Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an organization founded in Canada in 1971 as a protest against American nuclear tests in Alaska, which is currently active in many environmental issues. In addition to the more traditional environmental organization act of starting petitions, Greenpeace's stated methodology is to engage in non-violent direct action.
Greenpeace's tactics involve all kinds of "stunt" protests to attract attention to particular environmental causes, often spectacular raids of organisations of interest such as whaling vessels, nuclear plants, and the like. Such well-organised and often well-funded protests, with the use of one of Greenpeace's ships, fleet of inflatable boats, and the like, and the arrangement of extensive media coverage for the carefully-designed telegenic images that result), have attracted large amounts of attention to Greenpeace's environmental causes.
Their anti-nuclear protests in the South Pacific during the 1980s irritated the government of France so much that several French intelligence officers were ordered to destroy the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior, which was moored in Auckland, New Zealand in 1985, killing two (?) people. The subsequent revelation by an Australian TV show of the French government's actions greatly embarrassed that government and had the effect of increasing the effectiveness of Greenpeace's campaign.
In recent years, accusations of violence committed by Greenpeace protestors has been growing. Norwegian whalers report that Greenpeace activists not only blocked their ships, but also cut harpoon lines from a harpooned whale so the whalers would not profit from it. They also prolonged the whale's suffering. On another occasion, they boarded a whaler with tools with the intention of dismantling and stealing a harpoon gun. They had to be thrown overboard (with lifejackets) to prevent destruction of the whaler's property, and later accused the whalers of violence. In the United States and in Britain, Greenpeace activists have been accused of destroying crops they objected to because of bioengineering, and have been accused of dumping cereal outside of supermarkets.
Greenpeace was registered as a charity in Canada in 1976. In 1989, its charity status was revoked because Revenue Canada ruled that it "served no public benefit". In the years since then, it has tried to regain charitable status through the creation of various related organizations, but these attempts have not proven successful. The result is that donors cannot claim a charitable contribution tax deduction for donations to Greenpeace in Canada. In the U.S.A., where Greenpeace has "501(c)(3) status", donors to Greenpeace can claim such a deduction. The Greenpeace Fund in the US has not answered requests for information from the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance 1.
Greenpeace has a strong policy against donations from companies, governments and political parties, and big donations from single sources. The organisation claims this policy permit them the bigger freedom of movement in their action, and the ability to be supported from people from any political background.
Examination of donor records has shown that some donors are companies that are themselves involved in industries affected by environmental issues. Detractors have pointed out that these businesses directly benefit from Greenpeace's activities because they are producers or marketers of "natural alternatives" whose competitors are often targets of Greenpeace protests. However, these businesses and their supporters say that their environmentalist ethics inform their business practice rather than the other way around.