An Open letter from Susan Patch

Why is Mimi Rothschild trying so hard to pin all her bad press on Helen Hegener and Heather Idoni?

The facts: Mimi Rothschild, Howard Mandel and Learning by Grace, Inc. sued Heather Idoni for posting a series of links to websites critical of the Rothschild/Mandel homeschooling "academies." Heather did not create the sites linked to, she merely linked to them.

When Helen Hegener of Home Education Magazine linked to Heathers site and wrote an editorial relating her own experiences with Rothschild/Mandel she was named in the lawsuit as well.

To read Mimi Rothschild's "Speaking the Truth in Love" blog entries one might get the impression that Helen Hegener and Heather Idoni are the only two people who have ever spoken out about her business activities. Mimi Rothschild is doing her level best to demonize Helen and Heather and convince the homeschooling community and the world at large that it is she who is the victim, it is she who is being unfairly persecuted and that it is all Hegener and Idoni's doing. Apparently Mrs. Rothschild is in denial of the hundreds of forum entries, other blogs, consumer protection websites and homeschooling websites critical of her and her businesses on which she herself has responded vehemently denying everything for many years.

The reality of the situation is that many, many people over many, many years have been speaking out about the Rothschild/Mandel businesses and there is a great deal of information on the internet to prove that. Anyone can do a simple search on Yahoo, Google or any search engine. Go check Yahoo Answers, or a generic search for "Mimi Rothschild" on blogs/forums/news or web-wide on Google or any other search engine and you will find, in addition to Mimi Rothschild's own prolific self-promotion, hundreds of websites detailing her various "homeschools" and customers experiences with them.

Now Mimi is trying to set herself up as the victim of cyber-bullying, cyber-harassment and telling anyone who will read her blogs that it is all a pack of lies made up by two mean people out to destroy her. She has even gone so far as to turn this into a new business opportunity by starting a website about cyber-bullying dedicated to Helen and Heather. One that is nearly all merely cut & paste from a free Federal website. Mrs. Rothschild has made up story after story to explain why these two women are waging a vendetta against Mimi Rothschild, Howard Mandel and Learning by Grace, Inc. The truth of the matter is that there is no vendetta. There is no campaign to destroy Mimi being waged by Hegener and Idoni.

On August 25th Mimi Rothschild began a series of blog posts that have been dedicated to destroying Helen and Heathers credibility and accusing them of posting all sorts of lies about Mimi all over the internet. The truth is that except for one post by Helen Hegener -on her own website and Facebook comments - approved by her attorneys and linking to the Federal Court case and a short piece explaining her side of the story and that was re-posted by others with permission, there have been no blog posts about Rothschild/Mandel at all by either Helen or Heather. Not one. Anywhere. Mimi insists there are many. She insists that anything that appears anywhere speaking out against her is part of a carefully orchestrated plot by Idoni and Hegener. Even when the blog owners tell her it is not Mrs. Hegener or Mrs. Idoni writing Mimi insists that everyone loves her and if there is bad press anywhere about her it must be Hegener and Idoni doing it.

This would be comic if it were not so pathetically sad. If it were not doing real damage to real people. She is playing to an audience of her own imagining, trying to trivialize her own bad public image by destroying others. She is trying to make herself out to be a tragic heroine while viciously attacking others. She is trying to say that where there is smoke the defendants in a lawsuit she filed against them must have set the fire. She is playing the divert attention card, playing the victim card, the sympathy card and the righteous Christian crusader card all at the same time.

Mimi Rothschild's house of cards is crumbling.



© 9/13/2011 Susan Patch The opinions expressed here are solely my own.

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Shoutback isn't charity, it's $harity

Shoutback claims it helps fundraisers, but if you look around their site you won't find the actual percentage mentioned anywhere. The reason for this is that they take 50 to 80% for their own use.
If you do all the work of getting local sponsors they take 50% of what you generate. If they help at all with finding sponsors then your take is a pitiful 20%.
How many sponsors would pay the minimum $20.00 per Month AND the $195.00 "signup fee" if they knew that those they were trying to help only got $0.20 of every dollar?

The better charity programs take 10% or less for their overhead, some of the best to be avoided take 20 or 30%, but to take 80% is not just overhead, it's flat out greed.

IMHO you would be better off soliciting direct donations from local supporters and not supporting the young and greedy wannabe net millionaires at Shoutback. They get a -5 stars from me.

Here is my correspondence with them...

"Dear Shoutback,

Please detail the auction process. What portion goes to the group and what portion goes to the seller?
what portion is kept by Shoutback as fees and how are the seller and group paid.

I could not find this information on your website.

Thank You, Bill Fikes"

and they replied...

"Bill,

Sorry it took me until now to get back to you. The auction element of the Shoutback fund raising web tool will be removed on Wednesday. We will be featuring a new look and easier fund raising tools and Wednesday the 1st of October you will see these changes.

With the new Shoutback tool you will be able to go to your community for support, ask local businesses to list gift certificates and then sell them on your Shoutback page for half price. The group will recieve 50% of the proceeds. We have a staff that will make calls and get these listings for you, if you need the help. If we help and make calls, the percentage for proceedes from sales to the group is 20%.

Also, check out the social networking features of the site. Your group can communicate, post events, pictures and videos. The more members you have the easier it is to raise funds.

You will receive a newsletter with tips and hints as well as updated from us. Look for it on Wednesday and after that we will sending it our monthly.

We are always available to help so feel free to contact us."

Jodi Brooks
Director, Shoutback
6401 Davis Industrial Parkway
Solon, Ohio 44139
O 800.592.2030 ext. 154
F 440.542.2795
jbrooks@shoutback.com
shoutback.com

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