The People's Movement to Reform ACORN

During the fall of 2008, following the discovery of an eight year cover-up of a multi-million dollar ACORN scandal and embezzlement by Dale Rathke the brother of Wade Rathke the co-founder and Chief Organizer of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and the Service Employee’s International Union (SEIU), eight courageous national board members banded together to reform the venerable association of community organizations before it was to late.

The efforts to quash intra-corporate disputes failed when ACORN faced unprecedented upheaval from outside forces. Courageous whistleblowers Karen Inman and Marcel Reid continue the fight they began for transparency and accountability within ACORN. Other national board members joined their efforts and together these courageous ACORN whistleblowers became known as the ACORN 8. But the reactions by ACORN are cautionary tales about inter-corporate relationships, and management and control of non-profit corporations. And the breach of fiduciary duties and trust following a multi-million dollar embezzlement dating back to 1999. ACORN voter fraud, voter registration fraud, unpaid taxes, unfair labor practices, etc, while tantalizing were not the problem, but merely symptoms of ACORN corruption and failed leadership. The real problem was ACORN's governance, and the lack of transparency and accountability of its leadership. ACORN recently re-branded itself but the exploitation continues.

Today the ACORN 8, LLC is a non-profit membership organization with representatives in 15 states and the District of Columbia that engages in legislative advocacy, including federal and corporate whistleblower rights and judicial reform, participates in grassroots coalitions and continues to advocate on behalf of low and moderate income families and communities. Like you, we’re activists. We’re dedicated to helping people like ourselves –people of limited means– get a better shake in life. That’s why we joined ACORN in the first place. That’s why we’re fighting now to make it an open organization with clean books, honest leadership and a willingness to grow through scrutiny and criticism. ACORN suffered through the turmoil of embezzlement of huge amounts of money by key figures in the organization. To move forward it needs to openly confront the past and eliminate the possibility of such abuse in the future. That’s what the ACORN 8, and this site are about.

We continue to help marginalized people from all walks of life. We do this by organizing conferences and events, publishing books, hosting radio programs, engaging in advocacy, and public speaking and lectures. We support other whistleblowers and journalist by organizing the Whistleblower Summit for Civil & Human Rights (www.WhistleblowerSummit.com), the largest and most prestigious whistleblower conference on Capitol Hill. Get the real Inside Story of ACORN and read ACORN 8-RACE, POWER & POLITICS--today.