Generous Freepers Beware of Charity Fraud

websites ^ | 12/23/02 | me

[eleni121]

When charity giving Americans decide whether to generously support charities this year, they should first check out these websites to see how many of their hard earned dollars actually go to programs and not just CEO compensation and other "administrative" expenses. Case in point: Gloria Feldt makes over $400,000. dollars per year running Planned Parenthood!

[eleni121]

With all due respect - No, I am fully aware of Kevorkian and Hospice and the differences between the two - differences in duration of service not in the final outcome. Control over the process of death is inconsistent with Christian beliefs. In an effort to cut the costs of prolonged treatment, the insurance industries and hospital corporations have embraced hospice and marketed its services as "humane" and "patient centered" when in fact, Hospice simply provides a "way out" free from pain (usually) and short term survival vs a possible longer term aggressive approach to health and disease treatment. And no, my age has nothing to do with my beliefs. In fact, I dread seeing mainly older people being encouraged to consider hospice. My belief system does not accept this as an alternative to life.

[eleni121]

I agree that Salvation Army is a wonderful way of getting help to those who truly need it.

[SuziQ]

Slick advertising does not change the fact that they are in the business of helping people to die.

I think you have a misunderstanding of what 'hospice' is. It is a place where people can stay until they die, and their friends and family can come to visit to say 'goodbye'. It is a place free from all the machines and life support stuff that hospitals have. Or in many cases, it is a program which sends caregivers to the dying person's home to provide palliative care, that is, pain relief, in the event the disease causes a lot of pain.

It is not like the Hemlock Society which actively advocates giving people the means to kill themselves. It is a way to help the family of the dying person deal with the day to day medical needs so that they can spend time with their loved ones before they die.

[eleni121]

I don't have any misunderstanding but you may be too trusting of Hospice and the institutional and social apparatus it has managed to develop in our society! You need to be more discerning when it comes to organizations which purport to assist people with their health management when in fact they are simply easing the way into sometimes premature death.

You may want to take a look at organizations such as the hospice patients alliance before being so quick to condemn those of us with a healthy skepticism.

http://www.hospicepatients.org/starvation.html

[eleni121]

I'm sorry you feel so bitter

I don't think these remarks are bitter at all...oreolady is honestly and forcefully acknowledging the unpleasant truth:

Hospice is not all it is cracked up to be.

The insensitive way that hospice handled this situation is indicative of the psychological ploys that are being used - with family members caught up in their grief and/or distress often relegating to secondary position the needs of the sick person.

[Happygal]

Sounds bitter to me.

[cherry]

you must have had a bad experience with hospice because normally they are only out to prevent the pain and agony of dying as opposed to aiding in a death...

it still is a business...but one that for my money is fairly well run and full of loving people...it would have to be....would YOU willingly for small compensation work with people that are dying of all kinds of terrible diseases such as liver or pancreatic cancer, AIDS, or debilitating muscular diseases....????....day in and day out ...????

[The Grammarian]

Always have been and always will be, too.

[The Grammarian]

Hospice is not all it is cracked up to be.

I'm curious, are we talking about hospital hospice units, or some other group?

[Chemist_Geek]

I agree that Salvation Army is a wonderful way of getting help to those who truly need it.

And in so many different ways, as well...

SATERN (Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network) provides emergency communication support to the Salvation Army wherever needed. And what a mind-boggling range of situations SATERN members have found themselves in tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, fires, aircraft accidents, bombings, earthquakes -- just to name the more expected types of emergencies. SATERN volunteers have also helped quell urban violence, reduce the chaos of a Christmas party for thousands of inner-city kids, feed street people during winter freezes, and direct parking-lot traffic at major events.

SATERN volunteers establish health-and-welfare nets, pass messages between field workers and their respective command posts, string up dipoles and operate from emergency generators. They also have been known to unload trucks of ice, deliver a motorized canteen to earthquake-ravished Kobe, check on the welfare of vulnerable elderly in a mega heat wave, and prepare sandwiches and hot coffee for firefighters battling an extra-alarm blaze in below-zero weather. In short, SATERN is not your ordinary radio club!

[eleni121]

Hospice usually gets referrals from hospitals, nursing homes, etc. They may or may not be located in the actual hospitals. Hospice International, Hospice USA, Hospice anywhere any time is a registered and almost universally sanctioned organization which with the blessing of the health insurance industry persuades, cajoles, and encourages the sick, and especially the elderly and especially their families to consider the Hospice "way" of easing out of life. Some people are so completely brainwashed believing that its goals are filled with charity that they will defend it no matter what arguments are heard against it. All I am asking is that people really think about what this organization is doing. No doubt that there are many fine people who are Hospice volunteers. But there are those of us who believe that the sinister aspects of this philosphy are too obvious for us to keep silent.

[eleni121]

The volunteers may be working for "small compensation" as you put it and may truly believe (for whatever reasons) that they are doing good work, but the organzation itself is extremely well funded - with mega money coming in from the big guys - the Open Society Institute(Soros)! and other left wing foundations.

More to the point but equally important: all adult humans are actually dying some gradually as part of the process and others dying more quickly as a result of active illness. What I object to is the notion that death should be hastened along and should be seen as a positive alternative to trying to live. My belief system supports the idea (funny to some) that God decides the when and where of death. I do not see anything inherently wrong with life support machines and other means to prolong life. As for the age old fear of pain, pain management is quite advanced and is or should part of any treatment plan today. Anyone who tells a patient otherwise is lying.

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[Destructor]

I would like to take this opportunity to plug a charity that I am personally involved in "The Christmas Bureau." This organization offers people the opportunity to "sponsor" a needy family, by providing a good Christmas meal, and a couple of toys for the kids (if you are so inclined). As a sponsor you go out and buy the food and toys and make the delivery yourself, so you know where every penny is going, and you can spend as much as you can afford!

The Christmas Bureau is entirely staffed by volunteers, so there are no outrageous salaries going to CEO types. I encourage all Freepers to check into the Christmas Bureau in your city. God bless you all!

[Publius6961]

rated the Salvation Army as the most efficient at getting the bucks to the needs.

For about 10 years now the SA is the only charity I support.
Convenient, local, efficient and a true charity.

All other so-called charity businesses are out of luck in my universe.
Specially that train wreck heterophobic the "United Way" !

[eleni121]

The Christmas Bureau - Sounds like a most excellent way of doing good and sharing the spirit of Christmas! We do something similar - but allow the families to buy their own gifts and food through gift certificates giving them the sense that they "control" what they buy.

[eleni121]

United Way - In addition to rejecting the Boy Scouts they fund Planned unParenthood to the tune of millions! Nationally in 1999, local United Ways distributed an estimated $3 million to Planned Parenthood agencies. It's OK to fund an org which supports abortion and it's OK to not support an org funding activities for boy children. Sounds definitely anti child to me...

[Salvation]

**Case in point: Gloria Feldt makes over $400,000. dollars per year running Planned Parenthood!**

On your United Way campaign at work, please designate the recipiant of your funds........or they could go to such places as PP or other organization you would not want to support. United Way will also send a note to the organization acknowledging receipt of the specified donation.

[Salvation]

**recipiant**

recipient

[Destructor]

"The Christmas Bureau - Sounds like a most excellent way of doing good and sharing the spirit of Christmas! We do something similar - but allow the families to buy their own gifts and food through gift certificates giving them the sense that they "control" what they buy."

The Christmas Bureau does encourage sponsors to call the family, and ask them what they want for Christmas. This is a good way for the sponsors to find out exactly what kind of people they are dealing with from the start. We have had a few cases of the "needy" family making outrageous demands for Christmas. If this turns out to be the case, then the sponsor brings us back the application, and we help them find another family to sponsor. Christmas Bureau then calls the family that got dumped, and tells them the reason that they're sponsor rejected them. This is one way that we separate the cheaters from those that are truly needy.

In my opinion, the Christmas Bureau is a well-run organization. Your organization sounds like a good one too, though. God bless you for remembering those who are less fortunate!