Friends of Saguaro National Park is a fraudulent nonprofit organization masquerading as a charitable foundation to assist the National Park Service with the funding of special projects for Saguaro National Park. This federal and private partnership claims to promote improvements to protect environmental integrity, preserve the cultural history and enhance enjoyment of the park by visitors and residents of Tucson, Arizona. The shocking reality however, is very much different.

Ongoing fraud and deception run rampant in this organization. Embezzlement, copyright infringement, nepotism, scandal, theft, juggling of the books, greed, narcissism, ignorance, apathy, jealousy, sabotage of valuable park and organization data, photos, history, equipment, website... all ongoing problems throughout. This doesn't even include the lack of moral character of many here which seem to have no problems with extramarital affairs, immoral behavior, personal theft, and ironically extreme environmental waste of resources in their personal lives and as an organization.

The majority of marketing materials they use and claim for their own, is not. They have been told by their rightful owners to discontinue use, and yet spitefully disregard such demands. Materials include thousands of photos, marketing content, research information, and web site programming. Their award-winning web site which contained thousands of pages of information on the park and a life's worth of donated work, was dismantled without warning, and reconstructed with new webmasters, ousting the former webmaster. To save face, the tables were turned and volunteers were threatened, sued, slandered and businesses were maliciously sabotaged and ruined by this organization on purpose. Every last person in this organization stood idly by and watched this happen. Not a single call was made to the webmaster asking what happened or expressing concern at the loss of a website once recognized as the best of its kind in existence. The list of otrosities commited are too long to mention here and too unbelievable. Unfortunately this type of outlandish behavior is not the first such time this organization has acted like this.

How they continue to get away with what they do causes one to wonder, but certain factors play a role:
.. The fact that they are an official 501c3 nonprofit organization
.. Affliliated with the well known, respectable and beloved National Park Service
.. Have connections with many in the National Park Service who are ignorant, apathetic, or downright supportive of their fraudulent mishandling of donated funding
.. Have compromised their mission and integrity by affiliating themselves with influential sources that most definitely do not have the park's best interest at stake
.. Have surrounded themselves with like board and staff members (many of them wellknown, respectable, elderly long-term residents) who know how to "work a nonprofit", lust after personal financial gain and personal accolades and establishing a name for themselves in one way or another. They are in it for all of the wrong reasons and are actually quite clueless and heartless when it comes to discussing such seemlingly relevant topics like "how can we all work to save the environment of this region we're trying to protect?" Topics like that invariably get a sea of blank stares for a response. Very ironic and quite sad.
.. Ousting volunteers and turning down donations for all who "know too much" and do not share in their deception of the American public. Several who have given tirelessly of their time, talent, energy and money have been purposely "run out of town" so to speak at the drop of a hat, with not a single repsonse or outcry from a single park personell, board, staff or advisory member. Many a volunteer at the park itself have experienced the exact same attrocities, as well as park staff employees
.. An utterly useless advisory board that is so out of touch with the organization and established solely for name recognition
.. Majority of donors are unfortunately unaware of any such goings-ons, as many are from out of state. Local donors (many elderly) have a love for the park that makes them think they are doing a good thing for a good place. Their hearts are in the right place, and the park itself, is indeed a wonderful place.
.. They are not the type of organization that would typically raise red flags concerning fraud
.. They, like some other nonprofits over time, have sadly fallen into the trap of "raising funds soley for the sake of raising funds" and somehow convincing all concerned that this is the way to go. It becomes quite clear to anyone who is allowed to get involved with this organization, that the number one (and pretty much only) goal is to dupe rich people out of money so that they can afford to do more fundraising and affiliate with more prominent people so that they can raise more, to be able to spend more on raising more in order to spend big bucks hobnobbing, wining, dining and impressing bigwigs to get more to.... and so it goes. Most of the money goes to frivilous fundraising, self-congratulatory events and their own pockets; not to the end cause.