Two days ago, I critiqued the message sent by charts on Smile Train’s “Financial Information” page, particularly the idea that a surgery was being provided for every $250 in donations.
My recollection is that the page had been up in this form since at least the summer of 2006 (when I first started investigating surgery charities), and Internet Archive appears to confirm that it’s been up at least since early 2007.
We have not heard/seen a response from Smile Train, but as of last night, that page appears to have been taken down entirely.
Smile Train is still claiming $250 as the cost per surgery, which (I argued) seems contradicted by the now-taken-down charts.
Details
Two pages appear to have changed: the “charts” page (the page I critiqued) is now gone, and the “financials” page now longer links to the “charts” page.
“Charts” page:
- 11/25/09 Google cache (this link won’t be good long-term) and screenshots of Google cache: top half, bottom half
- The URL now goes to a “not found” page
- Full page as it originally appeared
“Financials” page:
- 11/27/09 Google cache (won’t be available long-term) and screenshot of Google Cache. Includes a “Click to see our latest financial information” link.
- The current version of the page does not include a “Click to see our latest financial information” link.
