The Spirit Foundation, Jim Mikel Makes false claims on job creation, exploits US veterans, lies to their customers/employees, breaks federal employment laws Austin Texas

The Spirit Foundation, a not for profit organization claims to support US Veterans by providing scholarships and creating jobs in energy efficiency. They claim to do this with "The Home Energy Score", a US Department of Energy program that provides home owners a report on how efficient their home is with a rating system from 1-10. They claim to have a "patent" on the program, and Jim Mikel, the president of the organization claims to work with the white house every day to design this program. These are all false claims.

While this can seem like a legitimate opportunity to provide sustainable jobs that reflect a positive impact on the environment, The Spirit Foundation takes this initiative and exploits people on every level. They exploit our Government, hopeful job applicants, employees, partners, customers, and even worse... The Veterans that put their life on the line to fight for our freedom in America.

The Spirit Foundation has been around for almost a decade and has made no progress towards any of these goals that they claim to founded on. They have not created one single job that pays a living wage since inception, nor have they supported any of the organizations they claim to be involved with, such as: The Wounded Warrior Project, The Wounded Hero Project, The National Drug Abuse Hotline, and The National Child Abuse Hotline. 

Jim Mikel has no prior experience in energy efficiency, and has no legitimate partners that have backed him financially. The Spirit Foundations "Board Members" consist of hard working ambitious young men that just want to work for a legitimate company while making this world a better place, but lack business expertise and are manipulated into working over 80 hours a week for $0-$1,000 a month based on shady, unethical, unreasonable business practices, and false promises from Jim Mikel.

The Spirit Foundation also offers courses to become a "Home Energy Score Qualified Assessor", and a "LED Lighting Qualified Assessor". These courses are offered on a Multi-Level Marketing platform, which is their core business model. The Spirit Foundation claims that these jobs can provide income of $3,000-$8,000 to hopeful candidates that want to take these courses and "start a career in energy efficiency" through their nation wide connections and partnerships. In reality, The Spirit Foundation has none of these connections, resources, or demand for services offered. They claim that they will be able "create 1,000,000 jobs" once the government makes the announcement that all new FHA loans will require the home energy score before a home buyer can close on the property. While this might be true, there are already companies that are government ran corporations that offer these jobs and services, and make them affordable and have connections to provide these jobs without ripping people off. The Spirit Foundation believes that by offering these courses they can act as a middle man and exploit everyone throughout the whole process to make a quick buck.

The Spirit Foundations other subscription based "course", the "LED Lighting Qualified Assessor" is a similar Multi Level Marketing type course that one would have to pay for that makes similar claims. The course is a PowerPoint slide show that teaches absolutely nothing about the lighting industry. Again, The Spirit Foundation acts as a middle man and only offers one product line to customers wanting to switch to LED's completely disregarding the customers needs while charging four times more for their product than fair market value. Their training is inaccurate and the content of the material are strait up lies.

There are a lot of other examples of how The Spirit Foundation operates unethically and breaks federal employment laws. On a positive note, The Spirit Foundation has never made any real money in the past 7 years, and have not been able to rip hundreds of thousands of people off yet. But if people do not know the truth about the organization, I am afraid that this can cause huge damage and tarnish the reputation a positive government initiative.