• Home
  • About
    • About this Blog
    • About Andrew Taylor
    • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Other AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal

The Artful Manager

Andrew Taylor on the business of arts & culture

Charity identity theft

March 29, 2005 by Andrew Taylor

A strange story out of Illinois suggests that charities can have their identities stolen too. According to this article in the Chicago Tribune, the Illinois Attorney General has filed suit against one nonprofit — United Front Inc., and its president Alex Brooks — for reinstating a defunct United Way chapter just to sign over its assets:

The suit, filed in Cook County Chancery Court, alleges that Brooks last September filed papers to reinstate the United Way of Harvey as a registered Illinois charity, although he had no prior leadership role there and thus no authority to do so.

The United Way of Harvey had been dissolved in June 2004 as an Illinois non-profit following a sweeping consolidation the year before of United Way chapters in this area, according to the suit and a spokeswoman for United Way of Metropolitan Chicago.

According to the suit, Brooks was able to reinstate the United Way of Harvey, and, as a new director of the charity, he signed a quitclaim deed for its building over to United Front. The suit claims that United Front then tried to evict tenants of the building.

So, keep your bylaws in a safe place and watch your wallets, or you might find your organization stolen from underneath you. Very strange.

Filed Under: main

About Andrew Taylor

Andrew Taylor is a faculty member in American University's Arts Management Program in Washington, DC. [Read More …]

ArtsManaged Field Notes

#ArtsManaged logoAndrew Taylor also publishes a weekly email newsletter, ArtsManaged Field Notes, on Arts Management practice. The most recent notes are listed below.

RSS ArtsManaged Field Notes

  • Links to Arts Management learning July 22, 2025
    While I'm on a two-week pause, wander these other paths to inform your craft.
  • Arts management as practice July 15, 2025
    Management isn't a theory, it's an evolving repertory of embodied expertise.
  • The bother of bylaws July 8, 2025
    Does your arts nonprofit's map for action match the terrain?
  • Minimum viable everything July 1, 2025
    Getting better as an arts organization doesn't always (or even often) mean getting bigger.
  • The rise and stall of the nonprofit arts June 24, 2025
    The modern arts nonprofit evolved in an ecology of growth. It's time to evolve again.

Artful Manager: The Book!

The Artful Manager BookFifty provocations, inquiries, and insights on the business of arts and culture, available in
paperback, Kindle, or Apple Books formats.

Recent Comments

  • Barry Hessenius on Business in service of beauty: “An enormous loss. Diane changed the discourse on culture – its aspirations, its modus operandi, its assumptions. A brilliant thought…” Jan 19, 18:58
  • Sunil Iyengar on Business in service of beauty: “Thank you, Andrew. The loss is immense. Back when Diane was teaching a course called “Approaching Beauty,” to business majors…” Jan 16, 18:36
  • Michael J Rushton on Business in service of beauty: “A wonderful person and a creative thinker, this is a terrible loss. – thank you for posting this.” Jan 16, 13:18
  • Andrew Taylor on Two goals to rule them all: “Absolutely, borrow and build to your heart’s content! The idea that cultural practice BOTH reduces and samples surprise is really…” Jun 2, 18:01
  • Heather Good on Two goals to rule them all: “To “actively sample novel experiences (in safe ways) to build more resilient perception and prediction” is about as useful a…” Jun 2, 15:05

Archives

Creative Commons License
The written content of this blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images are not covered under this license, but are linked (whenever possible) to their original author.

an ArtsJournal blog

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in