NEFA Foundation

The NEFA Foundation or Nine/Eleven Finding Answers Foundation is a not-for-profit terrorism research institute based in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. The organisation says it strives to help prevent future tragedies in the US and abroad by exposing those responsible for planning, funding, and executing terrorist activities, with a particular emphasis on Islamic militant organizations.' This is achieved by what it calls 'cohesive and comprehensive efforts to research, analyze, and disseminate information pertaining to past and current terrorist activities'. NEFA says it 'shares it findings with law enforcement agencies and the intelligence community where appropriate'

History

NEFA was reportedly founded in 2004 by its President Michelle Hayes and its Operations Director David Draper. According to an article in the Charleston City Paper, Hayes was approached by families of victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks in February 2004. According to Domain Tools the organisation’s website was created on 24 August that year.

Although based in South Carolina, NEFA’s original address was in New York at 551 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3300, which is the address of Harris Rand Lusk, a recruitment company specialising in providing executives for not-for-profit organisations. Harris Rand Lusk’s not-for-profit clients include the September 11th Fund and Wall Street Rising - a coalition of businesses, industries and residents aiming to “restore vibrancy and vitality to Lower Manhattan” after September 11th. It therefore seems likely that that Harris Rand Lusk played a major part in establishing NEFA, most likely on behalf of the September 11th Fund. One possibility is that NEFA’s President Michelle Hayes is a former employee of Harris Rand Lusk. This is suggested by her profile on NEFA’s website which states that she “speaks…on the subjects of non-profit board recruitment and development”.

In its 2004 accounts NEFA states that at that time Susan Molinari was Vice President and John Rafaelli was Secretary. They were then also CEO and employee respectively of the lobbying company Washington Group (a subsidiary Ketchum - of which Molinari was also President). In 2003 they had both lobbied on behalf of 9-11 Families United To Bankrupt Terrorism and Motley Rice (the law firm which has brought several punitive civil cases representing victims of the September 11th attacks).. NEFA Director David Draper is also known to have done contract work for Motley Rice before NEFA was established and the two companies are based in the same US town.

In its 2005 accounts NEFA listed only two paid investigators. Douglas Farah was paid $94,031, and a company D2 LLC was paid $170,913. The website of the Veromi Business Index lists a D2 LLC as being co-owned by NEFA Director David Draper. Since then several ‘experts’ have joined NEFA. In October 2007 Evan Kohlmann closed his website Globalterroralert.com and redirected traffic to NEFA. This led to a short-lived increase in visits to NEFA’s website.

Activities

NEFA’s website collates information on terrorism, such as court documents, government reports and videos and internet postings by jihadist groups. It also publishes ‘Special Reports’ by its investigators on particular subjects. NEFA has focused particularly on the Muslim Brotherhood and the Holy Land Foundation. NEFA is not a particularly prominent organisation. Data from compete.com suggests that the website only received between 1,000 and 2,000 visitors a month during 2007 and in February 2008 terrorism expert Daniel Byman told the Charleston City Paper he had never heard of NEFA.

Personnel

Executives

• Michelle Hayes, Founder, President and CEO
• David Draper, Founder and Director of Strategic Operations
• Sarah Lee King, Vice President in 2005 filings
• Paul Steadman, Secretary in 2005 filings
• Susan Molinari, Vice President in 2004 filings
• John Rafaelli, Secretary in 2004 filings

Staff

• Jeff Breinholt, Contributor
• Ronald Sandee, Director of Analysis and Research
• Douglas Farah, Senior Investigator
• Evan Kohlmann, Senior Investigator
• Claudio Franco, Senior Investigator
• Josh Lefkowitz, Senior Analyst

Funding

According to the organisation’s 2005 accounts it received a donation of $150,000 in 2003. However, this donation is not mentioned in the 2004 accounts and it may simply be a mistake in the filings which should refer to 2004. The fact that the 2004 accounts were filed on forms appropriate for the year before and that the organisation’s website was not created until August 2004 seem to confirm this conclusion. Assuming that this is correct, the Foundation was set up after receiving a gift of $150,000 in 2004. That gift was probably an ongoing annual contribution since the same amount was provided the following year. Since that initial donation NEFA has been able to raise substantial funds. In its 2005 accounts it reports receiving $5,097,450 from direct public support. Whether or not these funds come from individuals or institutions is not clear from the available accounts, but the website does seek individual donations. An article in the Charleston City Paper refers to “a corporate gift” which may refer to the original $150,000.

Contact Information

Website: www1.nefafoundation.org

Email: info@nefafoundation.org

Address:

171 Church Street Suite 121

Charleston, SC

29401-3135

Affiliations

• Harris Rand Lusk – Executive Search firm involved in establishing the foundation
• Washington Group – Lobbying and PR firm which shared executives with NEFA in 2004
• Motley Rice

Resources

• Greg Hambrick, ‘Charleston’s Counter-Terrorism Unit’, Charleston City Paper, 20 February 2008
• Tax Returns 2004
• Tax Returns 2005