Posted on 12/13/2007 9:40:37 AM PST by World_Events
Americans gave millions of dollars in the past year to veterans charities designed to help troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, but several of the groups spent relatively little money on the wounded, according to a leading watchdog organization and federal tax filings.
Eight veterans charities, including some of the nation's largest, gave less than a third of the money raised to the causes they champion, far below the recommended standard, the American Institute of Philanthropy says in a report. One group passed along 1 cent for every dollar raised, the report says. Another paid its founder and his wife a combined $540,000 in compensation and benefits last year, a Washington Post analysis of tax filings showed.
There are no laws regulating the amount of money charities spend on overhead, fundraising or giving. But the institute's report suggests that 20 of the 29 military charities studied were managing their resources poorly, paying high overhead costs and direct-mail fundraising fees and, in some cases, providing their leaders with six-figure salaries.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Sounds like these folks are using the Red Cross as their template. You really can fool some of the people all of the time.
Most charities are scams anyway....no charity should be paying anyone 6-figure salary.
Even more disturbing is that veterans, in this case, are getting screwed
There is no rating of Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, the group Rush Limbaugh sent money to after the ebay auction.
And their information is not available free online.
Q. Why don’t we make all of our information freely available on the Internet?
A. We fund our in-depth research on charities from modest membership contributions. We feel that this is a very small price to pay to receive objective and independent ratings that are untarnished by special interests. We are a nonprofit organization with over 95% of our revenue coming from individual membership contributions. We do not receive government or large private foundation grants, nor do we accept any advertising whatsoever. We also do not charge the charities we rate to be listed in our Guide or charge charities for the right to publicize our findings. Relying on small contributions from the public allows us to be fiercely independent, which is critical for any watchdog organization. We hope that the Guide will help you with your charitable giving decisions and that you will receive future issues, a benefit of AIP Membership.
http://www.charitywatch.org/faq.html#free
Thanks weeg!
That’s true. In many cases, the only people not profitting from a non-profit are the people they are supposedly helping. I read about one of these “veteran organizations” earlier in the year. They’ve collected over $6 million in 2 years, but have only distributed about $50K.
If you want your locals to actually get money, give locally, and stop buying Learjets for these scammers.
Worse, they distribute one's phone number to Sucker Lists.
United Way was hit by some scandal or other along these lines a few years ago so that a lot of people are disinclined to donate anymore. It’s disgusting to see the scam artists picking out a group of unfortunates and profit from the natural sympathy.
1 cent on the dollar. It should be criminal. Unfortunately almost all charities write off most of what they bring in on what they call administrative costs. Others have been known to contribute money to causes other than what the donor intended, like abortion.
The only contribution listed on Open Secrets by a Roger Chapin of San Diego is $1000 to Rep. Eliot Engel (D - NY).
The journalism is almost as bad as the news it presents....There is no mention of the name of the study, who did it, or a listing of the charities and how they ranked. It’s almost a “HA,Ha, I have info you want and you can’t have it” that goes on and on just to torment you more...
FOXNews gives a bit more information about the study. I’m VERY pleased to see that the Fisher House Foundation, which my local Vets Support Group gives freely to, was listed as a trustworthy group!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316763,00.html
>>The journalism is almost as bad as the news it presents....There is no ... listing of the charities and how they ranked.<<
Of course not. Most of the media would be quite happy if no one ever gave a cent to the veterans or the troops. Then the Hillabeast could rush in and fix it after she’s elected.
Regardless, I have had nothing but positive things to say about the Military Police Regimental Association. The have come through for several soldiers and their families in my unit MP alone.
So much so, that I started to contribute to them.
I got a slick mailing with a dollar bill in it. I know they did it to make you feel guilty and send money. I spent the dollar.
We had a hometown kid badly injured and our whole town raised money to buy him a van and get it converted and money to cover anything he needed. He got so much that he gave a big chunk back and the veteran who had spearheaded the whole deal found another vet who needed help.
That’s one great thing about small towns.
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