YouTuber Jirard (a.k.a. The Completionist) has been accused of keeping and hoarding charity donations

Karl Jobst and SomeOrdinaryGamers (separate video linked here) have accused Jirard Khalil of lying to viewers about his charity.

Jirard is a YouTuber who runs a channel known as the Completionist, where he plays games to 100% completion and reviews them based on how enjoyable the experience was.

The Open Hand Foundation, which was co-founded by Jirard in 2014, was set up to raise money for dementia charities after his dementia-stricken mother passed away. However, their yearly filings with the IRS suggest that none of this money has been donated to charity.

Jacque (Jirard’s brother) responded to Karl’s emails to the Open Hand Foundation claiming that they are still searching for the correct charity to partner with and disburse these funds, whereas Jirard claimed that he was only aware that none of the funds had gone out last year, yet is still openly promoting Open Hand on stream and claiming they support the UCSF, Alzheimer’s Association, the AFTD and many other charities.

Cybersteel,
@Cybersteel@lemmy.ml avatar

Never liked him, knew he was always a bad egg.

samus12345,
@samus12345@lemmy.world avatar

Normal Boots seems to have attracted scummy people. Please don’t be one of them, PBG!

HawlSera,

If it’s true. Fuck him

My grandfather is in the earliest stages of dementia and his side of the family dies of alzheimers a lot…

dangblingus,

Muta is frothing at the mouth that he might seem like the sane party for once.

GrayBackgroundMusic,

claiming that they are still searching for the correct charity to partner

Isn’t that something you should do before you start a donation drive? Wtf?

Inmate,

No, you don’t understand, this is decades long process for most NPOs and charities. Some will wait for a century or more to find the right organization. Doctors without Borders, for instance, has a notoriously difficult time performing their duties as the borders keep changing over time as they wait for the right fit–many of their doctors are, in fact, within borders.

My charity has a pile of gold that a dragon sits on until the dragon has found a CEO and board of trustees who can withstand 20k° of dragonfire. Until then, I’d be a fool not to collect interest, for charity of course.

Strobelt,

And if you happen to use this interest and money to fund your company while you search for the right charities to support it’s OK. It’s all for charity sake after all!

Droechai,

It is standard practise to use part of the donations for expenses and administration after all

chairman,

Since 2014 huh?

HonorIsDead,

Big “I pledged it” energy here.

GenBlob,

Jirard never seemed like the type of guy to pull something like this and I really want to see his response but having the money just sit there (and hopefully still there) for years is a really bad look for him. At the very least he was just clueless but that’s still damaging taking into account all the lies on the charity streams

badaboomxx, (edited )

I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, but after listening to the call, basically he pass the blame on both because they found the issue, to the point of saying that they did it for the views…

After that I knew that something is off, then he replied with something like “what do you want me to do, give all the money away, that will only make me look bad if I do it right now”, but that was the goal of the donation.

I mean, I wouldn’t see an issue if he was giving money but he didn’t and he was claiming to donated to several associations, which didn’t get a single dime

Edit: big fingers small cellphone.

SendMeBakedBeans,

bamlame

Woooah, Black Betty

badaboomxx,

Sorry, big fingers and small cellphone is a bad combination

Strobelt,

Laughing hard at this and singing it in my head lololol

Carighan,
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

I really want to see his response

Muta talks to him during his video, I think. Response is basically “I had no clue” mixed with some vague excuses, including some that clearly contradict what was said before.

And then does the “But I don’t know how to fix this, so if you have any idea…”, as if, you know, donating the fucking money is such a difficult thing to do. And like Muta says, they don’t even detail their operating expenses, so any accountant could have a field day with that.

108,
@108@kbin.social avatar

Even after he found out it didn’t go anywhere he was still shilling it as it was ALL going to charity. Using his dead mother too. As someone who’s Father died with Alzheimer’s, fuck this guy.

Silverseren,

Funny enough, I think the most blatant and consequential example of this not being able to be taken in good faith is the use of the quote from the UCSF person on the charity website. A person who was fired for money problems 7 years before the charity existed.

No matter what explanation they can give for why they have a quote from him thanking them for donating to UCSF, I see no way for the explanation to be good.

stopthatgirl7,
@stopthatgirl7@kbin.social avatar

Yeah, that was the part that got me. That makes it seem really scummy even of there is some kind of genuine explanation for this.

108,
@108@kbin.social avatar

Wonder what happened to all the interest it had built up

BustinJiber,

Well, since they did not donate anything they couldn’t get a quote from anybody they donated to, that would be legitimate.

I don’t know what was their endgame? It’s been going on since 2014, how could they not think this would have come out eventually.

zero_spelled_with_an_ecks,

I wonder if Greg has any thoughts on this.

Chickenstalker,

Why give money to 3rd parties? Simply donate directly to the orgs that you wish to support.

Carighan,
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, unless it’s a specific fundraiser (as in, “We match all external donations up to X”), there’s no reason not to donate directly, in particular for cases where it’s easy enough to find a charity to directly support that isn’t someone’s personal tax deduction scheme.

Pseudonaut,

Because sometimes it’s nice to feel like you’re a part of a community. I get it.

frezik,

Usually because it’s part of a fundraiser like this one.

Coreidan,

Youtube/twitch is chock full of these people.

If you want to give your money away do it to an established charity where you know where the money is going.

People who give tons of money to twitch or YouTube streamers are goobers/suckers.

kilgore_trout,

I upvoted you because I share the sentiment, but if you spend 2 hours everyday entertained by a single person, then what’s bad in giving them money?

zero_spelled_with_an_ecks,

If you want to give money to them, nothing. If you are giving them money to give to a charity and they don’t, that’s fraud. It’s the fraud that’s bad.

Computerchairgeneral,

Well, this is incredibly disappointing. I wasn't aware the Completionist had a charity dedicated to dementia, but I've respected his commitment to preserving gaming media and history. Still none of this looks good and I'm struggling to find a good reason as to why you would just sit on donations for nearly a decade without dispersing them.

gamingdexter,
@gamingdexter@lemmy.ml avatar

I’d say watch both videos, Muta’s video is a little more in depth, but it is just odd to hold onto the money for so long. At least they aren’t spending it on nonsensical things, but if they get audited, that will be a big problem with how they filled out their taxes. I’m hoping for the best though, I do like Jirard and I can’t imagine how it is with your parent/family going through that

Coreidan,

Just report him to the IRS and move on. Let them sort it out. If he’s legit the IRS won’t have issue.

Ebennz,

At least they aren’t spending it on nonsensical things

They pulled out like 30k two years 10-12k other years. No idea what that was spent on.

blue_zephyr,

It’s more than odd, it’s deception. He has been talking to his donators as if the money has been going to charities for years. He has named specific charities that haven’t received a single dime from them.

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