Posted on 01/30/2014 9:33:39 AM PST by rktman
The Wounded Warriors Project, a group that has been called a legal scam by veterans, has successfully killed off the all-volunteer Indiana veterans assistance group Help Indiana Veterans.
Why?
Because Dean Graham, the head of Help Indiana Veterans, wrote that Wounded Warriors was a scam because that so-called charitable organization spends but a few pennies on the dollar in grants to fund endeavors to actually benefit wounded servicemen and women, per their IRS Form 990 from 2011.
(Excerpt) Read more at gunssavelife.com ...
Some years back the Mrs and a friend started a charity to raise money to find a cure for ALS. We didn't have our own tax id so all the money was given to a national organization that had made certain guarantees.
Everyone in the organization was entirely volunteer, real volunteers, not "compensated volunteers" that some organizations use. Everyone, including the Mrs and I worked entirely for free, almost all items used by the organization were donated by various organizations in return for being recognized as sponsors at events and those items that weren't donated were paid for out of the pockets of various volunteers that saw the need and chose to pay for it themselves. We made everything about the way things worked known up front to volunteers. We were surprised how many people came to help and the volunteers themselves were quite happy with the arrangement having been told up front how things were being done. One could say that 100%+ of raised donations was going to the cause.
Heres the interesting point. At events to raise money, people would occasionally ask about the organization and how we operated (Kudos for being wise enough to investigate us). When we explained, some of those that didn't know us directly and had come to the events to participate/donate were horrified. Yes, horrified is probably the best description. Horrified that no one was compensated for the work done. They absolutely insisted that a portion, not an insignificant portion, be paid to the volunteers, especially to the Mrs and I for "administering and leading" the organization.
We never did take anything and never did pay any volunteer for anything. For reasons unimportant to this post we eventually gave all of our records to another local charity we trusted, not the national one we worked with, and shut ours down.
As corny and cliché as it might sound, the actions of the volunteers restored a bit of my faith in humanity. The fact that so many recognized that a persons time was in fact money eased my fears that that capitalist concepts had been lost to society as a whole. The fact that some were disturbed by the fact that there was a charity that actually gave all its money to the specified cause made me realize that clueless members of society are to a degree responsible for many charities becoming little more than frauds.
(Note of special recognition in thanks to Matt Bracken whos donations were by far one of the most sought after, always drew significant donations at auction, and was one of the only items that always drew donations many times that of their face value.)
It is unfortunate and while our hearts go out to these wounded vets, we refuse to give to this organization which views Christians as a "pariah" and doesn't want our money. Well, so be it.
It was in the article.
It was in the article. And the article has a link to the organization’s tax statement.
I went to Charity Navigator and the numbers there are no ways that bad.
We just checked and the ceo/founder makes 300K+/yr.
I find their ‘commercials’ despicble because the portray our men in the military as pitiable.
The misguided men they have under contract seem not to be bothered if they end up being pitied and that is a shame but maybe the residuals the are paided, trumps that.
Wounded Warriors Project have adopted the same model as the pet sites that advertise for donations because they know ‘pity sells’.
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=11553#.UuqmY_T_nm5
Wounded Warrior Project doesn't come close.
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=12842#.UuqmUPT_nm5
I liked when Tom Gresham tore that WWP guy to pieces on his show.
We just checked and the ceo/founder makes 300K+/yr.
*****
And that’s an organization which has been granted ‘not for profit’ status.
off of Charity Nav :
Financial Performance Metrics
Program Expenses
(Percent of the charitys budget spent on the programs
and services it delivers) 57.9%
Administrative Expenses 5.6%
Fundraising Expenses 36.3%
Fundraising Efficiency $0.23
Primary Revenue Growth 78.6%
Program Expenses Growth 62.9%
Working Capital Ratio (years) 0.93
Most big-ticket charities are scams. Small percent to help people, large portion to ads and corporate salaries.
All special groups are a waste. The government should be providing all wounded warriors need. We quit them.
That's a ridiculous statement. The report indicates Wounded Warrior has 56% efficiency for delivery of services. I would like you to name a single government program that can hit even 50%. Most government programs are lucky to hit 40%.
WW helps a few people then uses them as props to get money. They refuse money from Christian organizations and firearm related groups.
Who is hell is measuring efficiency with regard to wounded military? It is who is providing the care and I say the VA and they should be doing all the vet needs without the necessity for a fund raising group to participate. If the vet needs something that groups provide then the VA should do it and everything else without limit or efficiency. That’s what the wounded vet deserves.
That is a totally emotional argument that does not stand up to logic. Either way the money comes out of my pocket. If I give a dollar to Wounded Warrior 56 cents of it gets spent on servicing the vet. If I pay a dollar in taxes about 35 cents of it gets spent on the vet. Where is the better place for my dollar to go if my only concern is care for the vet?
Do you have a source or is that pulled out of the air?
Not in hand at the moment. I read it in a recent report about government efficiency. I'm not going to go to the trouble to look it up at this time, but I do invite you to provide me with even one example of a government program that delivers an efficieny of 50% or above.
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