WALTHAM, MA—After splitting over accounting and tax discrepancies with a key volunteer organizer, Jay Srinivasan, who has helped organize We Care Charity’s annual fundraising program Dil Se for the last two years, We Care Charity founder Shefali Desai Kalyani said she will continue with the program as announced on Oct. 6, 2018 at the Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA.
“The event is going to go ahead. Same location, same time. Everything is the same,” Ms. Kalyani told INDIA New England News. “Existing singers are no longer singing. We will have a new band and new singers.”
In a Facebook post on Friday, Mr. Srinivasan announced that DilSe 3 program has been cancelled.
“During the past few weeks we have identified several accounting errors/irregularities in WCC through their bank statements. This news has been brought to the attention of all Board of Directors and Board of advisors,” Mr. Srinivasan posted on the Facebook. “Several major sponsors have now withdrawn their sponsorships from DilSe3. Several singers have also withdrawn from the event due to this issue.”
Mr. Srinivasan said in his post that a majority of board of advisors have suggested to him to cancel the DilSe3 program with immediate effect.
“Those who have paid for the tickets can contact We Care Charity to get their refunds,” Mr. Srinivasan’s post said.
Mr. Srinivasan told INDIA New England News that he reviewed We Care Charity’s tax returns for 2015, 2016 and 2017, and found some discrepancies and demanded that We Care Charity (WCC) should redo all three years taxes and refile them.
Srinivasan said that We Care Charity claims that 100 percent of donations are used to help those in need, but then there is a salary of $45,000 for Ms. Kalyani. For an organization with an annual revenue of about $120,000, an individual salary of $45,000 is a lot of money, he added.
“Only about 25% of the funds raised goes towards food/groceries from WCC as per the actual bank statements as well as publicly available tax returns of 2015 and 2016,” said Mr. Srinivasan.
Ms. Kalyani said that Mr. Srinivasan helped organize the program for two years but he is no longer part of the organizing team.
“He is out of the picture. He is just a volunteer and a member of the Board of Advisors. He is not a director,” Ms. Kalyani said.
Mr. Srinivasan said that he is a member of the non-binding Board of Advisors, but added that majority of Board of Directors of We Care Charity are family members of Ms. Kalyani.
We Care Charity’s website lists the following as team members: Shefali Kalyani, Pravir Desai, Hemant Ajbani, Anisha Kalyani, Sahil Kalyani and Parul Sanghvi.
We Care Charity is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Salem, NH. Its mission is to provide food and empowering children, individuals and families in crisis in New England and beyond.
We Care Charity is organizing Dil Se 3 on Saturday, October 6th, 2018 at Mechanics Hall, located at 321 Main Street in Worcester, MA.
Srinivasan said that several sponsors, singers and supporters have pulled back from the Dil Se event because of discrepancies in tax returns and accounting, but if Ms. Kalyani wants to go ahead with the event she can.
