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.
No. Some of that money goes to the Obama campaign.
The United Way supports Planned Abortionhood.
That alone is sufficient reason to never donate to them.
I’m not sure UW belongs on your list (CEO makes >$1,000,000.00 per year) and they have a history of being a liberal cause support group. They stopped funding to the Boy Scouts because they didn’t allow gay leaders.
Try Troopsdirect.org
I am with you. I give to my local food bank where I know 100% of my donations go to food.
Never give to any outfit with “children’s” and “cancer” in the name. They use emotional bait-and-switch to make millions for themselves, and children with cancer get next to nothing.
Expanding the point, when a disaster strikes, give directly to a family or church affected by the disaster, if possible. Individuals get nothing from mass fund raisers; the vast bulk of the moneys from the Red Cross, FEMA etc. goes to agencies instead, where it disappears.
I have heard that the CEO of Wounded Warriors is paid a seven figure salary. That disturbs me deeply.
This report on Charities and how much of our donations actually goes to the needy makes me wonder about political donations. Are the solicitors for political donations volunteers who receive no pay for their services or are they paid solicitors like these charities use? How much of our donations actually go to the candidate/political party, and how much of it goes to paid solicitors.
The reason I wonder about this is because I made a donation to both a candidate and a political party last year and since then I’ve been inundated with phone calls and junk mail soliciting donations for everything imaginable. It’s to the point now that my wife and I won’t even answer the phone if it’s either from a blocked number or from out of the area. I’ve put my number on the Federal No Call List, and for some reason it doesn’t work with these people.
On one of the last calls from a blocked number I answered, after a brief pause a pleasant sounding young lady came on the line. (There’s always a pause on the line when you answer one of these calls, so if it’s a male voice that answers, they put on a female, and vice versa if a female answers the call) After she delivered her practiced dialogue on the political candidate, she asked for my credit card number. I then asked her, “Are there really people out there who’ll receive a phone call from a stranger in the middle of the night and they’ll then give that stranger their credit card number?” When she answered, “Yes,” I hung up.
Salvation Army only ,, Red cross never,know one of the regional directors he make over $170,000 a year.
When we give, we choose what we want done with the money. Just like when you give money in exchange for groceries. If you don’t get your groceries, what’s the problem? You’re still separated from your money. What have you lost?
“United Way”
The United Way in my community prohibits Salvation Army from having church services before meals.
Anti-traditional value stipulations appear to be attached to all their grants.
“United Way”
The first or at least one of the first to boycott the Boy Scouts aftet they won their SC case. I would never give them a dime and hope they RIH. Why dont you just send your donations to the DNC, ACLU and Planned Parenthood instead.
If they want to pass a law for everything in our lives, I would like to see one requiring all charities to disclose what percent of their donations actually go towards the purpose of their fund raising in their ads....
I've also heard that the National Human Society with all their bleeding heart ads doesn't support one shelter in our country but they have extravagant offices in NY or DC. Anyone else have any info on this?
They victimize the elderly, who can hardly afford to “give away” their wealth. My elderly mother is being targeted by such organizations. Her mailbox is overflowing with requests for charitable donations, and her phone is constantly ringing. Mail requests include an eye popping array of cheesy gold embossed “certificates of appreciation,” cheap pen/pencil sets, and little American flags. Many arrive by FedEx and registered mail. These vultures carefully study their demographics. Their targeting is relentless and rapacious. My elderly mother had been fully convinced that starving Cambodian orphans, and legless Army veterans were directly dependent upon her largess; that they had a personal connection with her. Holding out her arms overflowing with mail, she tearfully broke down one evening, as her phone rang in the background, “What am I going to do? I can’t help them all! Those poor people!”
I give to 2 charities:
My church
St. Jude Children's Hospital.
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.
[Salvation Army only...]
Absolutely, the director receives a meager $13,000.
“Preying on widows and orphans” goes all the way back to the Bible. My mother, age 81, is also a victim of this. My nephew is living with her right now and he throws most of her mail away before she sees it. Nevertheless she has been victimized repeatedly before we could intervene. We had her phone number changed and that helped a lot.
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