The Tampa Bay Times has recently come up with a list of America's worst
charities. It was compiled using tax records to determine how much was
spent on fundraising in comparison to percentage of revenue spent on direct
cash aid. The results are incredibly shocking: while watchdog groups say that
NO MORE THAN 35% should be doled out to fundraisers, some have paid as much as
98%.
Or more.
And most of them list themselves as aids to
children, cancer or AIDS victims.
From the Tampa Bay
Times expose:
The worst charity in America operates from a metal warehouse
behind a gas station in Holiday.[FLA]
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.
Of the worst 50 charities, 13 were ostensibly to help children.
(NOTE: the Tampa article did not include links, but I have, so you can see that
these organizations look quite professional). The numbers after the links
denote the actual percent of funds spent on direct cash aid.
A merican Foundation for
Children With Aids - 0
American Foundation For Disabled Children - 0.8
Caring for Our
Children Foundation - 1.6
Children's Cancer Fund of America - 5.3
Children's Cancer Recovery
Foundation 0.6
Children's Charity Fund 2.3
Children's Leukemia Research
Association 11.1
Children's Wish Foundation
International 10.8
Committee For Missing
Children 0.8
Find the Children 5.7
Kids Wish Network 2.5
Operation Lookout National Center
For Missing Youth 0
Youth Development Fund 0.8
...and to further tug at the purse strings, don't forget all those service
people - policemen, veterans, and firefighters:
American Association of State Troopers 8.6
Association for Firefighters and Paramedics 3.1
Circle of Friends For American
Veterans 6.5
Disabled Police and Sheriffs Foundation 1.0
Disabled Police Officers Counseling Center 0.1
Disabled Police Officers of
America Inc. 2.5
Firefighters
Assistance Fund 3.2
Firefighters Burn Fund 1.5
Firefighters Charitable Foundation 8.1
International Union of Police Associations,
AFL-CIO 0.5
National Narcotic Officers Associations
Coalition 0
National Police Defense Foundation 5.8
National Veterans Service Fund 7.8
Our American Veterans 2.3
Police Protective Fund 0.8
Reserve Police Officers Association 1.1
The
Veterans Fund 2.3
United States Deputy Sheriffs' Association 0.6
Veterans Assistance Foundation 10.5
Vietnow National Headquarters 2.9
NOTE: In some instances, investigations like the Tampa Bay expose has actually
caused some organizations to remove websites (as in Our American Veterans),
while others are limply protesting. And some government organizations are taking
a closer look at those organizations as
well.
Poor Management or Just Plain Scam?
The Tampa article points out one particularly salient point: all these
organizations are considered legitimate charities because of poor regulation.
There is no set limit on expenditures for fundraising, executive salaries or
perks.* Kids Wish Network, for example, actually admitted to paying enormous
sums to for-profit fundraisers.
But others ...
"All In The Family"
James T. Reynolds of the American Cancer Fund has turned the Fund into a
veritable cash cow - for his own family. The pdf
put out by the Tampa Bay Times shows
an incredible network of sons, daughters, in-laws who are syphoning off
millions each year. Reynolds himself pockets more than $230k per year while
Junior grabs $280k. The charities involved: Cancer Support Services, Breast
Cancer Society, Cancer Fund of America, Children's Cancer Fund of America, and
American Association for Cancer Support. Tracking $250 million, the Bay Times
found out that $156,766,511 was paid to solicitors. Cancer has served the
Reynolds family well.
Caveat Donor
What a donor doesn't know may not hurt him as much as it will hurt the cause
he's giving to: scams and ill-run charities are the biggest cause of the wane
in charitable donations.Therefore, before giving a penny to any organization, (especially
solicited by phone), check with this national database of
disciplinary actions, or any number of watchdog organizations.
An excellent source for intelligent giving, for example, is Charity
Navigator. Note that most of the aforementioned charities are also on watch
at CN and have very low ratings. Youth Development Fund, for example, shows
program expenses at a whopping 52% and fundraising expenses at 45%. What goes
into "youth development, only the CEO knows.
Oh, and for Christian "ministries" claiming to perform works of social justice, check out MinistryWatch.com to find out about "transparency" - some of the biggest organizations (e.g. Trinity Broadcasting Network) rate an "F".
Being aware of charity scams kinda makes giving a dollar to that
homeless person on the street a lot easier.
... at least you know where it's going.
*Even celebrities are in on the charity game: check out Sean
Hannity's Freedom Concert controversy.
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