Posted on 01/28/2016 8:44:49 PM PST by Citizen Zed
The Wounded Warrior Project is coming under fire after being accused of wasting donations meant for soldiers and their families.
Videos highlight the plight of wounded veterans and ask Americans to donate generously.
And generously they have.
In 2014, Wounded Warrior Project received about $300 million in donations, but the organization is under criticism after former employees allege the charity spends lavishly on staff parties and travel.
They allege the Wounded Warrior Project spent $26 million dollars on conferences and meetings in 2014 alone.
"It's incredibly disturbing," Rep. Seth Moulton said. "I mean, we're talking about people who put their lives on the line for their country and we're talking about a charity that's supposed to be supporting those veterans."
Moulton, an Iraq war veteran, calls the CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project out of touch. Tax forms show Steven Nardizzi earned nearly $475,000 in 2014.
Charity Watch gives the Wounded Warrior Project a C-rating. Another charity watchdog displays charts showing the Wounded Warrior Project spends only 60 percent of its budget on veterans and 30 percent on fundraising.
"I know I stopped donating to the Wounded Warrior Project several years ago when I started hearing rumors about this," Moulton said. "Our veterans deserve the best care in the world and they're not getting it today."
The Wounded Warrior Project released a statement calling on news organizations to correct what it called false information about its finances.
The statement said the charity serves more than 83,000 veterans and their families, and considers itself a leader in nonprofit transparency.
And this is the charity Touchback Trump wanted to help!
Trump said tonight they are releasing a LIST of the CHARITIES helped.
He said ‘for our wounded warriors.’ Not ‘all the money is going to Wounded Warriors.’ Given the recent bad press I’m sure they will vet (ha!) who gets the money. Make sure the money is going to a good place and we know from the event tonight one will be to stop veterans from committing suicide / receive counseling.
I haven’t seen the list of Veteran’s Charities to which the Trump Foundations is giving the $6M raised TODAY, but I would be surprised if the Wounded Warrior Project was one of them. Have you seen the list?
It is true.
it has been true for a long time.
You know that there are watchdog organizations which audit charities, right?
http://www.charitynavigator.org/
Trump’s Iowa ‘veterans’ event will raise money for his own foundation
Veterans’ Groups
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3421621/Trump-s-Iowa-veterans-event-raise-money-foundation.html
I will put that 60% up against any other major charitable organization and I bet the spending here is higher then 75% of the others.
Start with the Clinton Foundation
Color me dumb if you want to do that but in my mind if the feds took care of wounded vets the way the feds should take care of wounded vets then these donations nor the organizations would be necessary.
NOT dumb. Agree 100% with your mind.
Moulton, an Iraq war veteran, calls the CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project out of touch. Tax forms show Steven Nardizzi earned nearly $475,000 in 2014.
and only 60% going to the Warriors?....Makes me want to puke!
I say why not have both approaches? Would be even better...
According to some other news sources:
DAV uses 94% of contributions for vets. Only 6% overhead.
Fisher House passes 91% on contributions on for vets and families use. Only 9% overhead.
Well, Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust spends 96.5 percent of every dollar donatednon veteran programs.
Hire Heroes spends 82.5 percent of every dollar on gaining employment for veterans.
Homes For Our Troops spends 89.3 percent of donations on getting veterans into houses.
Sure you can find even more wasteful programs. But you can also find far better programs. And it’s not like years ago when you had to go to Washington DC to research which groups were responsible with donations and which groups were not. You have a computer in your house or even in your pocket. Use it.
Try this site: Charity Navigator
I still say 60% is better than most.
The real question is why all of a sudden is this a story?
It isn’t all of a sudden a story.
(I have used Charity Navigator for years BTW)
There have been articles critical of the Wounded Warriors Project on Free Republic for several years because the head of that particular organization is a gun grabber. Anti Second Ammendment organizations don’t generally go over well with Freepers and when it looked like the Donald might give them money it raised people’s hackles.
In my opinion, if any charity keeps more the 10% of the contribution for overhead, something is wrong.
Good points. I agree. I suggest Wounded Warrior downplays the expensive junk mail and highlights the warrior care.
Not a sudden story.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3090003/posts
From 2013.
And the anti 2nd amendment and anti Christian donations are also not new.
Followed your link to the FR article, then linked to the source and this is what I found:
“It looks like nothing was found at this location. Maybe try a search?”
I know “Wounded Warrior” events are designed to attract donors who can make major donations, that is something different from phone bank events, in respect to cost.
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