He’s running a business, but tries disguising it as a non-profit. He wouldn’t qualify as a non-profit because he’d have to open his books up for scrutiny and he’s contributing absolutely nothing towards helping people. No food banks, old folks homes or day cares he could point to if audited. So we see the pledge drives as many non-profits practice but with absolutely none of the accountability. Don’t fool yourself - if you become a Patron or financial backer of Jabba the Hutt, it’s a personal donation. Jabba might tell you the money is to feed starving Jawas, but it goes into his account over which he has sole control.
Donations are made to Lloyd Evans the person, not Ipsilon Media. Not Tibor. Not Dijana. The strange behaviour and his resulting financial struggles are the manifestation of the difficulties of successfully merging the business model of a for-profit and non-profit together and not getting caught. Televangelists enrich themselves, but they need to create something tangible on the ground to throw money at and make it seem real. A youth group cookout. Mission to Haiti.
Not Lloyd. He picks up women at the Ukrainian border and makes it look like he just rescued Anne Frank in his video.
To add insult to injury, he goes further than non-profits in appealing to emotions to bring in money. You’ll never see a dog shelter broadcast a commercial with suffering dogs and then cut to a Lloyd Evans type who then proceeds to make threats about having to put more dogs down if donations don’t improve. An advertisement such as that would earn immediate condemnation and lead to diminishing returns.
Lloyd’s already tread down that path and he’ll never be able to return to the gallant exJW persona who just needs enough money for a survey. You won’t even see a JW or non-JW YTer resort to what he’s doing now and it’s starting to really stand out with his new fundraising pop-ups.
Jim Jones was a committed Marxist from the beginning, but being in the American Midwest in the 1950s, that dream was impossible to realise. As he stated to close friends, his goal was to “infiltrate the church”. Lloyd has done the same thing with so-called “exJW activism”. I believe he’s said all he’s ever wanted to say about the religion of his father long ago. It’s been about personal enrichment ever since.
It’s disheartening to think of what all that money collected by Lloyd Evans could go to that’s a worthwhile cause. A group of former JWs go to Lake Tahoe every year for a camp-out. Try to envision what could be accomplished by taking what Lloyd fundraises in two or three months. Not only could they rent a huge block of campsites, purchase all the food, and hotel rooms for the more elderly or infirm, but with whatever is left over, a few less fortunate people can be flown in and picked up.
Then make one hell of a documentary that people actually want to watch about life outside the organization.
Bzzzzt! Wake up, dream’s over. Sorry, that money is going to Lloyd. Those Tahoe folks can pay for it their damn self. Fuck you.
