Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2002, Page 46
The “Cause”
The public face of Planet Aid can be found in Harvard Square, where music from the Rolling
Stones blasts from a radio as teens in bell bottoms drift in past a world map surrounded by
literature about Humana's work in Africa and Central America. At Planet Aid's tonier location
on Newbury Street, second-hand orange trench coats fetch $35 apiece from shoppers who
are told how their purchases help aid projects abroad. Store employees listen to talks given
by volunteers who return from overseas development projects with the Williamstown-based
International Institute for Cooperation and Development, another Humana group.
''We're all doing it because we care about the cause,'' said Amy Lewis, store manager for
three years, who reiterated figures from a brochure that 50 percent of all donated clothing
is given to the needy in developing countries. But at Planet Aid's more private headquarters
in wooded Holliston, where colorful bales of sorted clothing are stacked up to the warehouse
ceiling, workers freely say that ''almost all'' of the clothing is sold to pay for Humana-run
development projects.
Low Percentage of Money to Aid
Planet Aid spent just about all of the $3.6 million it raised in 2000, the last year for which
complete records are available. It gave out just 6 percent of that income, or about
$217,000 that year, to projects including AIDS seminars, small-scale farming groups, and
AIDS research. The rest went to salaries, rent, administrative fees, and costs associated
with collecting the clothing and fund-raising. Fred Olsson, a Swedish activist who oversees
the Holliston headquarters, called it the cost of doing business. ''When you run a nonprofit
in the US, you have to pay your bills,'' Olsson said, adding that the stores themselves serve
a worthy purpose as job providers. ''I bet somewhere between 200 to 400 people get their
living off of this.'' Planet Aid's form to the IRS states that ''the operating of four thrift shops
...is an environmental purpose. ...Collection and recycling of 14+ million pounds of used
clothes, thus relieving local waste facilities.''
But the Web site of Garson &Shaw, the for-profit company that buys Planet Aid's clothes
and resells them in Eastern Europe, talks about recycled clothing as big business. Stranger
still, Garson &Shaw's other major US supplier, the for-profit company U'SAgain, is listed as
a company controlled by Pedersen in an evidence summary filed by Danish prosecutors.
Olsson acknowledged that some of Humana's recycled clothing operations in Europe have
raised suspicions, have been shut down, or have been declared commercial businesses, but
he said that the allegations had nothing to do with Planet Aid here. ''I know there is a lot
going on overseas, and I can't answer for that,'' Olsson said. ''I know what I am doing
here.''
Organizational Growth
The story that Humana people tell about the group's genesis starts 30 years ago, when a
charismatic aspiring teacher in Denmark named Mogens Amdi Pedersen was dismissed from
an academy for having long hair. Disillusioned, he founded the Traveling Folk Schools,
persuading young idealists to travel to Africa and Asia to aid in anti-colonial struggles and
live among the poor. When they returned to Denmark, these activists pooled their resources
and bought a farm in a place called Tvind. Under Pedersen's leadership, they launched a
string of schools, farms, and charities that now spans 55 countries. In 1977, these activists
— known as ''Tvind'' — launched the International Humana People to People Movement, an
umbrella organization, which eventually moved its headquarters to Zimbabwe. In 1979,
Pedersen gave up all formal positions with the organizations and withdrew from public life.
The “Cause”
The public face of Planet Aid can be found in Harvard Square, where music from the Rolling
Stones blasts from a radio as teens in bell bottoms drift in past a world map surrounded by
literature about Humana's work in Africa and Central America. At Planet Aid's tonier location
on Newbury Street, second-hand orange trench coats fetch $35 apiece from shoppers who
are told how their purchases help aid projects abroad. Store employees listen to talks given
by volunteers who return from overseas development projects with the Williamstown-based
International Institute for Cooperation and Development, another Humana group.
''We're all doing it because we care about the cause,'' said Amy Lewis, store manager for
three years, who reiterated figures from a brochure that 50 percent of all donated clothing
is given to the needy in developing countries. But at Planet Aid's more private headquarters
in wooded Holliston, where colorful bales of sorted clothing are stacked up to the warehouse
ceiling, workers freely say that ''almost all'' of the clothing is sold to pay for Humana-run
development projects.
Low Percentage of Money to Aid
Planet Aid spent just about all of the $3.6 million it raised in 2000, the last year for which
complete records are available. It gave out just 6 percent of that income, or about
$217,000 that year, to projects including AIDS seminars, small-scale farming groups, and
AIDS research. The rest went to salaries, rent, administrative fees, and costs associated
with collecting the clothing and fund-raising. Fred Olsson, a Swedish activist who oversees
the Holliston headquarters, called it the cost of doing business. ''When you run a nonprofit
in the US, you have to pay your bills,'' Olsson said, adding that the stores themselves serve
a worthy purpose as job providers. ''I bet somewhere between 200 to 400 people get their
living off of this.'' Planet Aid's form to the IRS states that ''the operating of four thrift shops
...is an environmental purpose. ...Collection and recycling of 14+ million pounds of used
clothes, thus relieving local waste facilities.''
But the Web site of Garson &Shaw, the for-profit company that buys Planet Aid's clothes
and resells them in Eastern Europe, talks about recycled clothing as big business. Stranger
still, Garson &Shaw's other major US supplier, the for-profit company U'SAgain, is listed as
a company controlled by Pedersen in an evidence summary filed by Danish prosecutors.
Olsson acknowledged that some of Humana's recycled clothing operations in Europe have
raised suspicions, have been shut down, or have been declared commercial businesses, but
he said that the allegations had nothing to do with Planet Aid here. ''I know there is a lot
going on overseas, and I can't answer for that,'' Olsson said. ''I know what I am doing
here.''
Organizational Growth
The story that Humana people tell about the group's genesis starts 30 years ago, when a
charismatic aspiring teacher in Denmark named Mogens Amdi Pedersen was dismissed from
an academy for having long hair. Disillusioned, he founded the Traveling Folk Schools,
persuading young idealists to travel to Africa and Asia to aid in anti-colonial struggles and
live among the poor. When they returned to Denmark, these activists pooled their resources
and bought a farm in a place called Tvind. Under Pedersen's leadership, they launched a
string of schools, farms, and charities that now spans 55 countries. In 1977, these activists
— known as ''Tvind'' — launched the International Humana People to People Movement, an
umbrella organization, which eventually moved its headquarters to Zimbabwe. In 1979,
Pedersen gave up all formal positions with the organizations and withdrew from public life.
