In Lawrence, it is not hard to find the big, yellow drop boxes that the nonprofit organization Planet Aid uses to collect clothing and shoes that are recycled for charitable purposes.

It may, however, be hard to find any area resident who knows more about the Planet Aid organization than Kris Alonge. From her home in tiny Reno — an unincorporated town between Lawrence and Tonganoxie — Alonge has worked for nearly nine years to expose Planet Aid as a fraud. Now, she’s getting some national recognition for her efforts.

In the past year, the Center for Investigative Reporting and its publication “Reveal” have published two articles alleging that Planet Aid and its affiliated organizations are connected to international fugitives. The reporting revealed the U.S. government has provided more than $130 million in grants to Planet Aid. Congresswoman Betty McCollum, D-Minn., has called for a federal investigation of the organization.

In both Reveal reports, Alonge was cited as a “Kansas whistleblower” who has spent years filing Freedom of Information Act requests, meeting with FBI officials and lodging complaints with the IRS about the Planet Aid organization.

“She was tireless in her efforts to get someone, anyone, to take notice,” a May 23 article in Reveal said of Alonge. It noted she called journalists in Denmark and Britain, where Planet Aid has its roots, and also called the IRS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has provided much of the federal grant money in question.

Alonge, and now the Center for Investigative Reporting, say Planet Aid is just one part of a much larger Danish organization, which she likens to a cult, called the Teachers Group.

The leader of the Teachers Group, Mogens Amdi Peterson, alongside four other associates are wanted by the International Criminal Police Organization, also known as Interpol, regarding accusations of fraud and tax evasion, The CIR reported.

“Planet Aid is just one charity of several here in the U.S. run by that group,” Alonge said. “The clothing isn’t going to where you think it is. It’s going to support a massive, self-enclosed group and only a few pennies out of every dollar go to help one of the charities or activities. Money-wise, it’s not a wise decision.”

Attempts to contact representatives for Planet Aid for this story were unsuccessful.

A school project

A self-described “ordinary person” and “housewife,” Alonge said she started looking into Planet Aid around 2008.

At the time, Alonge said she was working part time and homeschooling her daughter, who chose Planet Aid for an educational assignment to write about a charity.

Related story April 2, 2006 — Clothing service has links to fraud investigation

Helping her daughter with the assignment, Alonge said it didn’t take long to realize something was amiss.

“It took me about five minutes to figure out it was a huge scam,” she said. “I decided at that point to find out as much information as I could.”

Collecting and analyzing public information, including tax returns and nonprofit application documents, Alonge went to work. She found a number of discrepancies with Planet Aid and the organizations it does business with.

“One thing I noticed is two of their independent contractors had the same address,” she said. “I thought ‘you don’t have the same address when you’re supposed to be competing.'”

Most of the organizations are connected in one way or another, Alonge said.

Planet Aid collects clothing and other items, sells them to a sibling organization and uses another related group to administer aid in less-fortunate countries and so on, she said.

The money flows upward to the Teachers Group, and in the end the poor receive little to no substantial help, Alonge said.

These days Alonge said she probably spends an average of two hours a day researching. And so far the work has been an uphill battle, though there are some who have started to listen.

Pending investigation

A milestone in Alonge’s work came in August when Rep. McCollum called for a federal investigation into the funding provided to Planet Aid.

Alonge called McCollum’s actions validating, but said there are others who have not acted on the same information she has seen.

“She’s not the first one who has been made aware of this, but she was the first to stick her neck out and say ‘this is taxpayer money and I really want this money to be looked at,'” Alonge said. “It’s really a drop in the bucket; $130 million is just the amount we can track.”

“The ball is rolling,” she added. “I don’t have high hopes, though, because I’ve talked to a lot of officials and they’re just playing negligent.”

Not only is Planet Aid’s business model hurting those in need, but it’s taking contributions that might otherwise go to a smaller, local charity that does better work, Alonge said.

Alonge said she’s in for the long haul, working either to put a stop to Planet Aid’s tactics or to see lawmakers tighten their regulations on incoming nonprofits and how they’re regulated. These goals can be reached by working in tandem with lawmakers and raising awareness, she said.

“You have to have cooperation with government officials; they’re the ones in charge and they can pull the registration from these groups based on the statutes, what’s written in their own laws,” she said. “If enough people start raising a voice, they’re going to listen.”

In the meantime, Alonge said those who want to help the less fortunate are better served by donating to local charities.

And while the fight continues, Alonge said if someone like her can make a dent in an international organization, then anyone can.

“One person can make a difference if you keep going at it,” she said. “There’s no guarantee I’ll be successful, but, if I quit, then I know I won’t be successful.”