Another Nick Shirley moment unfolding in Philadelphia (much cloudier in my opinion). Maternity Care Coalition operates near Kensington & Allegheny, a part of the city no one would investigate, yet this guy is saying they received $24 million in federal or state funding. I can’t substantiate that figure. What I can find is roughly $300,000 per year in state funding and approximately $6 million in private and foundation grants. It’s an important distinction: misuse of grant money and misuse of taxpayer funds are not the same.
Fraud of Bad Business?
Pronouns in bios are a great place to start if people are giving you money. It shows you don’t care about money and you care about “people”.
Now What?
When you give money to incompetence, you should expect poor results. Read this line and then look at this report and tell me if you see an issue. “Over the last year, MCC began implementing our new Strategic Plan for 2025-2028…revenue grew from $18.1 million to $22.1 million.” Oddly their expense for the year was $22.1 million. Revenue or expense, what’s the difference! Who the hell cares because no one is auditing anyway! It’s $20 million in profit! What the hell is an individual service?
Major Distinction
I saw this story in New Jersey and educated people are morons with money. It’s unacceptable and unbelievable.
All this hunting for fraud is interesting, but the real question is: where are the deliverables? From what I can tell, Maternity Care Coalition appears to be a poorly run nonprofit funded by donors who either tolerate or enable weak performance—and while that may be inefficient or irresponsible, it isn’t inherently illegal. The situation at the Montclair school seems similar: administrative incompetence rather than criminal behavior. These are institutions run by people who don’t have to generate revenue themselves, don’t feel the consequences of failure, and therefore lack incentives to manage money well. The distinction matters—mismanagement and fraud are not the same thing, even if both lead to bad outcomes.
One recurring problem in publicly funded programs is that money is distributed faster than accountability. When federal and state funding flows freely, competence becomes optional. Many of the people running these organizations would fail in a competitive business environment, yet are entrusted with millions of dollars because they operate within a political or nonprofit ecosystem that shields them from consequences. That’s not necessarily fraud—but it is a structural failure. If the goal is outcomes rather than optics, indiscriminate funding tied to political incentives is hard to justify.
The bottom line, just let Nancy Pelosi invest America’s money and we’ll all be ok.
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