SNAP president resigns, following director, after lawsuit filed against group

February 06, 2017

The president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has resigned her post, just a week after a lawsuit was filed against the group by a former employee.

Barbara Blaine, a founder of SNAP, resigned effective Friday, February 3. Her departure follows just one month after the resignation of the group’s national director, David Clohessy.

In January, Gretchen Hammond, a former fundraiser for SNAP, filed suit against the group, saying that she had been fired after she raised objections to SNAP’s fundraising practices. The lawsuit charges that SNAP “callously disregards the real interests” of sex-abuse victims, while soliciting donations from lawyers who handle the victims’ complaints. The lawsuit alleges that 80% of SNAP’s revenues come from plaintiffs’ lawyers, in donations that Hammond describes as tantamount to “kickbacks.”

 

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Further information:

• Barbara Blaine, leader of priest sex-abuse survivors group, steps down (Chicago Tribune)
• SNAP director resigned just before lawsuit was filed (CWN, 1/25)