Wednesday, November 19, 2014

PEARSON FOUNDATION, A NON-PROFIT IN TROUBLE FOR ITS TIES TO THE PARENT PEARSON LLC, WILL CLOSE SHOP BY YEAR’S END

from Politico Morning Ed Newsletter | http://politi.co/11CfRu8

19 Nov. 2014  ::  PEARSON NONPROFIT'S FOR-PROFIT TIES: The Pearson Charitable Foundation, which has run up sizable debts and depended almost entirely on tens of millions in contributions from its parent publishing giant, announced on Tuesday it will shutter its doors by year's end. Kate James, Pearson's chief corporate affairs officer, said the decision was purely pragmatic. The company thinks it can have more of a social impact by taking charge of its own philanthropic work, she said. But the foundation has had its share of legal troubles. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman alleged that it illegally used its charitable funds to develop products and cultivate clients for its corporate parent and the foundation entered into a settlement over the issue late last year. But our own Stephanie Simon finds that the connections between the foundation's charitable work and the corporate bottom line go beyond Schneiderman's allegations.

- Among the findings: The Pearson Foundation runs a free online social learning network, Project MASH [http://bit.ly/11AqayT], for students and teachers. Project MASH collects a substantial amount of personal data from participants, including names, phone numbers, email addresses and dates of birth, as well as information gleaned from their responses to surveys and their posts in online forums. The Project MASH privacy policy [http://bit.ly/1wV6aP7 ] explicitly gives the foundation the right to share that information with Pearson for direct marketing purposes, though individuals can elect to opt out. The privacy policy also lets the foundation share users' personal data with Pearson "for business and operational purposes related to our mission." There is no opt-out provision in that clause. Pearson said Tuesday that no personal information had been shared with the company or with any other outside organization. Stephanie Simon reports: http://politico.pro/1yQq8wT  (pay site)

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