There are some serious questions about a local organization that claims to raise money for charity.

Many of the area's best-known domestic violence advocacy non-profits believe donations gathered by an organization called "Project Reach" don't necessarily go toward domestic violence victims, as the charity claims.

In fact, KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators have found a suspicious connection that may have you thinking twice before you put money in Project Reach's collection box.

Reporter Amy Clancy first heard about Project Reach two years ago. A woman who works with domestic violence victims on Whidbey Island called Clancy in 2009 to say Project Reach was raising money in Oak Harbor. That woman, Margie Porter, was suspicious because the group seemed similar to a group exposed in a KIRO 7 investigation six years ago.

Then, Project Reach disappeared.

But when Project Reach’s husband and wife team, Herman and Delores Akins, showed up on Whidbey Island again a few months ago, Porter notified Clancy. As the Executive Director of Citizens Against Domestic and Sexual Abuse, or CADA, in Oak Harbor, Porter also went to the store where Project Reach was fundraising to ask questions. Porter says she was shocked to see her organization’s misspelled name on Project Reach’s handouts.

“I introduced myself and said that we were the only domestic violence agency in Island County, and was the money going to stay here?” is how Porter described to Clancy her interaction that day with Project Reach’s Delores Akins. “And she said, ‘Well, if you come back tonight I’ll give you some.’”

As part of her investigation, Clancy also interviewed a victim of domestic violence who has received help from CADA. The victim, who wanted to remain anonymous, was worried the money raised by Project Reach wouldn’t go to help local victims like her, because she’d never even heard of the organization. “It’s bad enough to be abused once, and then to have someone abuse you again,” the victim told Clancy.

Both New Beginnings, and Eastside Domestic Violence, whose names were also on Project Reach’s flyer, tell KIRO 7 that they also have no affiliation with Project Reach.

Meanwhile, suspicions were also raised in Kennewick. Project Reach solicited donations outside a grocery store there this past July. Clancy and her photographer travelled to Kennewick recently to find out more.

Clancy: “Were people giving them money?”

Kelly Abken/Executive Director of Domestic Violence Services in Kennewick: “Oh yeah, oh yeah.”

Abken says she first learned of Project Reach when one of her employees came across the group outside that Kennewick store. Abken’s employee wasn't aware of any local fundraising efforts, so she started asking Delores Akins some questions.

Abken: “She’s like, ‘So who are you raising money for?’ And they told her, ‘The local shelter.’”

Abken, who runs the local shelter, immediately headed to the store and took some photos.

Clancy asked Abken about the photograph that shows Delores Akins fundraising. Abken described what happened when she took snapped it: “This woman was very argumentative with me when I demanded that they take down this one piece of paper here, has our name at the top,” Abken said. “Our name there definitely implied that they were raising funds for our agency, which they were not doing.”

Abken called Kennewick police. By the time officers responded, Project Reach was gone, but the fact that the only DV non-profit in the area had never heard of the group supposedly raising money on behalf of "local" victims was enough to generate an incident report.

Clancy talked to Mike Blatman of the Kennewick Police Department about the investigation.

Clancy: “What would happen if you got a call and heard that Project Reach was back here in Kennewick?”

Blatman: “I think that, based on what we’ve seen of this experience in the past. that we’d have an officer up there asking a lot of questions.”

As a victims' advocate for CADA, Addie Schille also had concerns about whether Project Reach was qualified to handle the calls of domestic violence victims, so she called the number Project Reach provides on its flyer. “The first thing they said to me was, ‘Where did you get this number?’” Schille told Clancy. “I was shocked because the first thing we say is ‘Are you safe?’ Not, ‘Where did you get this number.’ In the background, I could hear the woman coaching him to say, ‘Get her phone number.’ That’s just not how we treat our survivors.”

Despite the many suspicions, Project Reach is registered with the Washington Secretary of State's Office as a charity, which means it can fundraise in the state, as long as it doesn't pay its volunteers, and as long as it raises less than $25,000 a year.

On two separate occasions this past month, KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators found Project Reach soliciting donations at Sea-Tac Airport. But where the money actually goes is not known, because no more information is required to get a Secretary of State certificate, like the one the Project Reach prominently displays, according to Rebecca Sherrell, the Charities Program Manager for the Secretary of State’s Office.

Sherrell: “Those types of organizations are exempt from the mandatory registration document that provides more information on file. So there’s no financial information available. If they go beyond $25,000 a year, or they start paying somebody, then they’ll have to file a mandatory registration document, which is a little bit more expanded and has more information.”

Clancy: “Who keeps track of whether they raise more than $25,000?”

Sherrell: “The organization.”

Clancy: “So, it’s self-reporting?”

Sherrell: “Correct.”

Despite its status as a charity in this state, Project Reach is not a tax-exempt 501(c) (3) organization, which is a status only given by the Internal Revenue Service. Which means, donations to Project Reach are not tax-deductible. Yet both Porter and Abken tell KIRO 7 they saw Project Reach volunteers handing donors receipts. “I saw them give out a receipt for tax-deduction purposes, and they’re not a 501(c) (3), so that’s also fraud,” Abken told Clancy.

So Clancy also took that question to Sherrell at the Secretary of State’s office.

Clancy: “If Project Reach is telling people their donations are tax-exempt, that would be a lie, correct?”

Sherrell: “That would be a violation. And yes.”

Clancy then took these concerns to Project Reach’s Herm Akins, who identifies himself as the organization’s Public Relations Director. Akins admits it was wrong for his organization to use the names of CADA, New Beginnings and Eastside Domestic Violence, without written permission to do so: “I apologize for adding the names of other agencies on our document,” Akins told Clancy. “It was not meant for bad, it was meant for good.”

Akins claims any mistakes Project Reach has made while fundraising are just honest mistakes.

Akins said he and the organization are truly devoted to helping victims of domestic violence. “I’m just a listener, a patient listener,” he told Clancy. “And I can hear the desperation.”

However, Akins was not always up front with his answers. For example, when Clancy asked about where Project Reach raises money.

Clancy: "Have you ever solicited donations anywhere outside the Seattle area, Whidbey Island area?"

Akins: “No, no ma’am. We’re just, we’re just here. We’re not a big organization. However, higher grounds are expected.”

Clancy: “So, just Whidbey Island, Seattle, the airport?”

Akins: “That’s it, ma’am. As far as I can remember. My recollection.”

But when pressed by Clancy, Akins did recall that Project Reach might have raised money once or twice east of the mountains.

Akins was also reluctant to reveal much about a man named Miller Blackwell.

Clancy: “Tell me about your relationship with Miller Blackwell.”

Akins: “Miller Blackwell. I had an encounter with Miller Blackwell many years ago. And pretty much, basically, that was pretty much basically it. Doesn’t have anything to do with Project Reach.”

But six years ago, KIRO 7 Consumer Investigators exposed Miller Blackwell or running a fundraising effort on behalf of two organizations called Alki Women's Safe Houses and Operation Help.

If Blackwell, too, solicited donations allegedly for domestic violence victims outside local grocery stores and at the airport. But some of his volunteers admitted to KIRO 7 back then that they got to keep half of what they raised, and that the rest was pocketed by Blackwell. According to documents obtained by Consumer Investigators, Herman Akins lived with Blackwell at that time. And KIRO 7 has undercover video of Akins soliciting funds on behalf of those organizations six years ago.

Still, Akins maintains he is helping others even if Miller Blackwell might not have.

Akins: “It has nothing to do with Project Reach. His tutelage, or whatever, has no impression or impact on me.” Akins told Clancy, “I can’t stop serving. I can’t stop serving, you know? I can’t stop reaching out.”

Perhaps Akins is giving the money where he says he is, but no state records can support that claim.

Akins did provide some testimonials that he claims prove he helps families in critical need. 

However, Sherrell of the Secretary of State’s office tells Clancy, no matter who’s soliciting your money, whether it’s at the airport or outside your local store, it never hurts to do your research before putting any money into a collection can. To check out a charity, visit the Secretary of State’s website here: http://www.sos.wa.gov/charities/consumer_faq.aspx

For a link to Project Reach’s website, visit: http://projectreachwashington.weebly.com/index.html