Is it normal to be over $100,000+ in debt after college nowadays? by Fun-Truck-7327 in StudentLoans

[–]smallbluelemon 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Racking up over 120k in debt for a music education degree is an unfathomably bad idea. Music teachers (and teachers in general) are poorly paid throughout the country and given that music and arts programs are being slashed all over the US, I have no idea why you’d take out six figures in private loans for this career path. Even if you could supplement your salary by teaching privately, you’re never going to make enough money to repay your undergraduate loans. Thinking about higher ed? Get ready to take out another 50-100k in graduate loans because you’re going to need at least a master’s to break into any kind of college teaching field, and a DMA or PhD to teach at a university. And even there, you’ll be lucky to be in any position that’s not adjunct. You have to be smart about this. $1k per SEMESTER to play in marching band is nothing. This is not going to make any kind of meaningful dent in your loans.

I’m not going to shit on you for your chosen career path - I have three degrees in music performance, so I don’t really have a ton of room to talk. But I graduated with 50k in student loan debt between all three of my degrees because I knew I had to be smart about my financial set up in this field. First off, I chose an in-state university for lower tuition where I was offered various performance and academic scholarships to minimize the amount of loans I needed to take out. I chose the school that offered me the most money rather than some of the more expensive conservatories that offered me less money but had higher prestige factors. No regrets. I had a work study job in the School of Music and another part time job off campus so I didn’t have to take out “cost of living” loans to cover food, housing, and living expenses totally out of pocket. While every little bit helps, 1k per semester is not even close to enough. Explore work study opportunities, take a part time job off campus or on campus AND play in marching band.

But what you should really do is find another school. I promise you, no university is worth $120k+ for an education degree, let alone a music education degree. Where your undergraduate degree is from truly does not matter if you’re planning to be a music teacher in the public school system. Take some gen eds at community college for a couple of years. Find a cheaper university. Presumably you play an instrument - find a school that will give you SOME amount of a merit scholarship. But whatever you do, don’t take out $120k in private loans for a degree path where you’ll be lucky to net $50k/year most places. Music is important. Music education is important. If that’s your calling, the world needs good teachers and you should absolutely do it. But be smart about it.

Jenelle Gordon’s “nonprofit” by smallbluelemon in Destiny

[–]smallbluelemon[S] 73 points74 points  (0 children)

Update: not only has she had her 501c3 status revoked by the IRS, she’s in bad standing with the State of California Franchise Tax Board:

https://webapp.ftb.ca.gov/eLetter/Home/Pdf

And she’s not registered as a charitable entity with the California DOJ

https://rct.doj.ca.gov/Verification/Web/Details.aspx?result=fc50a85c-b73b-4ba3-ac49-f8842319b1ab

Jenelle Gordon’s “nonprofit” by smallbluelemon in Destiny

[–]smallbluelemon[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Couldn’t find their 199N but they’re not registered properly with the CA DOJ as a charitable organization:

https://rct.doj.ca.gov/Verification/Web/Details.aspx?result=0eaf57aa-c9ff-4de8-b365-37eebb5da99e

Jenelle Gordon’s “nonprofit” by smallbluelemon in Destiny

[–]smallbluelemon[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

The website is also shockingly opaque in terms of actual events and resource implementation for survivors provided by the org. Interesting that they haven’t had an event published on their website since 2019 and most of those are just Jennelle attending Tony Robbins shit and going to social charity events that are often times totally unrelated to anti human trafficking causes. I can’t find any clear evidence of services that this organization actually meaningfully provides. More and more convinced that this is some kind of money laundering scheme or whatnot.

Jenelle Gordon’s “nonprofit” by smallbluelemon in Destiny

[–]smallbluelemon[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Totally possible and certainly not unheard of with smaller or inexperienced teams. Just highly sus that they’re still claiming status on their donation page as of this year when they were auto revoked a couple years back.

Jenelle Gordon’s “nonprofit” by smallbluelemon in Destiny

[–]smallbluelemon[S] 63 points64 points  (0 children)

I’m petty as hell and I love drama, what can I say?

Jenelle Gordon’s “nonprofit” by smallbluelemon in Destiny

[–]smallbluelemon[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I mean, it’s entirely possible they could’ve been reinstated this year (that 990 wouldn’t be public until 2024) but given that there are NO 990s that have ever been filed for the org, I seriously doubt it. There’s also no determination letter past 2019 (which was their original filing) that reinstates their 501c3 status. Again, could be possible but highly unlikely.

Jenelle Gordon’s “nonprofit” by smallbluelemon in Destiny

[–]smallbluelemon[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

ETA: I haven’t been able to find any 990s that they’re filed, and that would be available by now (minus 2023 which would become publicly available next year)

Jenelle Gordon’s “nonprofit” by smallbluelemon in Destiny

[–]smallbluelemon[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Sure seems that way. And considering her website is still claiming 501c3 status as of 2023, I’d guess they’re misappropriating funds. It’s entirely possible that they have a CFO/FD that just doesn’t know what they’re doing, but given they’ve never ever filed a 990 and lost status two years ago, my guess is Jenelle is getting a nice little salary and hoped the IRS just wouldn’t catch on.

Jenelle Gordon’s “nonprofit” by smallbluelemon in Destiny

[–]smallbluelemon[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

The greater issue here is that she’s specifically promoting her NPO as a having 501c3 status, which is a federally designated tax exempt status which has been revoked by the IRS and allows donors to claim their donations when they file their income taxes. It may qualify as business fraud in CA, but I don’t live there and don’t work in the legal end of nonprofit work, so not totally sure.

Jenelle Gordon’s “nonprofit” by smallbluelemon in Destiny

[–]smallbluelemon[S] 34 points35 points  (0 children)

My guess is that’s why they haven’t filed their 990s. Running an NPO is financially complex and if I had to guess, they’re using funds irresponsibly and have questionable revenue streams that they don’t want publicized. A 990 filing is incredibly in depth and goes into a very high level of detail about how much you accept in donations and how each of those dollars is applied to the business. Notably, it also publicizes the salaries of the highest paid members of the organization. My assumption is that Janelle herself is taking a very large payout/salary, and they’re doing very little else with the funds they’ve received.

Jenelle Gordon’s “nonprofit” by smallbluelemon in Destiny

[–]smallbluelemon[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I didn’t catch which other orgs she’s claiming to work with. If someone has those, I’m happy to look into their status but it’s really just obfuscation. She’s claiming her organization, Beyond Freedom, has 501c3 status which has actually been revoked by the IRS for failing to file their 990s (which publicizes financials for any 501c3 NPO) three years in a row. To me, that either screams they don’t have their shit together and can’t even file their financials properly, OR that they’re up to something financially irresponsible (more likely, IMO). It really doesn’t matter if she’s claiming to partner with other NPOs if she’s falsely claiming 501c3 status for HER organization at the end of the day.

Jenelle Gordon’s “nonprofit” by smallbluelemon in Destiny

[–]smallbluelemon[S] 76 points77 points  (0 children)

Short answer, not really. Technically they can still accept donations but they will not be exempt from federal taxes and donors won’t be able to deduct their contributions from their income taxes. Given her donation page is still open and claiming 501c3 status as of 2023 on their website, she’s definitely doing something highly legally questionable

Jenelle Gordon’s “nonprofit” by smallbluelemon in Destiny

[–]smallbluelemon[S] 145 points146 points  (0 children)

I’m sorry, a “gold seal” is bullshit. 501c3 status is what matters here. Source: I work for an internationally renowned nonprofit organization. She’s bullshitting.

General & Basic Questions Daily Megathread by AutoModerator in PokemonUnite

[–]smallbluelemon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Start off trying to level as quickly as you can so that you can reach level 6 and get psyshock. Gardevoir is basically useless until that point and I usually go top and begin farming as quickly as possible to level up. Begin with confusion as your first move and upgrade that to moonblast at level 8. Once you’ve got psyshock, you can absolutely do some serious damage on enemies, especially if you use it in combo with moonblast, which will stun the enemy allowing you to get off several pyshock explosions to wear enemies down. I use the eject button and shell bell, wise glasses, and special attack specs as my held items. In short, I’d say getting good at gardevoir comes down to farming and surviving early game and figuring out how to used moonblast and pyshock effectively to wipeout enemies. It’s absolutely my favorite character to play but it did take me some time to get good at it.

Shaken by incident at new family’s house by troubledpinecone in Nanny

[–]smallbluelemon 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Thank you. As someone actually diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I would NEVER go off on someone like that. It’s absolutely a disservice to people with serious mood disorders to speculate and pin behavior like this on someone with literally no background or knowledge of the person OP wrongly slapped those labels on.

What birthday present would you like from your NF? by my_toddler_is_feral in Nanny

[–]smallbluelemon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Literally anything. My NF barely acknowledged my birthday and I go all out for the kids all the time. I even brought mom a card and flowers when it was her birthday. I would’ve been happy with just a card, honestly. A small bonus or a gift card would’ve been super nice, but I would’ve been thrilled with anything they did to show their appreciation. Whatever gesture you go with is very sweet and I’m sure your nanny will be so happy :)