Posted on 06/06/2013 6:44:25 PM PDT by Jyotishi
The worst charity in America operates from a metal warehouse behind a gas station in Holiday.
Every year, Kids Wish Network raises millions of dollars in donations in the name of dying children and their families.
Every year, it spends less than 3 cents on the dollar helping kids.
Most of the rest gets diverted to enrich the charity's operators and the for-profit companies Kids Wish hires to drum up donations.
In the past decade alone, Kids Wish has channeled nearly $110 million donated for sick children to its corporate solicitors. An additional $4.8 million has gone to pay the charity's founder and his own consulting firms.
No charity in the nation has siphoned more money away from the needy over a longer period of time.
But Kids Wish is not an isolated case, a yearlong investigation by the Tampa Bay Times and The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.
(Excerpt) Read more at tampabay.com ...
I went thru the article, but didn’t see any link to the List of the 50 worst charities. Did I miss it in my haste?
One of the better episodes came up about eighteen months ago in DC. One of the city council guys had created a fake foundation (complete with official paperwork), which was supposed to take a city grant, and move $450,000 over to help youth softball/baseball in the poor neighborhoods of DC.
ALL of the money...went to this guy. Nothing ever went to the kids. The DC office looking over these grants? They did nothing. The council guy ended up spending it on golf trips, a new motorcycle, and a SUV. I get the feeling that once the $450,000 had all been spent....he would have gone back for more. He was young enough....that he could have done this another dozen times over thirty years.
I found it here:
America’s Worst Harities
http://www.tampabay.com/topics/specials/worst-charities.page
Here’s the list (PDF):
http://www.tampabay.com/americas-worst-charities/worst-charities.pdf
Hello,
You’re right it was not there. I searched on “50 Worst Charities” on StartPage and traced it to this URL:
http://www.tampabay.com/americas-worst-charities/worst-charities.pdf
Please share widely!
I never heard of a single one of the “charities” on their list.
Granted, some of the names on the list sound very much like well-known charities, which I assume are mostly on the level.
None of these move more than 10.5% to beneficiaries.
How many deliver less than 50% to beneficiaries?
50% overhead is too much.
The left side-bar on the list explains that the most reputable charities pass on more than 36% of their proceeds.
36%!
Did you ever read Lenny Bruce’s autobiography? He describes his own scam in Miami. He went door to door wearing a cleric’s collar collecting for some charity— I think it was orphans or something. The cops tried to nail him but they couldn’t; all he had to do was write a check for 1/3 of the proceeds to some recognized party. He kept the rest.
It’s an excellent business to be in these days. If you want to want to expedite things with the IRS you should append the words “Progressive”, or “Alliance” to the front of your charities name.
I think the foundations that many professional athletes should be on this list. I laugh when I read that Super Star “X” raised $100,000 for cancer research when the guy makes 15 million a year.
I do not know if it still does but several years ago World Vision managed to get over 90% of the money donated in to feeding the starving
This article could be posted at DU with the title, “50 fundraiser ideas.”
That one is interesting.
The police and fire groups really get me frosted. Given the outpouring of love following 9-11, these groups raked in money hand over fist. IMHO it was criminal. The thing is, the cops and fire could have put that money to good use.
What about that Wounded Warriors outfit that hits the airwaves with lots of very long commercials imploring people to support badly wounded vets for $19 per month? I assume that’s a scam, is it?
I had to read it twice. I think it’s actually saying that the best charities spend no more than 35% on marketing & advertising.
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4768
This website “charitynavigator” is great. World Vision shows 85.6% goes to their programs.
You can search other charities as well.
Thanks Roos_Girl.
Like Norm Abrams said: “measure twice, cut once.”
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