Topic: Denise Brown

Denise Brown (born July 29, 1957) is the older sister of the late Nicole Brown Simpson, who was found murdered along with her friend Ronald Goldman. Nicole's former husband, O.J. Simpson, was accused of the murder, but was found not guilty and acquitted.

Born in Germany to an American serviceman father and German mother, Denise grew up in Garden Grove, California along with her younger sisters Nicole, Dominique, and Tanya Brown. Denise Brown "led a life remarkable only in its normalcy until June 12, 1994, when her sister Nicole Brown Simpson was murdered" (statement from Nicole Brown Foundation). She is also committed to raising awareness against domestic violence. In 1994, Brown established The Nicole Brown Charitable Foundation in Nicole's memory, to assist victims of domestic violence.

However, the foundation received negative publicity a few years later when its 1998 tax returns showed that it gave only about 3.6 percent of its expenses to charity that year. In response, Denise Brown opened her records to the Los Angeles Times, which concluded that the foundation "has radically cut back on what it's given to charity the last two years – $5,630 – while spending more than it ever has in staff salaries, tax records show. The foundation has raised about $800,000, not including interest, since 1994, but in the last two years, its donations have dropped substantially, to about $147,000." The story later states that over the foundation's five years of existence, it has given about 36 percent of what it takes in, still far short of national charity standards. (A well-run organization will give away 70 percent.)