For breakfast, I’m smoking a bowl in my garden and eating whole wheat toast with cinnamon butter and fairy dust.

I’ve been stewing over this for days and the one person I want to talk to about it isn’t talking to me. But I looked at the situation every which way and there’s no other way to look at it. I did the right thing and it hurts.

I used to be a federal officer for the IRS, I audited charities. At least, that was the last thing I did before … well, you know what happened with the federal government. Someone who shall not be named does not like people like me poking into public charities, so I was forced out of my job.

But while I was in the IRS, I was in collections and advocacy. I received awards for my conduct. Taxpayers waited on hold to talk to my managers just to compliment me. Notice the plural?

I once gave a man a $100,000 tax bill and he shook my hand on the way out the door and thanked me for helping him.

When I was in collections, I went out of my way to help people. I got reprimanded more than once for putting someone on hold to quickly fax a levy release to the caller’s employer. We had a process for that, but they couldn’t wait the 24-48 hours the process took.

That’s the kind of person I am.

My best friend is volunteering for a public charity. Something big is coming down the pipeline for the organization and she asked me if I would help them prepare for it.

My background is in business management with a minor in accounting and because I’d spent the last few years auditing charities, I figured I was pretty much perfect for the job.

I think I might’ve been a little too perfect.

I uncovered so many things that, just by themselves, would have warranted the revocation of their tax-exemption.

There is evidence of embezzlement.

At first, I dismissed it as volunteers making innocent mistakes. If that were true, they would happily administer changes to anything that was wrong.

Right?

Right?

Last year, I gave the Executive Director an audit technique guide for public charities and told her to start there.

If she was serious about the project that is coming down the pipeline, she had a year to implement any changes that need to be done.

Last week, she told me I had the authority to implement any changes I needed to make and essentially handed me keys to the company.

Their bylaws are entirely too broad and entirely too vague, so I wrote new bylaws. The supposed new board signed the new bylaws.

I created all the reports that needed to be created, set the budget that hadn’t been set, balanced books that hadn’t been touched in years, and set up a 5 year plan (which is a requirement for the program that is coming down the pipeline).

But it turned out there was a treasurer that did not want me to be there. He claims he did not know I was coming and he does not want me to be there. At first, I thought it was because he didn’t want me to tell him what to do. My bestie said that’s just how he talks to women.

And instead of the treasurer rolling with the punches and fixing what was broken, he attacked me.

My best friend says he does that to women.

It’s been my experience, whether it was advocacy, collections, or examinations, when people become belligerent over prying eyes, it’s because they are hiding something.

Every time.

I found out the treasurer claims to be the president of a multi-millionaire PAC. If that is true, then all of the odd things I noticed shouldn’t have been allowed to happen because he definitely knows better.

But I believe my best friend is innocent in all of this. Without divulging her situation and exposing her, suffice it to say she would never risk it. I think they are using her as a sacrificial pawn.

I asked the treasurer for every report the project requires and he blew a gasket. Now he is undoing everything the outgoing Executive Director did and closing bank accounts instead of having me sign them over.

So I sent the entire board (which the outgoing executive director did not tell me about) all of my reports (which wouldn’t have needed to be prepared if the treasurer had done his job) that explained where the organization is deficient and how it can improve.

I also suggested the board formally remove the treasurer if he cannot provide the reports I asked him for within a reasonable period of time. I told the outgoing executive director, who’s been dragged back into this, to be wary of the treasurer.

I hope she listens.

The treasurer emailed the board (and didn’t cc me … strange) and called me crazy.

I hope the bee I put in the board’s bonnet is loud enough.

They are not ready for the audit that is going to come along with the (what I now know is) massive project. They don’t have the mechanisms in place to do what needs to be done and if the treasurer is more convincing than I am, they are going to be in for a world of hurt.

The consequences for my friend would be devastating because her fingerprints are on everything. I genuinely believe she didn’t know any better. But, the cat’s paw and all that.

The treasurer convinced the board to ask her to resign. This organization is her life.

I know she’s blaming me. If I were in her shoes, I would blame me. But I hope she eventually realizes what I did, I did to protect her.

Cheers. 🍻

TL;DR: An organization my best friend devoted her entire life to is not operating within the laws required of public charities (or any tax laws, really). She is caught in the middle of something much bigger than she realizes and now she’s not talking to me.

I did the right thing, now my BFF won’t talk to me.