Posted on 03/04/2016 4:27:47 AM PST by simpson96
A major donor to the Wounded Warrior Project veterans’ charity called Thursday for the nonprofit's CEO to resign in light of allegations of lavish spending on staff meetings, according to a CBS News report.
Fred and Dianne Kane, the parents of two Iraq War veterans, have donated $325,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project since 2009 through their personal charity, Tee-off for a Cause.
Slightly more than half of the Kanes' donations directly benefitted veterans, according to CBS News.
But after recent tax forms reflected questionable spending by the veterans’ charity on staff expenditures, including $26 million on conferences and meetings at luxury hotels, Fred Kane called for CEO Steven Nardizzi to be fired.
"Hearing that there was this waste of money, donor dollars that should have been going to servicemen and women that were injured, and that it was spent on [Wounded Warrior Project staff] having a good time-it's a real disappointment," Dianne Kane told CBS News.(snip)
Army Staff Sergeant Erick Millette, who returned from Iraq in 2006 with a bronze star and a purple heart, told CBS News at the time that he admired the charity's work and took a job with the group in 2014 but quit after two years.
"Their mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors, but what the public doesn't see is how they spend their money," he said.
Millette said he witnessed lavish spending on staff, with big "catered" parties.
Also in the previous interview, two former employees, who were so fearful of retaliation they asked that CBS News not show their faces on camera, said spending has skyrocketed since Nardizzi took over as CEO in 2009, pointing to the 2014 annual meeting at a luxury resort in Colorado Springs.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Disappointed and disgusted.
My current charities for military support are Team Rubicon, USO and Gary Sinise Foundation, fwiw.
Me too. Disappointment for sure.
I stop sending my money to them two years ago, and instead send it to the USO.
Fisher House is another good one.
This ridiculous spending on overhead will destroy the organization
Why do people get so greedy???
Disabled American Veterans is another great organization that’s been around since post WWI.
My fav is VFW Home for Orphans in Michigan. Only one of its kind.
WWP project is based in my neighborhood. These problems have been known for a while. Over a year. They were talking about building a huge new HQ recently. Pretty clear they still don’t get it.
“Disappointed and disgusted.”
Then these organizations wonder why people don’t give money to them, why should they when the CEO’s and staff can’t keep their grubby fingers out of the cookie jar. Very disgusting.
The American Legion: the oldest veterans service organization.
The VFW.
These and many more are heads and shoulders above the WWF. The WWF has turned into fashion industry.
Because it’s EASY to spend other people’s money (see Fed gov for examples).
Fox News takes a lot of bashing here lately, but you have to give them credit for covering this problem with a “charity” that buys millions in air time from them.
WWP refused to take a donation from a church because of the religious nature of the donation.
“We must decline the opportunity to be the beneficiary of your event due to our fundraising event criteria, which doesn’t allow community events to be religious in nature,” read an email from the WWP community events team. “Please note your registration fee will be refunded within the next 7-10 business days.”
That made no sense to me and I crossed them off my charity list.
I thought their commercials were awfully over the top.
I volunteer for the Keystone Chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America ( www.kpva.org ) and I know for a fact that we are run by a small group of veterans. Most of us are disabled.
Fish rots from the head down. Sure looks like the guy running WWP, Nardizzi, is a sleaze ball.
People were saying this about Wounded Warrior Project years ago but all sorts of benefits just kept on donating their proceeds to this charity.
Every time I’d visit an outdoors convention there would always be a raffle or charity or merchandise being sold that pledged some of its revenue to Wounder Warriors and I’d say “No thanks”.
The well informed people learned all about these folks years ago yet only now people are learning about their executives glamorous vanity lifestyles.
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