Hi, although I am disappointed by the recent story about Northern Lights, I am not terribly shocked. I can think of several D&BCs that continue to raise money althought they do not field a corps. I am not talking about corps that take one year off, but corps who repeatedly fail to produce a unit.
To highlight this, I want to point out Mairon Glory Cadets. MGC had not fielded a corps in 2 years (maybe 3 years), but they continue to raise money to fund a corps. The Executive Director of MGC continues to get paid, although the organization fails to meet it's mission. A quick review of MGC's IRS filing shows that there are only 2 people on the MGC Board of Directors, one of which, is the ED. All of this is public record, available on Guidestar.org (In fact, if you have ever wanted to know what the financial state of a specific corps is, I highly recommend you go to guidestar and check them out - there is a TON of good info there)
I say all of this not to bash a corps, but to show how stories like Northern Lights can happen.