Foundation cuts ties with marketing group

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- The Newport-Mesa Schools Foundation on Thursday cut its

ties with a marketing group that had been selling coupon booklets bearing

the foundation’s name.

Foundation board members became concerned Wednesday when they heard

from community members that the Elite Marketing Group had set up a table

outside Target with a sign reading: “Newport-Mesa Schools Foundation,

Help our Kids.”

“I don’t want people setting up in front of Target,” said Forrest

Werner, president of the foundation. “We generate $4,000 to $5,000 a

year. I’m not relying on a guy or gal sitting at a card table in front of

Target. That’s really not our style.”

The cardboard sign is also not the style of the Elite Marketing Group,

said David Michael, the company’s owner. It was the idea of the

particular seller outside Target, and the seller was instructed to take

it down.

Parents and teachers who stopped at the table grew suspicious of the

marketing firm’s ties to the foundation when the woman selling the

booklets said she did not know the function of the foundation, which

raises money for teacher grants.

The arrangement Elite Marketing had with the foundation was that in

return for the use of the foundation logo on the booklet, the foundation

would get 50 cents for each $20-coupon book sold.

Werner said he didn’t know why the foundation got involved and that,

at that amount, it wasn’t worth the foundation’s time.

“They’d have to sell 100,000 for us to be interested,” Werner said.

“They may sell 30 on a hot day -- a good day -- and that’s only $15.”

Other board members said a table with a cardboard sign is not the

image they want to project to the community.

“We deal with people directly, foundations and businesses directly,”

said Scott Paulsen, treasurer of the foundation.

Michael said he would be more than happy to give the foundation its

share of the profits and take the name off the books right away.