Karl Jobst and SomeOrdinaryGamers (separate video linked here) have accused Jirard Khalil of lying to viewers about his charity.
Jirard is a YouTuber who runs a channel known as the Completionist, where he plays games to 100% completion and reviews them based on how enjoyable the experience was.
The Open Hand Foundation, which was co-founded by Jirard in 2014, was set up to raise money for dementia charities after his dementia-stricken mother passed away. However, their yearly filings with the IRS suggest that none of this money has been donated to charity.
Jacque (Jirard’s brother) responded to Karl’s emails to the Open Hand Foundation claiming that they are still searching for the correct charity to partner with and disburse these funds, whereas Jirard claimed that he was only aware that none of the funds had gone out last year, yet is still openly promoting Open Hand on stream and claiming they support the UCSF, Alzheimer’s Association, the AFTD and many other charities.
Jirard never seemed like the type of guy to pull something like this and I really want to see his response but having the money just sit there (and hopefully still there) for years is a really bad look for him. At the very least he was just clueless but that’s still damaging taking into account all the lies on the charity streams
I really want to see his response
Muta talks to him during his video, I think. Response is basically “I had no clue” mixed with some vague excuses, including some that clearly contradict what was said before.
And then does the “But I don’t know how to fix this, so if you have any idea…”, as if, you know, donating the fucking money is such a difficult thing to do. And like Muta says, they don’t even detail their operating expenses, so any accountant could have a field day with that.
I was giving him the benefit of the doubt, but after listening to the call, basically he pass the blame on both because they found the issue, to the point of saying that they did it for the views…
After that I knew that something is off, then he replied with something like “what do you want me to do, give all the money away, that will only make me look bad if I do it right now”, but that was the goal of the donation.
I mean, I wouldn’t see an issue if he was giving money but he didn’t and he was claiming to donated to several associations, which didn’t get a single dime
Edit: big fingers small cellphone.
bamlame
Woooah, Black Betty
Sorry, big fingers and small cellphone is a bad combination
All good man, just poking fun
Laughing hard at this and singing it in my head lololol
claiming that they are still searching for the correct charity to partner
Isn’t that something you should do before you start a donation drive? Wtf?
No, you don’t understand, this is decades long process for most NPOs and charities. Some will wait for a century or more to find the right organization. Doctors without Borders, for instance, has a notoriously difficult time performing their duties as the borders keep changing over time as they wait for the right fit–many of their doctors are, in fact, within borders.
My charity has a pile of gold that a dragon sits on until the dragon has found a CEO and board of trustees who can withstand 20k° of dragonfire. Until then, I’d be a fool not to collect interest, for charity of course.
And if you happen to use this interest and money to fund your company while you search for the right charities to support it’s OK. It’s all for charity sake after all!
It is standard practise to use part of the donations for expenses and administration after all
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Yeah, unless it’s a specific fundraiser (as in, “We match all external donations up to X”), there’s no reason not to donate directly, in particular for cases where it’s easy enough to find a charity to directly support that isn’t someone’s personal tax deduction scheme.
Usually because it’s part of a fundraiser like this one.
Because sometimes it’s nice to feel like you’re a part of a community. I get it.
Funny enough, I think the most blatant and consequential example of this not being able to be taken in good faith is the use of the quote from the UCSF person on the charity website. A person who was fired for money problems 7 years before the charity existed.
No matter what explanation they can give for why they have a quote from him thanking them for donating to UCSF, I see no way for the explanation to be good.
Well, since they did not donate anything they couldn’t get a quote from anybody they donated to, that would be legitimate.
I don’t know what was their endgame? It’s been going on since 2014, how could they not think this would have come out eventually.
Yeah, that was the part that got me. That makes it seem really scummy even of there is some kind of genuine explanation for this.
Wonder what happened to all the interest it had built up
Youtube/twitch is chock full of these people.
If you want to give your money away do it to an established charity where you know where the money is going.
People who give tons of money to twitch or YouTube streamers are goobers/suckers.
I upvoted you because I share the sentiment, but if you spend 2 hours everyday entertained by a single person, then what’s bad in giving them money?
If you want to give money to them, nothing. If you are giving them money to give to a charity and they don’t, that’s fraud. It’s the fraud that’s bad.
Big “I pledged it” energy here.
Since 2014 huh?
I’d say watch both videos, Muta’s video is a little more in depth, but it is just odd to hold onto the money for so long. At least they aren’t spending it on nonsensical things, but if they get audited, that will be a big problem with how they filled out their taxes. I’m hoping for the best though, I do like Jirard and I can’t imagine how it is with your parent/family going through that
It’s more than odd, it’s deception. He has been talking to his donators as if the money has been going to charities for years. He has named specific charities that haven’t received a single dime from them.
At least they aren’t spending it on nonsensical things
They pulled out like 30k two years 10-12k other years. No idea what that was spent on.
Just report him to the IRS and move on. Let them sort it out. If he’s legit the IRS won’t have issue.
If it’s true. Fuck him
My grandfather is in the earliest stages of dementia and his side of the family dies of alzheimers a lot…
Even after he found out it didn’t go anywhere he was still shilling it as it was ALL going to charity. Using his dead mother too. As someone who’s Father died with Alzheimer’s, fuck this guy.
Well, this is incredibly disappointing. I wasn’t aware the Completionist had a charity dedicated to dementia, but I’ve respected his commitment to preserving gaming media and history. Still none of this looks good and I’m struggling to find a good reason as to why you would just sit on donations for nearly a decade without dispersing them.
Muta is frothing at the mouth that he might seem like the sane party for once.
Watched it too, fan of both channels so this is strange.
There is a possibility that Jirard just wasn’t in the loop and didn’t know, but someone was (brother?) But regardless this is very suspect.
As a board member of his own charity, he has to be aware of it at some point. Heck, he even acknowledged to know this since 2021 and still nothing happened.
He quickly corrected himself and said 2022.
It’s still a year later by now.
At best, he didn’t know, which means he really didn’t care enough to even check to make sure the money was going to where it was supposed to be going? Like, the ONE thing a charity does? Even so, in 10 years, he wasn’t suspicious at all about not hearing back from these organizations (like a “Thank You for your donation letter”)? He didn’t give a shit about the charity, and used it to flaunt his own brand and ego. And that’s the BEST case scenario.
Worst case scenario he is knowingly committing charity fraud…by using his own Mother as bait. Fucking deplorable if you ask me.
He admitted to taking money out for reimbursement, how the hell did he not know?
Yeah he had no qualms with 12k-30k annually being taken out for “expenses”.
I don’t know about anyone else but I usually check my account before taking out anything over a certain amount. Especially if it was in the thousands as he says.
Not sure, he told that he was aware on 2022, but in 2023 he said that they donated to several associations.
Everything is really weird.
I don’t see how there’s any good explanation though for having a website quote thanking them for donating from someone who was fired for money issues 7 years prior.
How in the fuck could he not be aware? It’s his channel isn’t it?
It seems like his brother was running things at the charity. Its plausible he just asked his brother where the money was going and trusted him.
That’s a huge stretch. You must be in denial.
No reason to defend him he’s just a stranger on the internet. He owes you nothing.
They are both in on it. Fucking bros for crying out loud.
I think I’ve watched maybe 2 The Completionist videos ever. I’m not in denial about anything here. I am waiting for the other side to respond, and possibly for the IRS to get involved before any final judgement. I just know his brothers statement sounded incredibly sketchy. Like I wouldn’t be surprised if he was embezzling money from the charity sketchy, while Jirard seemed genuine. Maybe Jirard is just a better actor/more charismatic, it is his job after all. Time will tell.
How is that a huge stretch??
He’s listed as a director in the legal documents.
Normal Boots seems to have attracted scummy people. Please don’t be one of them, PBG!
I wonder if Greg has any thoughts on this.
