainly says the right words about restoration of the Institute programs, but still seems as interested as was Dan Wenk in YF "showing him the money".  Whatever Sholly or Wenk said about the importance of the Institute programs, seems to have been lost in the clammer about "how many dollars raised (with no mention of the percentage actually given to the park) that seems almost incessant.

Perusing the YF financials and IRS 990's suggests that an inordinate amount of what is donated has been frittered-away in a high-cost operation that many including me find offensive.

Ratings by organizations that evaluate the percentage of donations used in overhead have YF near the bottom at present.  How those might change after the hoped-for "increased transparency" (a goal easily achieved, given the opacity of YF finances) is anybody's guess, but many former donors are skeptical and, by all reports, are likely to remain so.

Further scrutiny suggests that the cash given to the park in 2017 and 2018 was from money borrowed using the assets brought to the merger by the Association as collateral.

Happily, hope springs eternal, sometimes, anyway.  Then again, eternity might be a long time to wait to see if the "let them fix themselves" strategy is a good, speedier one, rather than NPS insisting that the Association be disengaged with their assets intact from the Foundation takeover if there is to continue to be a "partnership" with the NPS.

Failing that after giving YF a chance to redeem itself, perhaps insistence on a forensic audit and claw-back of misused funds by aggrieved donors will prove necessary.

I guess this is where the words of the Great Communicator are most relevant:

Trust, but verify.

We gotta watch closely and insist on financial transparency in all that YF does as it attempts to save itself.

There's a lot of room for improvement.

Meanwhile, not one damn red cent from this observer.

Now, again, quiet for a while, anyway.


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