Per Charity Navigator they're excellent.
Posted on 10/07/2014 8:28:05 AM PDT by Scoutmaster
Every year, Kids Wish Network raises millions of dollars in donations in the name of dying children and their families. Every year, it squanders almost every penny.
The money gets diverted to enrich the charity’s operators and the for-profit companies Kids Wish hires to drum up donations. Sick children wind up with less than 3 cents of every dollar raised. That has been the formula for 16 years, ever since Kids Wish mimicked the respected Make-A-Wish Foundation and launched its relentless drive for money. In the past decade alone, Kids Wish has channeled nearly $110 million donated for sick children to its corporate fundraisers. That makes it the worst charity in the nation, according to a Times/CIR review of charities that have steered the most money to professional solicitation companies over time.
In addition to the money paid to for-profit fundraisers, Kids Wish has paid its founder and his own companies at least $4.8 million in salary and fees over the years. While founder Mark Breiner was still president of Kids Wish, earning $130,000 a year, he joined a former employee as a partner in a fundraising company called Dream Giveaway.
In 2008 and 2009, Kids Wish paid Dream Giveaway nearly $1.7 million in consulting fees to run automobile give-aways that raised money for the charity.
Breiner continued making money after he retired from Kids Wish in mid-2010 and left his mother-in-law on the charity board. In 2010 and 2011, the charity paid two of Breiner’s companies $2.1 million for licensing, consulting and brokerage fees.
Kids Wish violated IRS rules by waiting four years to disclose the money it paid Breiner. The charity blamed the delay on a mistake by its accountants.
Breiner declined to answer questions about his fundraising and consulting businesses, which received an additional $1.26 million from Kids Wish for a car giveaway in 2012.
But he said in an email that the charity recently completed an IRS audit that included a review of its contracts with his companies.
"They found no indication of private inurement or conflict of interest with founders or the board," Breiner said.
The Kids Wish website is full of testimonials from families thankful for their wishes, including magic moments with the likes of President Barack Obama and pop star Rihanna. About 800 children get their wishes granted each year. But the charity spends most of its resources collecting donated items —toys and coloring books — and handing them out across the country.
Kids Wish has hired Melissa Schwartz, a crisis management specialist in New York City who previously worked for the federal government after the 2010 BP oil spill. Schwartz said the charity has hired outside companies to do fundraising so that its staff can focus on wish-granting. According to its 2011 IRS filing, Kids Wish had 51 employees
Schwartz also said all contributions made to the charity through its website go 100 percent to granting wishes.
She declined to answer detailed questions about Kids Wish’s fundraising operations or its payments to its founder, saying the charity "is focused on the future."
Regarding the Times/CIR ranking of Kids Wish as the nation's worst charity, Schwartz said, "There are more than 100,000 children and their families in whose lives Kids Wish Network has helped make a positive difference. They would surely refute any negative characterization as to the importance and successes of the charitable efforts of our organization."
Note that Kids Wish Network is not the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Other charities on the Top 10 Worst Charities List (ranked by money blown on soliciting costs), and the percentage of collections by those charities that flow through to direct aid:
Cancer Fund of America - 0.9%
Children's Wish Foundation International - 10.8%
American Breast Cancer Foundation - 5.3%
Firefighter's Charitable Foundation - 8.4%
Breast Cancer Relief Foundation - 2.2%
International Union of Police Associations, AFL-CIO - 0.5%
National Veteran's Service Fund - 7.8%
American Association of State Troopers - 8.6%
Children's Cancer Fund of America - 5.3%
Running down the much longer list of problem charities, the majority involve dying children or children with cancer, breast cancer or cancer in general, veterans and disabled veterans, and law enforcement and disabled LEOs.
Dante should have created an additional circle.
Two simple tax code changes would put a stop to a lot of this.
Change 1 - Executives serving / working for one charitable or non-profit organization may not receive any compensation from another non-profit organization.
Change 2 - Charities who spend less than 25% of their revenues on their stated charitable activities must send a report via post mail to each donor within 30 days of receipt of a donation, detailing their percentages of spending on activities.
Adrian’s favorite charity:
Adrian Peterson: Report alleges use of charity funds for hotel-room orgy
The I.U. of Police Associations shows 0.5%
Makes no sense.
.
Peterson's foundation also claims donations to charities that say they never received donations from Peterson's foundation.
Yeah, that one had me puzzled as well. ;)
I donate to Shriners Children’s Hospital. Has anyone heard bad things about them?
I avoid any organization that states its mission is to “raise awareness”. Often that is all that they do; no cancer research, no helping the poor, etc., just ‘raising awarness’ usually by handing out flyers with the most basic info of the issue, or, more likely, ‘raising awareness’ of opportunities to contribute, such as walk a thons.
The IRS found nothing wrong?
Well, OK then...
Was it all on emails?
Hard to imagine siphoning off more money than the Shriners.
Per Charity Navigator they're excellent.
They are one of the very good guys. 83.6% goes directly to program.
We limit our giving to individuals in immediate need and to St. Jude’s. I am curious about how St. Jude’s does with donations.
In the last few months, my eyes have been opened to a lot of cases of cancer in children in the area where we live. I don’t know if there weren’t cases in our previous locations or if I was just oblivious. But there is a cluster here, and it is disturbing how little has been done over the past 40 years in regards to children’s cancer research. The pink stuff is everywhere I look in October. But children’s cancer research fundraising is hiding in the nursery.
That does it ... I’m starting a nonprofit/charity ,, similar to the ACLU ... but an organization that fights government intrusion into our lives ... where the ACLU uses a backhanded approach to advance more government intrusion and less liberty by pushing incremental progressivism my charity will fight the blatant theft devices used by governments against the people ,, abusive laws , regulations , cozy financial relationships that add to mandated fees and such..
It does, however, spend a lot on television commercials, and over 20% of its contributions are spent to solicit more contributions.
That's not horrific. The smell test begins when a charity spends 35% or more of its budget on fundraising.
Charity Navigator ranks St. Jude a three out of four:
Usually that means, I'll serve on your non-prof's board, you serve on mine, we both serve on our other friend's board, and we meet and all talk about the issues our non-profs are built around. By serving on each other's boards, we've "raised awareness." Don't need to do anything more. And here's the great thing, we each get paid by multiple non-profs for serving on the boards.
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