Posted on 06/17/2013 3:02:18 AM PDT by servo1969
I always believed that giving to a good cause or helping victims of a disaster was a noble thing to do. I mean, “There but for the grace of God go I”, right? With the recent uncovering of scandals within the government, more and more investigators are digging to uncover other cases of fraud and mismanagement. Is nothing sacred anymore?
A recent investigation exposed by CNN, The Center for Investigative Reporting and the Tampa Bay Times have found that there are dozens and dozens of charities that basically do next to nothing for the causes they raise money for.
50 of the worst charities were looked at and it was concluded that they received 1 billion dollars over the last ten years, but the charities received only 50 million. Where did the money go? Well, the majority of the funds collected went to solicitors. These are the people who go out and raise the funds and collect the donations. This basically amounts to them raising money to pay themselves.
There are still many, many charities that actually distribute the majority of the monies collected to the intended recipients but these days it is wise to look before you open your wallet. For instance, one of the worst charities listed is an organization called “Kids Wish Network” that is supposed to collect money for terminally ill children and grant their wishes. Sound suspiciously familiar? The name is awfully close to the very legitimate “Make A Wish Foundation” which promises the same thing.
This is where the donor can be conned. Many people are told the names of these organizations and they feel that they have heard of them and what they do, so out comes the checkbook. Unfortunately they don’t realize that the “Kids Wish Network” raised $127 million dollars, paid their solicitors $109 million, paid their employees most of the remaining funds leaving less than 3% for granting wishes!
The 50 worst charities give less than 4% of donations raised to direct cash aid. One diabetes charity raised almost $14 million dollars over a ten year period and gave about $10,000 to patients. Another cancer charity paid a company owned by the president’s son almost $18 million dollars over eight years to solicit funds.
The specific kinds of charities that pay for-profit corporations to raise the majority of their donations regularly give their solicitors over two-thirds of the take. Good charities should spend no more than 35 cents to raise a dollar.
So the reality is that the “50 worst charities raised more than $1.3 billion over the past decade and paid nearly $1 billion of that to the companies that raise their donations”. Out of $1.3 billion dollars the charities received less than 4%. Had that money gone to the charities in the correct way it would have been able to build 20,000 Habitat For Humanity Homes, 7 million wheelchairs or provide nearly 10 million uninsured women, mammograms.
There are hundreds if not thousands of these “bad” charities that are taking money from sincere donors who faithfully believe that their hard earned money is going to the people it was intended for. Particularly disheartening are the Veterans organizations that “pretend” to send aid to disabled vets. The sad part is that many Veterans organizations ARE legitimate and they have to defend themselves because some other dishonest charity has poisoned the well.
In the wake of the IRS scandals, one would think that the “red flags” would have been raised on these organizations when their papers were filed every year. That however was not the case. The IRS was too busy targeting “Tea Party” and conservative groups to check on the American people being ripped off by the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The bottom line is we live in a world where fraud and deceit are running rampant. These “rip-off” charities have no qualms about taking our money and keeping it for themselves. Before donating, do your due diligence and check out the list of the 50 worst charities. Our money should go where we intend it to and if the government won’t help monitor this situation then like everything else, we have to do it ourselves.
Key questions to ask the caller:
• What is the full name of the charity?
• Do you work for a paid fundraiser?
• How much of my donation actually goes to charity?
• Will any local programs directly benefit? If so, how?
• What is the website address of the charity?
Key facts to know:
• The best charities spend no more than 35 cents of every dollar raised on fund-raising costs.
• America’s worst charities spend more than 80 cents of every dollar on fundraising.
• Charities that use telemarketing firms and fundraisers are far more likely to receive only a fraction of the money raised.
http://www.tampabay.com/americas-worst-charities/worst-charities.pdf
The top 10: (Based on total raised by solicitors)
Rank: 1
Charity Name: Kids Wish Network
Total raised by solicitors: $127.8 million
Total paid to solicitors: $109.8 million
% spent on direct cash aid: 2.5%
Rank: 2
Charity Name: Cancer Fund of America
Total raised by solicitors: $98.0 million
Total paid to solicitors: $80.4 million
% spent on direct cash aid: 0.9%
Rank: 3
Charity Name: Children's Wish Foundation International
Total raised by solicitors: $96.8 million
Total paid to solicitors: $63.6 million
% spent on direct cash aid: 0.8%
Rank: 4
Charity Name: American Breast Cancer Foundation
Total raised by solicitors: $80.8 million
Total paid to solicitors: $59.8 million
% spent on direct cash aid: 5.3%
Rank: 5
Charity Name: Firefighters Charitable Foundation
Total raised by solicitors: $63.8 million
Total paid to solicitors: $54.7 million
% spent on direct cash aid: 8.4%
Rank: 6
Charity Name: Breast Cancer Relief Foundation
Total raised by solicitors: $63.9 million
Total paid to solicitors: $44.8 million
% spent on direct cash aid: 2.2%
Rank: 7
Charity Name: International Union of Police Associations, AFL-CIO
Total raised by solicitors: $57.2 million
Total paid to solicitors: $41.4 million
% spent on direct cash aid: 0.5%
Rank: 8
Charity Name: National Veterans Service Fund
Total raised by solicitors: $70.2 million
Total paid to solicitors: $36.9 million
% spent on direct cash aid: 7.8%
Rank: 9
Charity Name: American Association of State Troopers
Total raised by solicitors: $45.0 million
Total paid to solicitors: $36.0 million
% spent on direct cash aid: 8.6%
Rank: 10
Charity Name: Children's Cancer Fund of America
Total raised by solicitors: $37.5 million
Total paid to solicitors: $29.2 million
% spent on direct cash aid: 5.3%
Bump
Thats what you with sheep......... SHEAR THEM...
Good post wish every posting was like this. You took the time to offer more info about the subject and filled in the details in the comment section.
Thank You
I give regularly to McDonald House, Fisher House,
Salvation Army, Food for the Poor...and Adopt-A-Platoon....although the last one appears to be having quetions raised about it....so I am going to look at that one again
Fisher House and Salvation Army are both 2 I trust.
I have found that you cannot go wrong if you tell everyone who solicits by phone to go to hell.
Here’s an excellent site for “Christian” organizations:
www.ministrywatch.com
—gives 30 donor alerts, gives 30 “shining lights,” evaluation criteria, & top 20 ministries by total revenue, and more...
bfl
bttt
the Police Fraternal Organizations are the worst....they may be doing good...but they really are agressive in their pitch....I always ask to have them send it to me in writing for my review....most don’t....
I don’t understand what the “risk” is. You gave with honest intentions and fulfilled your need for giving away your wealth. What have you lost?
Remember:
Save the Children
Make a Wish
United Way
are NOT ripoffs. Unscrupulous con men invent “charities” with similar sounding names to confuse donors.
If you give to the ME foundation I guarantee 100% of the funds will go to ME.
#5
You’re welcome.
I like adding info but two things have to happen:
1. I have to know where it is.
2. I have to have the time. I had to hand type that in HTML to make it look right. Took 10 mins but I felt it might help someone. (I don’t type very fast.)
They classify their organization as ‘not for profit’ but as you will see in the link, there is one individual who is profiting very nicely and that’s the head of the project, Steven Nardizzi. It wasn’t stated how much the celebrities and the vet’s ,who are under contract with them, get paid , that seems to missing in their report.
Here is the first link:http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=12842
Here’s another link concerning the ‘not for profit’ Nardizzi and his views on gun control:
http://www.gunssavelife.com/?p=3467
#15
You’re correct.
The United Way is not a rip-off going by the 35% rule.
I have decide not to donate to them again, however, for personal reasons.
Yes the cop callers are the worst.
My thinking is this.
I have no problem with them having a cop club house. A clubhouse where I am not welcome by they way-—but they should pay for it themselves. Why should they solicit donations from the public to help them fund their clubhouse?
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