FW: SCRI Meeting March 22 2024

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Andrew Lockley

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Mar 11, 2024, 11:59:50 AM3/11/24
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(source redacted for security reasons) 

Subject: SCRI Meeting March 22 2024

Where does the SCRI money go?

 

Here is a breakdown of their most recent filing, for 2022, highlighting how no more than 20% of their revenues are regranted to research teams, while 16% goes to paying Kelly's salary and lifestyle.

 

And a PDF is attached. 

 

Fundraising:  2,763,150
Grants given out:  about 560,000
Salaries and benefits paid to employees:  1,011,165, including 350,000 to Kelly herself
Communications:  351,975, including 176,950 for a website designer and 114,688 for an accounting firm
Policy research (in-house):  226,019
Advertising and promotion:  199,767
Travel:  252,157
Purchases:  155,186
Housing allowance (Kelly's apartment in DC):  103,260
Funding to their 501(c)(4) lobbying organization:  641,018

 

You can figure out on your own how many good researchers could have been supported with similar numbers.

 

Silverlining Inc - Full Filing- Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica.pdf

Solar Geoengineering

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Mar 11, 2024, 6:39:26 PM3/11/24
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Executive salaries at nonprofit organisations are set by the board of directors.  According to the document you sent (page 7), the board of Silver Linings is:

(1) KELLY WANSER
PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

(2) CARLA HOLTZE
BOARD MEMBER

(3) CLAY DUMAS 
BOARD MEMBER

(4) ALEX WONG
RESEARCH DIRECTOR   

Silver Linings does not provide this information on its website.

Solar Geoengineering

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Mar 14, 2024, 10:38:39 AM3/14/24
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The group administrator encouraged me to provide some additional information.

Silver Linings' board members are (as of 2022): 

> KELLY WANSER - PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
She is both the president of the board and the executive director of the organization. Such arrangements of overlapping responsibilities and power are uncommon.

> ALEX WONG - RESEARCH DIRECTOR   
He is both a member of the board and the second-ranking staff member. Having half of the board from senior staff is rare. Whether it matters, Wong's previous job was at US's DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).

> CLAY DUMAS
He is a 'general partner' at Lowercarbon Capital, a funder of Silver Linings. 

> CARLA HOLTZE
She appears to be the Managing Director, Commerce for Sovrn, an "online advertising technology firm".

Andrew Lockley

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Mar 22, 2024, 6:06:36 PM3/22/24
to geoengineering
(source redacted for security reasons) 

Considering how Silver Lining likes to share how concerned they are with the governance of SRM https://twitter.com/SilverLiningNGO/status/1764788454037028916, this group might be interested to know that a new private meeting of the Silver Lining science groups happened today after a hiatus.
In what was otherwise a pretty nondescript meeting with many absences of teams that are trying to distance themselves from Silver Linings, one of the remaining science PIs supported by Silver Lining (Alan Robock) mustered the courage to ask for any kind of information or comments from Silver Lining leadership about the shocking allegations such as the source and the use of funding and was immediately stonewalled by leadership, in particular the new Research Director Jean-Francois Lamarque, fresh out of a McKinsey job.

Apparently, the transparent in the "Rigorous, transparent, and globally inclusive research" that Silver Lining seems to believe in does not apply to divulging either their funding sources nor the reasons behind the very high salaries of their executive members. 
This is, obviously, of particular concern for a field that is under scrutiny from multiple sources, and perhaps the community should consider how much influence such an organization should have or appear to have.


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