WE Charity March 26, 2021 Central U.S. Office Via Email and U.S. Mail – Certified 300 W. Adams, Suite 1000 Chicago, Illinois 60606

WE Charity Charity International Office 339 Queen St. E. Toronto, Ontario M5A 1S9 Canada

Re: Demand prior to litigation

To WE Charity:

The recent revelation that WE Charity (“WE”) procured Reed Cowan’s substantial donations of time and money through fraudulent means is the basis for this demand. Please be advised that Mr. Cowan has retained the law firm of Reid Rubinstein & Bogatz to represent him in various disputes related to WE’s fraud. At the heart of this demand is a promise Mr. Cowan made years ago—the same promise that brought him to WE in 2006: Wesley Cowan shall have a legacy to his name. Though you are undoubtedly already aware of Mr. Cowan, the trauma that brought him to you, and his various donations to your organization, the following factual history is the basis for Mr. Cowan’s demands.

Background1

Following the April 2006 accident that tragically took his four-year old son, Reed Cowan suffered grief and clinically diagnosed trauma as only a parent who has lost a child can comprehend. In the dark days that followed tragedy, Mr. Cowan saw Craig Kielburger’s appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show wherein Mr. Kielburger’s story and work building schools in Kenya resulting in Oprah committing to build 100 schools in Kenya for Mr. Kielburger’s organization, Free the Children (now known as WE Charities following a

1 In memory of his son, Wesley, Mr. Cowan shares his story of tragedy, grief, and the process of turning pain into purpose through WE’s brick-by-brick program with the world. “The Atrophy of Prolonged Pain and How a Father's Choice Changed Lives”, Reed Cowan, Tedx Talks, April 8, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhUU2dwpr1E.

March 26, 2021 Page 2 of 9 rebranding2). From this appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Mr. Cowan decided to take Mr. Kielburger’s “brick-by-brick” campaign as a mission, and contacted WE’s Executive Director, Dalal Al-Waheidi inquiring how he could build a school in Kenya as a way of turning pain into purpose. In the earliest of several communications, Ms. Waheidi learned of Mr. Cowan’s notoriety as a television anchor in Salt Lake City and his highly visible status as the main stage speaker and producer for Utah’s youth POWER TOUR, which was co- created with Utah First Lady Mary Kaye Huntsman, daughter in law to the billionaire Huntsman family. It was Ms. Waheidi’s idea and offer that for every $10,000 USD Mr. Cowan raised, WE would build a school bearing Wesley Cowan’s name. After having read Wesley’s obituary, Ms. Waheidi suggested that each and every plaque should include Wesley’s motto, “Be Happy Every Day.” Mr. Cowan took assurances of Ms. Waheidi that such schools would not only be built and branded with Wesley’s name and motto, but also exist in perpetuity, owned and controlled by WE. Quickly, Mr. Cowan began the work of raising the $10,000 USD it would take to open a school in Kenya on the one-year anniversary of Wesley’s April 23rd death.

Having accepted WE’s challenge, Mr. Cowan received marketing materials outlining the “brick-by-brick” campaigns and how to promote and distribute the campaign to solicit donations. Congruent with those materials was Ms. Waheidi’s explanation to Mr. Cowan that no formal organization of non-profit would be necessary, as each donor would be able to donate directly to WE in Wesley’s name and that those contributions would be attributed to Mr. Cowan’s brick-by-brick campaign. It is no presumption that WE wanted access to the Huntsman family, as the various communications between your organization and Mr. Cowan repeatedly requested Mr. Cowan to more-deeply engage Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, his wife, and the Huntsman family generally for further fundraising.

In addition to Mr. Cowan’s televised 2006 Power Tour speech to tens of thousands of Utah youth, Mr. Cowan undertook fundraising efforts through various means. These included Pennies for Pencils campaigns and personal donations from the patients and staff at Lifecare Centers of America. While these efforts of fundraising were considerable, Mr. Cowan desired to harness his considerable political and social connections to organize a charity event in Salt Lake City to solicit notable donors and high-dollar donations. In preparing for this event, staff at Utah’s IJ and Jeanne Wagner Jewish Community Center received all of WE’s brick- by-brick marketing materials for promotion and duplication, along with language provided by Ms. Waheidi about language to use directing donors to write checks to the charity instead of Mr. Cowan’s Wesley Smiles Coalition.

2 For the purposes of this letter, Free the Children/WE Charities will be referred to as solely its current name, WE Charity (“WE”).

March 26, 2021 Page 3 of 9

As evidenced by television news coverage on KTVX and KUTV in Salt Lake city, Wesley Smiles Coalition’s story and mission were compelling, and as a result, the event gained traction and drew the national spotlight, such that WE’s founder Craig “Kielburger interrupted a trip to India with former President Bill Clinton to speak at the event.”3 Mr. Kielburger traveled to Salt Lake City, stayed in a hotel room paid for by Mr. Cowan, and attended two fundraisers, doing press interviews on multiple television stations in Salt Lake City about his presence in Utah and WE’s brick-by-brick campaign. In addition to his message about WE’s brick-by-brick campaigns, Mr. Kielburger publicly supported Mr. Cowan’s goal of raising $10,000 to build a school in Kenya in Wesley’s name on the one year anniversary of his death. While WE has failed to provide Mr. Cowan a list of donors incident to his 2006/2007 fundraising, WE disclosed that the Salt Lake City fundraising raised $70,046 USD—seven times the original goal of $10,000 for one school building in Kenya. The Wesley Smiles Coalition had greatly exceeded its goal and was set to open two schools in Wesley’s name in April of 2007.

The Documentary

Simultaneous to Mr. Cowan and his family preparing to travel to Kenya to open a school in Wesley’s name on the one-year anniversary of Wesley’s death, Mr. Cowan sold his home and used the proceeds to begin production on a documentary to tell the story of Wesley’s death and how Craig Kielburger and WE’s brick-by-brick program gave Mr. Cowan and thousands of donors an outlet to turn tragedy into triumph and pain into purpose. Unsure if WE would allow a documentary team to participate in the travel and ceremonies, Mr. Cowan discussed the matter with WE’s leadership (Ms. Waheidi and Roxanne Joyal) and reached an agreement: WE would give Mr. Cowan full access and permission to film at all WE schools in Kenya and with all staff, and in exchange Mr. Cowan would use his documentary to promote other fundraising efforts for WE. At great expense, Mr. Cowan purchased the necessary equipment and hired a crew to embark with him to Kenya for the grand opening of Wesley’s school.

The school opened with great fanfare from the locals, and Mr. Cowan, there with his spouse and filmed by the documentary crew, knew he had created a sacred place in which he could fortify when grief again began to overwhelm him. As explicitly promised by WE Charity at every level of its organization from Craig Kielburger, Dalal Al-Waheidi, and Roxanne Joyal; to WE’s in-country staff, this fortification was a special place that would forever bear the name of his son, Wesley Cowan. The Wesley Cowan school is so sacred a

3 See “Dad dedicating schools built in honor of his son”, Pat Reavy, Deseret News (Apr. 21, 2007), https://www.deseret.com/2007/4/21/20014359/dad-dedicating-schools-built-in-honor-of-his-son#reed-cowan- packs-for-his-trip-to-kenya-to-dedicate-two-schools-he-raised-the-money-to-build-the-schools-in-memory-of- his-son-wesley-who-died-a-year-ago.

March 26, 2021 Page 4 of 9 place for Mr. Cowan that it has been a central tool for his doctors in treating his post-traumatic stress disorder, which stems from Wesley’s death.

Spencer West

Following Mr. Cowan’s successful first year of fundraising and use of documentary video footage, Mr. Cowan’s story featured on television in Miami to raise more money, necessitating another trip to Kenya in 2008, this time accompanied by several of his friends and family. Of those in attendance was the godfather of Mr. Cowan’s children, Spencer West. Mr. West is a double amputee who walks on his hands. During this trip, WE Kenya Project Director Robin Wiszowaty identified Mr. West’s potential as a main-stage speaker for WE and advocated WE hire Spencer to walk on his hands on stages all over the world, telling the story of his school building trip connected to Reed and Wesley Cowan, as told in Mr. West’s WE Charity promotional book, Standing Tall. WE cast Mr. West as a main-stage speaker with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Prince Harry, and other major world leaders and celebrities, raising untold amounts of money.

One of the larger campaigns WE used Mr. West for was his climb to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money and show children everywhere that they could “redefine their possible.” While Spencer West generated over $500,000 in donations for WE by the time he completed his summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in September of 2014, the real value WE received was the international notoriety that Mr. West’s story brought. First it was Nelly Furtado making a song based on Mr. West’s story to raise funds for WE4. Then it was Demi Lovato asking Mr. West to tell his story as an opening act in her tour5. Soon, Mr. West led fundraising trips to Kenya for other major celebrities and power brokers. At WE Day in Toronto on October 17, 2008, Craig Kielburger facilitated meetings between Mr. Cowan and members of Oprah’s production staff, celebrity designer Nate Berkus, activist and celebrity Mia Farrow, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, and major California donors being courted to extend WE operations into the United States. At Ms. Joyal and Craig Kielburger’s instruction, Mr. Cowan was asked to tell Wesley’s story to these celebrities and donors to boost WE’s credibility in the United States. Not only did Mr. Cowan engage these people backstage, but Mr. Kielburger stood behind Mr. Cowan as Mr. Cowan gave copies of his Kenya documentary to Nate Berkus and Oprah’s producer, whose son was quickly being advanced in the organization to bolster WE’s USA fundraising.

4 See “Nelly Furtado Inspires ‘The Spirit Indestructible’”, NPR (September 19, 2012), https://www.npr.org/2012/09/20/161403153/nelly-furtado-inspires-the-spirit-indestructible.

5 See “Inspirational speaker Spencer West opens for Demi Lovato”, Calgary Herald (October 2, 2014), https://calgaryherald.com/entertainment/inspirational-speaker-spencer-west-opens-for-demi-lovato.

March 26, 2021 Page 5 of 9

Broward School District & Film Promotional Tour

By 2009, the Wesley Smiles Coalition’s mission and message were known nation- wide. Mr. Cowan’s Kenya documentary featuring the 2007 and 2008 one and two-year anniversary school-opening trips brought television coverage in Miami, where a new goal was set to build more schools in Wesley’s name. Mr. Cowan engaged the Broward School District, one of the largest in the United States, to participate in another brick-by-brick school- building campaign, modeled after the Salt Lake City fundraising. Showing students the documentary footage from the first- and second-year anniversary trips, Mr. Cowan challenged Broward students to join him on the third-year anniversary of Wesley’s death where Marc Kielburger would personally fly in from Toronto to receive donations and students would win trips to Kenya to build schools.

While thousands of Broward students tirelessly fundraised through another brick-by- brick campaign, Mr. Cowan bolstered their fundraising through speaking events using documentary footage showcasing the opening of Wesley’s school in Kenya and the placing of Wesley’s plaque. In April of 2009, Mr. Cowan and Broward students personally presented Mr. Kielburger the $93,500 USD they had raised. During this check presentation, Mr. Kielburger and Mr. Cowan selected four Broward students to travel to Kenya to see the work of their fundraising, with Mr. Cowan committing to paying for three students’ travel personally.

Continuing his Journey

For fifteen years Mr. Cowan has built his identity as a journalist, public speaker, filmmaker, and author on the story of turning pain into purpose rooted in the brick-by-brick promises of Marc and Craig Kielburger and their leadership team. Wesley’s story has appeared in major publications and broadcasts on an international scale. In the time since his initial fundraising efforts with WE, Mr. Cowan has paid incredible expense to create his brand and train as a public speaker, traveling the United States to preach his message at the benefit of WE. Mr. Cowan is an MLA candidate at Harvard University, with his graduate thesis based on his work with WE building schools to give Wesley Cowan a legacy. Spencer West, having seen his close friend continue preaching his message as a traveling speaker, also decided to dedicate his life to continuing his message, and went on to become a speaker for WE’s for-profit organization, ME to WE.

The Unthinkable

On December 28, 2020, Mr. Cowan’s reputation, livelihood, and sacred place were destroyed when he and the rest of the world learned that they were deceived. “A running joke

March 26, 2021 Page 6 of 9 among [WE] staff was that donor plaques hanging on buildings should be made of Velcro because they were swapped so frequently.”6 In light of the allegations that WE had swapped out plaques 7 , Mr. Cowan reviewed the raw footage from his 2007 and 2008 trips and discovered serious discrepancies in the plaques at Wesley’s school.8 As you are aware, following those revelations, Mr. Kielburger privately and publicly admitted that WE swapped the plaque on Wesley’s school in 2009 to bear the name of his board member and financial backer, David Stillman; the plaque instead reading, “ The Stillman Foundation: In memory of Esther Grodnick.” Caught red-handed, WE confirmed its practice of plaque swapping by perpetuating its fraud in replacing the Stillman plaque with a newly-printed Wesley Cowan plaque. While the full extent of WE’s fraudulent activity has not yet been discovered, Mr. Cowan’s extensive documentary footage from 2007 and 2008 has thus far proved invaluable for uncovering additional details. The evidence currently overwhelmingly suggests that WE did not make a simple error in removing the original Wesley Cowan plaque, but rather that it was WE’s practice to take down donor plaques and that Wesley’s plaque was likely taken down shortly after Mr. Cowan left Kenya in April of 2007.

Your Liability

WE Charity’s despicable actions now leave it facing significant liability under a variety of legal theories, which, should this dispute not be resolved, we will aggressively pursue through litigation. Should this matter proceed to litigation, Mr. Cowan intends to utilize the full extent of the law to uncover each and every of WE’s bad acts so that he may appropriately understand the full scope of his damages, including any damage he may currently be unaware of related to his presence and discussions at the 2008 WE Day in Toronto. Moreover, your actions constitute, among countless other claims, fraudulent misrepresentation, fraudulent inducement, negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract, fraudulent solicitation, false advertising, and deceptive trade practice, some of which carry with them punitive damages. While Mr. Cowan’s claims are robust, he would prefer to resolve this matter amicably. To do so, WE Charity must repair the damage it has caused to the best of its ability:

1. WE Charity will immediately pay $250,000 to a Wesley Cowan Escrow, held by WE for a period of six (6) months, which shall be disbursed to anyone who comes forward

6 Pearson, Bochove, and Herbling, “Oprah, Trudeau, and Covid: WE Charity Innovated Its Way to Political Scandal”, Bloomberg (December 29, 2020).

7 See Pearson, Bochove, and Herbling, “WE Charity’s Actions Leave a Trail of Enraged Grieving Donors”, Bloomberg (March 5, 2021).

8 See “PLAQUE SWAP PROOF?”, Reed Cowan (March 8, 2021), https://vimeo.com/521144521, at 8:46.

March 26, 2021 Page 7 of 9 with proof of a donation to WE in the name of Wesley Cowan in an amount equal to the proven donation. WE Charity must send a letter addressed to each donor who donated in Wesley Cowan’s name in the following form:

Dear donor,

We have identified you as possibly having donated funds to FREE THE CHILDREN and/or WE CHARITIES in memory of Wesley Cowan, son of Reed Cowan, at some point in the last fifteen years. Mr. Cowan has requested that those who donated in memory of his son have an opportunity to request that their donation be returned and we are honoring that wish. If you have record of a donation earmarked in memory of Wesley Cowan, please send that information to the address below so that we can verify with our records. This opportunity will remain open until [DATE – 6 months].

Following the initial six-month (6) period, the remaining funds held in the Wesley Cowan Escrow shall be immediately sent to Reed Cowan for the sole purpose of funding the Reed Cowan Philanthropy Fund.

2. WE Charity will immediately pay $250,000 to Reed Cowan for the sole purpose of funding Reed Cowan’s to-be-established “Reed Cowan Philanthropy Fund.”

3. Reimbursement of expenses for Mr. Cowan and each other individual who traveled to Kenya at the behest of the Wesley Cowan school building and fundraiser efforts: $70,000 to Reed Cowan; $20,000 to Gregory Abplanalp; $20,000 to Alawna Eldredge; $10,000 to Virginia Abplanalp; $10,000 to Lynn Abplanalp; $10,000 to Millie Abplanalp; $10,000 to Spencer West; and $10,000 to Karle Abplanalp-Haslem.

4. Reimbursement of expenses related to the filming, production, and marketing of “The Other Side of the Lens,” Mr. Cowan’s documentary. The film focuses on Mr. Cowan’s tragedy and his process of turning pain into purpose by building schools in Kenya brick-by- brick with WE Charity during his trips to Kenya in 2007 and 2008. At the same time Mr. Cowan is producing a documentary to essentially advertise for WE Charity at his own personal expense, WE Charity removes the plaque from the school central to that very documentary. Mr. Cowan does not view that building as simply a school. That building is the place where his son is. During the opening ceremonies of Wesley’s School in 2007, Mr. Cowan says, “we found him. He’s here.” In his words of dedication to the Kenyan school children, Mr. Cowan proclaimed, “in giving you this school, I am giving you my son.”9 Had WE Charity been truthful concerning what donors were receiving for their contribution(s),

9 See “PLAQUE SWAP PROOF?”, Reed Cowan (March 8, 2021), https://vimeo.com/521144521, at 3:35.

March 26, 2021 Page 8 of 9

Mr. Cowan would never have made “The Other Side of the Lens.” For intentionally and/or negligently misleading Mr. Cowan, reimbursement of $150,000 must immediately be made to Mr. Cowan for his expenses related to the documentary.

5. Payment to Reed Cowan for damages related to the destruction of his character and marketability as a journalist, public speaker, filmmaker, and author. Mr. Cowan has spent fifteen years of his life dedicated to WE Charity’s mission, traveling the world preaching the story of his tragedy and the process of overcoming grief through WE Charity’s brick-by-brick program to build a school and name it in honor of his son, Wesley Cowan. The message that Mr. Cowan spent fifteen years preaching is now publicly known to be based on lies. Mr. Cowan can no longer perform his profitable speaker engagements as WE Charity’s lies suck the credibility and value out of each word. Mr. Cowan now has the additional burden of finding a new topic to be his graduate thesis at Harvard with only limited remaining time. Because of WE Charity’s lies, Mr. Cowan must scour the internet to have every video of his speaking taken down so that he does not unintentionally create new WE Charity victims, including his highly acclaimed TED talk. Most drastically, WE Charity’s lies have destroyed Mr. Cowan’s public image and name as any type of search for his name leads solely to the scandal WE Charity has created. In Mr. Cowan’s position as a well-paid television news journalist, any negative ties to his name immediately and irreversibly damage his favorability with current and future employers. Mr. Cowan deserves to be made whole from the damages WE Charity’s lies have caused. As such, WE Charity shall pay to Mr. Cowan $20,000,000 for damages to Mr. Cowan’s name, work, and character, which he may share with his to-be- established “Reed Cowan Philanthropy Fund.”.

6. Wesley Cowan’s name shall, to the greatest extent possible, regardless of expense, be immediately removed from all buildings in Kenya. In addition to removal of his name from each and every building in Kenya, no WE Charity member, officer, director, employee, agent, affiliate, or other individual or entity acting on behalf of or in the benefit of WE Charity may use, speak, or write the name Wesley Cowan. Should this term be violated by WE Charity, WE Charity shall owe to $20,000,000 in additional damages to Mr. Cowan’s name, work, and character, which he may share with his to-be-established “Reed Cowan Philanthropy Fund.”

Congruent with Mr. Cowan declining ongoing press requests for interviews, this demand letter shall remain private between the involved parties. Should this letter or any portion thereof appear in the press, Mr. Cowan will cease negotiations and immediately file suit. Should you accept these demands, Mr. Cowan is willing to delete all social media posts connected to this scandal and decline television interviews with Dateline NBC, CBS News, Sinclair Broadcasting, Nextar Broadcasting, CBC, and all print interviews with Vanity Fair,

March 26, 2021 Page 9 of 9

The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New York Post and Bloomberg, and any other press outlet who requests interviews and end this painful period by releasing a joint statement between himself and WE Charity, stating as follows:

Important work remains to be done in Kenya and Reed Cowan affirms his support for open, honest and ethical work to continue as WE Charities addresses donor concerns. WE Charities and its affiliates, its board members, Craig and Marc Kielburger, Roxanne Joyal, David Stillman and the Stillman Family Foundation have come to a resolution to Mr. Cowan’s concerns and all parties are satisfied. No further comment from any party to this joint statement will be offered.

You have a rare chance to avoid additional heights of public infamy. You have just read Mr. Cowan’s story; his dedication is unwavering when it comes to honoring his son’s name and legacy. Make no mistake that should we not reach resolution in the very near future, litigation will ensue. It is time to remove Wesley Cowan from WE Charity’s clutches so that Mr. Cowan can continue giving Wesley the legacy his name deserves. Failure to respond to this demand by March 31, 2021 at 5:00pm PDT will result in the immediate commencement of litigation and referral of this matter to the governmental officials charged with investigating the illegal solicitation and use of charitable donations. You may reach me by phone at (702) 776-7001, or by email at [email protected].

Sincerely,

REID RUBINSTEIN & BOGATZ

I. Scott Bogatz I. Scott Bogatz, Esq.

Cc: Marc Kielburger Craig Kielburger Dalal Al-Waheidi Scott Baker Victor Li Miranda Tollman