Donors Question Status of Bear the Burden Coalition Donations from COVID Pandemic

FREDERICK, MD News (4/30/2024) – Founded in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to support small businesses in Western Maryland, Bear the Burden (BTBC) garnered significant community support. However, questions have arisen regarding the allocation of donated funds, prompting concerns among contributors.

IRS records reveal that BTBC received less than $50,000 in donations, exempting it from detailed public financial reporting requirements. Initially established with a mission to ensure equitable treatment for businesses amid government restrictions, the organization faced bureaucratic hurdles and operational challenges.

Editor’s Note: Ken Buckler, President of RFHC, personally donated $50.00 to BTBC in December, 2020.

In a November 2022 update, Brett Hess, BTBC’s treasurer, provided an overview of the organization’s journey. Delays ensued as the IRS initially rejected BTBC’s nonprofit status due to perceived legislative influence. Despite subsequent approval, technical issues hampered tax filings, with the IRS failing to register the entity correctly in their database. These issues appear to since have been corrected, as BTBC is now present on the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search with an EIN of 85-3931237, and an address of 295 BUCHEIMER RD STE B, FREDERICK, MD 21701. Brett Hess is listed as the principal officer of the organization.

In his update, Hess clarified that BTBC primarily aimed to advocate for small businesses against restrictive policies. Legal consultations and community engagements constituted major expenditures, including a $12,000 investment in legal services. As COVID-19 restrictions eased, BTBC’s activities tapered, leaving surplus funds untouched.

Additionally, Hess provided an overview of the efforts of BTBC’s legal team’s efforts, “The Boyden Gray team did the appropriate research and then provided two live and interactive presentation where they gave our members and business community a “toolbox” of options and opportunities to fight or push back on the overreaching policies that were putting so many small businesses as risk. The Boyden Gray team was prepared to help litigate if necessary, but we were advised by their team and other legal advisors that this would be a very costly litigation, and would like require some cooperation with other entities similar to ours to pool funds. Soon after this presentation, Maryland and many localities began lifting the COVID restrictions. Our team and many of our members did an amazing job of reaching out to our elected officials and voicing their concerns and demonstrating the undeniable negative effects that these restrictions had on small businesses. I believe that the influence of BTBC, all of our members, other small businesses and concerned individuals, helped to get our state and county open faster then it otherwise would have.”

“At the end of February 2021 BTBC had over $37,000 in the bank after expenditures. As soon as the state and county opened up restrictions for businesses, we lost a significant amount of momentum at BTBC,” stated Hess in his update on the financial status of the organization.

Despite deliberations over fund disbursement, BTBC maintained that they were providing transparency, assuring donors that no funds were misappropriated. Hess underscored their commitment to equitable distribution, contemplating options like business grants or donations to aligned nonprofits.

However, no additional updates were posted until April 2024, over a year later.

IRS records show that BTBC has not collected over $50,000 in revenue per year, and lists a website of WWW.BEARTHEBURDENCOALITION.ORG. However, that web address does not appear to function as of publishing this article. The website is registered behind a domain proxy service, which is common for most websites today.

Since the organization has not collected over $50,000 in revenue per year, it is only required to complete an IRS 990-N “e-Postcard” which does not include detailed financial information.

On April 29, 2024, founder Danny Farrar addressed renewed concerns by donors that the funds were being misused. Reiterating prior statements, Farrar emphasized the funds’ lawful usage for organizational expenses, with remaining reserves earmarked for potential future initiatives. Plans to collaborate with local partners for fund dispersal and organization closure were underway but awaited finalization. No details were provided regarding what organization(s) would receive the funds.

“The remaining funds are securely held in a bank account, ready for future use if necessary. Recently, we have started to look into options for disbursing the remaining funds through a local trusted Frederick Community partner and winding down the organization,” stated Farrar in a social media post in the BTBC Facebook group, “We have not yet briefed anyone on this because the plans are not finalized. However, we anticipate finalizing these details in the next few weeks and will share them once they are confirmed.
To reiterate, no board member has personally used any of the funds. While you may disagree with our management decisions, it is important to distinguish this from fraudulent behavior.”

Farrar dismissed accusations of fraud, emphasizing transparent stewardship and adherence to established protocols. While acknowledging dissent regarding management decisions, he underscored the distinction between managerial discretion and illicit behavior.

Some members of the community however, are not satisfied with Hess and Farrar’s explanations.

“The board of Bear the Burden had plenty of time to try to set up an organization to help advocate for businesses harmed by Covid regulations and shutdowns. They spent money setting up their nonprofit designation via lawyers, but at the end of the day claimed to have helped businesses simply through council meetings, public comment and advocacy work and pressure through social media,” stated James Grose, a local 2A advocate and activist, “The issue is that they have held on to money for over four years and claim that they were worried that more regulations will harm businesses, and therefore they would need to spend the money again to advocate for businesses. It has now been over three years, and there has been zero response as to where the money has gone or has been spent since then. I think people who donated the money believed it would be spent to help local businesses who were suffering financially and needed a hand up. It’s just sitting there doing absolutely nothing.”

Grose continued to state his concerns regarding the lack of effectiveness of BTBC, “I can make a $50 donation through GoFundMe to help a small business on my own and I’m still doing more than an entire nonprofit organization who could’ve raised awareness through social media for free like I have done as a firearms rights advocate and activist for over a decade. I never took a penny from anyone to do the advocacy work to our governor or legislators in Annapolis. I have been quite successful on that front in comparison. All of these people on this board have let three years pass and they haven’t done anything with the money to help these businesses.”

“Danny Farrar says it’s because they were very busy with their lives and when businesses got back to running normally. I guess it’s more important to run their own businesses and profit than it is to ultimately help the businesses that were suffering as promised. Someone could’ve found time in the last three years. I find that to be disgraceful and unacceptable,” said Grose in his closing statements.

As BTBC navigates continued public scrutiny, donors and stakeholders await definitive plans for fund disposition and organizational closure.

Story by multiple RFHC contributors.