Just like the recent and really unexpected sketch of Sarah Palin on the Utne Reader, or the lawyers who represent people with questionable businesses, there are people who represent nonprofits that are likely not popular among the left of center.
One of these people: Richard Berman. And Richard Berman is effective at looking out for the interests of his nonprofits which take positions very often against what might even seem as good causes. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that Mr. Berman and his for-profit company are now under attack from the very folks he attacks. And the approach of the attack: that there's not much difference between Mr. Berman, his company and the nonprofits he claims to represent and from who he is paid.
Mr. Berman has a established a few nonprofits, with their own boards, that advocate mostly against other nonprofit positions -- like getting soda out of schools or humane treatment for farm animals. These nonprofits however may not be even arms-length from Mr. Berman's for profit corporation. That of course is not technically acceptable but to date, the case against him not that strong and the IRS is not saying there's anything particularly wrong.
So, what to say? Mr. Berman certainly has the right to represent whomsoever he chooses and the "nonprofits" he represents have the same option. Is there a wrong doing here? Is Mr. Berman just using nonprofits to make a profit in addition to tooting his own horn about issues I assume he cares about?
It's pretty much unclear and maybe Mr. Berman has some cleaning up to do with these nonprofits he appears to have created to achieve his own goals. However, and this from a vegetarian -- nonprofits should first and foremost be equally effective in getting the public to understand their platform. Strength does not just come from being right but by making sure that what "right" is so clear, the public won't accept the alternative and pave the ways for Mr. Bermans to represent their own aenda and use the nonprofit structure as a vehicle for railing against good principles.