The Safe Haven Baby Box Hotline Costs How Much???!!!

Most days nothing surprises us much that comes out of Safe Haven Baby Boxes, Inc. Then, there are days…

Is Monica Kelsey, CEO/Founder of SHBB Inc, claiming that her hotline will shut down, babies will die, and “desperate moms” will go to jail or worse unless her groupies divvy up a bag full of hard cash?

Initially, I thought that this claim was simply a rhetorical device to drum up the mostly well-intentioned gullible, but I repeat: Every $100 keeps our hotline open for another day.

Extrapolation: The SHBB Inc hotline costs $365,00 a year to operate!

That sounds a little steep to me. If other hotlines throughout the country cost that much to run, then there would be very few hotlines.

It’s not like SHBB Inc operates a big call center at the Woodburn, Indiana, HQ with a trained staff of 24/7 counselors speaking 214 languages sitting around waiting for THAT call. To the best of my knowledge, the counseling staff consists of the coordinator, Pam Stenzel, with back-up from Mrs Kelsey, who has no counseling or social service education or background. Mrs Stenzel, in real life, is credentialed academically and is a prominent “Christians sex educator “and professional forced- birther who publicly for decades, has publicly compared women who have sex outside of the marriage bed to an old shoe and a piece of chewed gum. (Don’t get her started on STDS!) She considers adopted people who oppose baby boxes selfish louts suffering from mental incompetence.” Wonder how this will play out in 20 years when ungrateful boxees hit the road.

Apparently, we “haters” are the only ones who question the stuff that ‘s cranked out of the SHBB Inc Mighty Wurlitzer. As a Charter Member of the Safe Haven Baby Box Haters Club, I contacted people I know who run trad SH hotlines. I’m waiting for other responses, and will add them here if I get them, but one got back to me right away.

Their hotline costs about $100/mo with additional fees if translation services are used. I can’t imagine those other trad SH organizations are out of that ballpark.

I also checked out hotline providers. Price and service deals and packages vary, but not that much, and qualified nonprofits are eligible for discounts. Here are the minimal monthly fees available for nonprofits from 2 of them: Telzio/$50 and Safe Hotline $40.

Perhaps I’m being a mean girl. Perhaps Mrs Kelsey simply can’t put together a coherent sentence. Her memoir/raison de entre Blessed to Have Been Abandoned is loaded with bad grammar and typos, not to mention holes in the narrative, so why not? In the immortal words of Cher: the beat goes on

This latest fundraising stunt is a good example of the company’s performative nature. Inferring that you need $100/day to run your hotline and stay in business is emotional manipulation. Mrs Kelsey often reminds us that her organization is “transparent.” This is not transparency. What is so difficult about saying, “Hey folks! We have a donor who will match up to $18,000 in donations this month? ” That’s transparency.

In case you’re wondering, a few days ago the ProPublica Non-Profit Explorer posted SHBB Inc’s 2024 990, The company’s FY 2023 (December 31, 2023) revenue hit $2.06 million and received nearly $1 million in donations over the previous year’s filing. Mrs Kelsey, as CEO, with board authorization, paid herself, $102,527. Her husband, company COO and Woodburn Mayor Joe Kelsey, took home $81,120. Both received raises of $6,000 from the previous year. Mrs Kelsey’s son is also on the payroll, but his salary is unknown. So Mrs and Mr Kelsey alone took home over $182K/yr from SHBB Inc, with more presumably in FY 2024 and 2025. The company’s computer guy was paid a measly $41,822 for approx. 45 hr a week, and Mrs Stenzel $6,600. Both served on the board for that period.

Compare this to the latest 990s of:

National Safe Haven Alliance (FY December 31, 2023)

• President/CEO Compensation: $43,264
• Other employee compensation: 0

Save Abandoned Babies Foundation (Illinois) (FY June 30, 2024)

• Executive Director: $4,809
• Employee Compensation: 0

Gloria M Silverio Foundation/A Safe Haven for Newborns (Florida) (FYI December 31 2023)

• President/CEO Compensation: 0
• Employee Compensation: 0

And just for fun:

National Council for Adoption (FY April 30, 2034)

• President/CEO Compensation: $161,842+$30,573 benefits (Note: I remember back in the long-ago when NCFA Founding President Bill Pierce took a huge–and I mean huge– pay-cut to help keep the organization afloat.

Written during London Writers Hour sessions