Heal The World Foundation: "No connection" to Michael Jackson estate
WASHINGTON, August 11, 2009
Charity Claims Dubious Link To Jackson
Jackson Estate Says "No Connection" To The Pop Star
By Laura Strickler
(CBS) Written by CBS News investigative producer Laura Strickler.
CBS News has learned that a charity claiming to be affiliated with Michael Jackson has no connection to his estate.
In the days after Michael Jackson’s death there were numerous news references to the ongoing charitable work of his “Heal the World Foundation”. However Jackson’s charity officially closed its doors in 2004. A new charity also named the “Heal the World Foundation” leaves the impression it is the same charity but CBS News has discovered it has no connection to the pop star’s current estate.
The foundation’s website has been a magnet for fans searching for a Michael Jackson “charity”. In recent weeks the foundation has begun asking for donations from visitors who want to post or read material on the site that is dominated by comments from fans around the world. Records provided by the charity indicate the website received $6,191.57 in donations during the month of July through PayPal.
The charity is run by Melissa Johnson who also runs a home health care business for the elderly called “Angels Embrace” run out of the same office in Palm Desert, California. A call to Johnson’s home was answered with, “Angels Embrace,” by a man who said his name was Chris Johnson.
According to state records the current "Heal the World Foundation" started in March 2008. Federal records show the organization received its IRS tax exempt status in January of 2009. In response to questions about the charitable work of the foundation, Johnson told CBS News, "our only actions have been to protect the property of the charity and console the fans and people who want to pay tribute in their own way."
Johnson obtained the trademark “Heal the World Foundation” according to the US Trademark Office in October 2008. But a month after Jackson’s death she filed for a new trademark, “Michael Jackson Heal the World Foundation”. In her application she notes that she wants to provide, “Charitable services, namely, providing a website that enables children of a school district to communicate with a charity of their choice; Computer services, namely, creating an on-line community for registered users to participate in discussions, get feedback from their peers, form virtual communities, and engage in social networking; Hosting of digital content on the Internet.”
Melissa Johnson also filed three applications to trademark “MJ” in July of 2008 to be used for “athletic apparel,” “audio and video recordings”, “digital media”, “downloadable music”, “video games”, “toys… talking toys… and toy and novelty face masks” according to the US Patent and Trademark office.
But representatives of the Jackson estate say the foundation is not linked, "The Michael Jackson estate has no connection whatsoever to the "Heal the World Foundation” run by Melissa Johnson," said Terry Fahn, a spokesperson for John Branca, the special administrator of the Jackson estate.
Branca has been embroiled in a back and forth debate for the last few weeks with the Jackson family over the estate.
A spokesperson for Katherine Jackson’s attorney L. Londell McMillan could not confirm or deny a connection to Melissa Johnson. Johnson told CBS she has not been in touch with the Jackson family since his death.
The foundation plays up its connection to Michael Jackson. The charity’s Twitter account with 587 followers says, “Heal The World Foundation was started by Pop Star Michael Jackson in 1992. Anyone interested in comitting(sic) themselves to Healing the World is most welcome here”. The site notes that following Jackson’s London tour he was planning to, “live a long and full life, devoted to [Heal the World Foundation] and serving his God and his fellow man, with his fans leading the way”.
“The Jackson management that reports to you now is NOT his management staff of many years,” said Johnson of the current "Heal the World Foundation" in an email to CBS, “They recently replaced a crew of managers and those people had been working with us for years.”
Johnson told CBS News that she worked with the firm of Raymone Bain, Jackson’s former spokesperson, and particularly with Bain's former partner Van Alexander. But a representative for Bain told CBS News that Bain “never worked with Melissa Johnson or with the Heal the World Foundation.” Alexander, who no longer works with Bain, did not respond to messages left requesting comment.
The Heal the World Foundation website boasts an exhaustive list of projects related to Michael Jackson: the Michael Jackson Annual Telethon, Michael’s Army (of volunteers), the MJ Film Company, a newspaper and publishing company, Kid Care Centers, a Michael Jackson movie, “animal projects” and “Learning Centers”.
Additional reporting by Faiza Virani in New York.
Source: CBS News
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Finally this issue has been cleared up.
When Michael died, many fans (including me) felt the urge to keep on his legacy of healing the world, and wanted to donate or take part in his Heal The World Foundation, and there was this website called http://www.healtheworld.us which claimed to be this foundation. But the real Heal The World Foundation created by Michael Jackson stopped years ago.
From the very beginning, I had doubts towards this website and feared this "foundation" was bogus. I didn't really know what to think because so many fans were supporting and promoting the "foundation", and I was worried they would donate money to a fake foundation, and on the other hand, thought "maybe I am ignoring and accusing Michael's foundation when I should be promoting it".
The Wikipedia page about the Heal The World Foundation said it had been relaunched in 2008 and indicated the website http://www.healtheworld.us was the new official site. But I was wondering why it wasn't announced that the foundation was relaunched back in 2008 if that was true. After all, anyone can edit a Wikipedia page, especially when people are not watching or cannot verify if what is said is true or not.
I also remember visiting a "Heal The World" foundation website months ago, and there was almost no mention of Michael Jackson, or maybe even no mention at all. I'm not sure it was the same website or another one, but anyway, that's why I was doubtful. After all, anyone can use a domain name when it's left out of use and create a website.
I thought the healtheworld.us website, logo, layout, content, everything, didn't look professional (let alone official) at all. I found suspicious that there was no mention that it was approved or supported by Michael Jackson or his official team or estate or whatever. Not even a copyright, an official logo or legal mention or something. Now they've added a copyright and some fake logos at the bottom of their pages, and they added a lot more content, but before, it just looked like a basic fan page trying to pretend it was official.
Expressing my doubts on Twitter, and saying I would NOT donate, support or promote the foundation until I'm 100% sure it's official and/or approved by Michael's family, people behind the site tried to convince me it was official and that they had big projects planned, and if the family wasn't mentionning it, it was because they were too busy, and that they had people working on a new logo. I didn't believe them and just said that I would wait patiently until all is being cleared up.
Now, it looks like it is, and without surprise, the "foundation" has no link with Michael Jackson's estate.
Now, I'm not saying all that to tell people "Ha! I knew it, I told you so!", but because it's important to know about all sides of the story, and to take a responsible decision rather than blindly promoting and donating to the so-called "Heal The World Foundation", and all the fans should now be informed about the situation.
It just goes to show we have to be careful and if we have any doubt or suspicion about anything, we can still donate somewhere else!
Maybe it's still a real foundation, maybe there's some genuine people behind it who used Michael's name but have good intentions. Or maybe it's Michael's real foundation and Melissa Johnson is right and it's because Michael's staff changed or whatever...
But when it comes to donating money in order to help a humanitarian project somewhere in the world, and when it comes to promoting a foundation and convincing others to donate, we should be very careful and 100% sure this is a real and reliable foundation before doing anything.
Let's be careful because many other bogus charities and foundations probably exist and are ready to take advantage of our generosity, and other bogus foundations might be created and also claim a link to Michael Jackson to abuse Michael's fans. It's so easy to do that on the internet.
It's not just because you might lose some money, but also because you have a responsibility when you ask others to trust a foundation and donate, and because if there's no project behind it, you're just wasting your time and money on nothing instead of actually helping real projects and saving lives somewhere.
So now, once again, it's important that you spread the word on the supposed "Heal The World Foundation".
All the fans need to know it's not officially approved by Michael's estate, and that they are taking a risk by donating, promoting them, or even doing things like following them on Twitter or adding them on Facebook (because it leads other fans to believe the "foundation" can be trusted).
If for you, it's important to make a donation for a specific foundation that mattered to Michael Jackson when he was alive, you can consider donating to one of the following charities...
The singer’s humanitarian commitments during the course of his life are accredited in the Guiness Book of World Records and in the Year 2000 Millennium Edition, establishing him as the pop celebrity having supported the most charities, registered as 39, as well as other affiliated organizations and projects, namely:
Brotman Burn Center
Cities and Schools ScholarshipFund
Community Youth Sports & Arts Foundation
Dakar Foundation
Dreamstreet Kids
Love Match
The Sickle Cell Research Foundation
United Negro College Fund Ladder's of Hope
Wish Granting
YMCA - 28th Street/Crenshaw
Research has shown that Mr. Jackson has supported at least 33 more charities, namely:
Community School/Safety Havens Initiative
Atlanta Children’s Foundation
Oneness
Go For Your Dreams
T.J. Martell Foundation for Leukemia, Cancer and AIDS Research
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
National Solidarity Fund
Family Caring for Families
Children's Diabetes Foundation
Ghandi Foundation for Children
Heal L.A.
Youth Sports & Art Foundation
Give For Life
Wishing Well Fund
(From http://www.thesilencedtruth.co…w=article&id=65&Itemid=59)
I spent some time finding links for most of those charities, so please take a look at some of them (you'll learn a lot about Michael Jackson himself by the way), and support these true genuine charities that mattered to Michael, and not that shady "Heal The World Foundation".
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vielen herzlichen dank, besonders für die mühe
die ganzen links aufzustöbern an 'micha' aus dem mjdreams :
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