in the time of your life live so in that good time there should be no
ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches
Association was a coveted success they tested tens of thousands of people a
day administered millions of vaccines and and all likeliness save lives because of the work
that they did but interviews with dozens of current and former employees revealed
that it was also a bit of a mess they say there's labor issues sexual harassment
claims that went unaddressed mishandled money and what one former employee calls
a pathological unwillingness to admit that something could even be improved [Music]
so when core started in 2010 it was you know a big time for the organization it was getting a
lot of attention and then sort of over the years of the next decade it kind of faded into the
background when the pandemic hit they grew really really quickly largely thanks to a gift from Jack
Dorsey two gifts totaling 30 million dollars they went from what Ann Lee core CEO said was around a
dozen people to thousands on their 2020 tax forms they listed more than 2 000 people as employees
and they listed 76 million dollars in Revenue so it's a huge jump for a small organization another
reason that core grew so large it seems is because Los Angeles the city does not actually have a
public health department and so corg helped set up testing sites all over the city including at
Dodger Stadium and that was one of the biggest if not the biggest covet testing site in the country
I talked to 38 current and former employees of core and the vast majority of them were
incredibly frustrated the range of issues were allegations of sexual harassment and assault on
site at Dodger Stadium to financial discrepancies meanwhile and Lee and Sean Penn are getting awards
for philanthropists of the year and just getting recognition from public figures and so employees
they're frustrated not only that what was happening wasn't being addressed internally but
that there was no accountability for the nonprofit and its leaders core denied allegations that it
didn't address employee concerns or claims of misconduct people ask me why am I here why am
I here because I can't stand inequality celebrity philanthropy in the U.S is sort of a big deal it
is a huge amount of money and activity and it's almost like a whole business in its own right
some of them are very long-lived and have been really been very much organized there are others
that are sort of you know maybe from the best intentions have been set up quickly where not
everybody's really sure what they're doing and then it really depends on the sort of stamina
or maybe attracting the right professional people to make sure that this will become a
success I think some of the Penn's organization is not unlike other organizations in that it
starts from a lot of Goodwill a lot of energy and money that allows often an enthusiastic
group of people to get started on it trying to become more professional as they go along
and as in many of these organizations things go wrong when a crisis strikes core responds
where everywhere someone needs us acting immediately to save lives mobilize resources
and establish trust and collaboration within communities employees say it often feels like
a PR exercise and trying to get funding more than actually responding to the disasters since
the pandemic is slowing down core has been in Ukraine responding to the war there and they're
also responding to hurricanes like hurricane Ian in Florida and hurricane Fiona and Puerto Rico
the Court's response to some of these storms has been criticized by other Aid groups on the ground
natural disasters change the course of humans Lives real people it's not a game it's serious
business so people drive in here get water and MREs come in here and get all kinds of food stuff
and Pampers we rode hurricane Ian out in Tampa and we were down in Fort Myers the very next day
as soon as it was safe and our first response is always to set up a large distribution center for
the public and core they showed up in our parking lot and used video from us in their own videos
that I was really shocked to see I haven't one we are here with amazing Partners we have a massive
distribution center and it's just awe-inspiring maybe they're trying to learn from us or copy us
um and you know in the end if they are honest and they mean well I wish them luck I'm happy to show
anybody what we do there's no secrets but do it in an upfront and ethical way that's really important
Cora said it was unaware of the Cajun Navy's concerns about its
Florida efforts and that its use of photographers is standard practice
so Sean Penn is best known as an actor and a filmmaker part of the Hollywood scene but going
back a while now he's also gotten involved in disaster relief in 2005 he went to New Orleans
to respond to Katrina and in 2010 he went to Haiti in the wake of a really big earthquake that killed
tens of thousands of people during that period he co-founded what would later become core fast
forward five years they're still doing relief in haitiate and other Caribbean countries and
that's when he brought and Lee in 2016 he makes her the CEO 2019 they renamed the organization
Corps and he makes an in honorary co-founder of the non-profit they only had 18 listed
employees that year in 2019 zero volunteers 2021 their revenue was around 122 million
dollars at this point they're getting individual contributions from people online from more of
Penn's Rich famous friends at fundraisers but also from federal grants so that's taxpayer money
that's going to fund their work doing code relief and then other things as well an organization with
12 people in an organization with 2 000 people is very different in terms of what you need to
support all those employees you need payroll systems you need HR networks I talk to eight
people who allege there were issues with sexual harassment at Dodger Stadium many of them said
they reported the issues to their managers at the time and I spoke with someone who said they knew
the manager reported those to Anne Lee directly the CEO and that nothing was immediately done
and then in terms of the financial side seven million organization is very different from a
122 million dollar organization you need to track those expenses of all these employees
you need to track when these grants are coming in what they're designated for and how they're being
spent the 2020 audit their first one found seven significant deficiencies and those range from no
documentation for expenses no documentation or approvals for payroll so these are like
other issues that I found in my reporting that were happening in late 2021 as well it's 2023
and I'm talking to employees who say that the systems that they have are still inadequate
core has previously said problems with its Management systems were solved in the many
months that I've been reporting on this the name that keeps coming up over and
over again as the Common Thread is anlee the CEO employees say that it's up to her
what core does when they respond to a disaster and how long they stay [Music]
thank you