How IAVA money helps veterans
Someone calling themselves “Arthur Friend” emailed this to us today, doing the legwork that we’re too lazy to do for ourselves. But it illustrates perfectly what we’ve been saying about IAVA’s money benefiting only one Iraq or Afghanistan veteran – Paul Rieckhoff;
Saw the discussion the other day on This Ain’t Hell about IAVA, and wanted to share this with you guys. Not sure why you didn’t just look it up yourselves, but a friend of mine sent me IAVA’s most recent tax filing a while back. I may actually still be a member, not sure, but I don’t do anything with them anymore. The filings are interesting though. Like you, I wondered exactly what they did with their contributions ($3,854,206 in 2009). Their revenue has been up every year, but if this article at HotAir is right, they could take a hit.
These numbers are from 2009, and the salary portion at least has skyrocketed. Paul got paid $120k in 2009 allegedly, but we know that went up significantly, unless they are planning on paying the Chief of Staff more than the CEO. IAVA has a page up for hiring, and they say they are looking for a CoS who will make “$120k to $150k plus benefits.”
Anyway, first, where do they spend their money?
From their 2009 form 990: [Link to .pdf]
On the salary side, they only list six salaries in their filing, of which only 1 is a veteran and still working for IAVA, Paul.
Paul Rieckhoff: ($120,000) As far as salaries go, this isn’t as high as one might expect. Don’t get me wrong, he won’t starve to death, but for a CEO this is certainly reasonable, and probably on the low side. In fact, I expect when the 2010 form 990 is filed, this will be closer to $175k.
Paayal Mahajan: ($115,493) NOT A VETERAN.
According to IAVA:
Paayal Mahajan, Director of Human Capital. Prior to joining IAVA, Paayal managed diversity initiatives for the United States Tennis Association and multicultural membership for the Girl Scouts of the USA. She also has an extensive background in radio and broadcast media. She graduated from Rutgers University with a BS in Environmental Policy, Institutions and Behavior. After setting up and running IAVA’s Membership Department for the last two years, Paayal is now running IAVA’s Human Capital department.
IAVA’s second highest paid employee is a diversity guru whose job it is to sell free memberships.
Patrick Campbell ($79,104) Apparently not with IAVA anymore, but he was (I think) their Legislative Director. Other than Paul, he was the only other one in their top six salaries that was a veteran.Devon Collins: (78,750) NOT A VETERAN.
According to IAVA:
Devon Collins, Director of Operations. Devon has been with IAVA since 2005, serving as IAVA’s Director of Operations for over three years. Devon is responsible for growing the organization through development initiatives and in-house management of IAVA. She graduated Rollins College with a degree in Sociology.
Per her LinkedIn profile, this is her one and only job since graduating.Daniel Atwood: ($75,883) NOT A VETERAN
According to IAVA:
Daniel Atwood, Director of Digital Engagement. As Director of Digital Engagement, Daniel is responsible for expanding IAVA’s online visibility to reach both veterans and civilian supporters using new media platforms. Prior to joining IAVA, Daniel worked as a legal assistant at a New York law firm and has held positions as a computer specialist and academic mentor. Daniel graduated from Trinity College with a BS in Computer Science.
Here’s his LinkedIn profile, but you just read the majority above.Christine Stevens: ($69,583) NOT A VETERAN
According to IAVA:
Chrissy Stevens, Communications Director. Chrissy is responsible for increasing media outreach and executing the message of IAVA. Before joining IAVA, Chrissy spent two years working for Governor Eliot Spitzer, with one year on Spitzer’s 2006 Gubernatorial Campaign and the second as the Deputy Chief of Staff to the First Lady in the Governor’s Executive Chamber. Chrissy graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Legal Studies and a minor in Public Policy.So, there you have the top six, which is all they list. They have one veteran, one that quit, and 4 that are non-veterans with backgrounds like working for Elliot Spitzer, just graduating college, a legal assistant and another in charge of diversity for US Tennis. Jobs that couldn’t possibly be filled by bona fide trigger-pullers who are too stupid and inexperienced to handle such things.
There’s a lot more in there, but this should get you guys started.
Thanks, Mr. Friend. What is there that I could possibly add?
Category: Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
Wait a sec…IAVA hordes showing up to defend in 3…2…1…
*eating popcorn* NOM NOM NOM
Looks like IAVA is a sham. Paul subscribes to the notion that if he and his followers keep telling everybody how much they do for veterans, then it must be true. He then cites the membership to prove his legitimacy, and then either rides the coattails of the work of others, or uses his online membership for clout to get the IAVA name onto whatever is going around. And getting himself on TV as a talking head further works to create the appearance of a vibrant, veteran-centric organization. As for Paul, he will suppliment is salary with book deals gleaned from this endeavor.
I do give Paul credit for living the American dream. Taking advantage of veterans and their names for personal gain, political points and profit has always been a cottage industry. If he’s willing to go there, or has deluded himself into believing he is doing good to the vets, then whatever, it’s fair game. Sites like this that expose the hypocracy are likewise fair game.
Jonn,
Maybe you could send the info to Miller Beer. They may find it of interest…then again maybe not. Better yet send it to Budwiser, I am sure they could make good use of it. Or even Clark Howard!
Just a thought.
Keep up the good work!
RLTW
I’m sure they will have a good talking point about why they need to spend the way they do. Something along the lines of “most folks don’t understand how much it takes to run a non-profit organization.”
But all someone needs to do is look at the Fisher House Foundation which has been able to return 96% of its revenue directly back to services for veterans and military families.
They spend 3X more on pens and paper than they do on grants.
Oh, this oughta be good.
The way I see it, the only reason they exist is to produce scorecards for the Democrats using veterans as cover. It’s OpTruth in sheep’s clothing.
And this post is making the rounds now.
Where’s Belinda Carlisle with an inplausible explanation?
This SO reminds me of preachers, pastors, and various big name charities (United Way is one) blowing smoke about all the good they are doing when all it really accomplishes is letting them live LARGE on the charity of the middle class and working poor.
IAVA. What a bunch of phonies. Always follow the money, that tells the REAL story.
This is good info. BTW, I don’t know if this was intentional but the name “Arthur Friend” was the name of the tipster who kept sending helpful emails in Michael Chriton’s book “Disclosure.”
For a baseline of reference, I would like to see this same info and graph compared side by side with VoteVets, VFW, and American Legion.
I say again: Bernie Madoff is the one true prophet. All hail the shearing of the bleating hearts!
Geez, doesn’t look like there’s too much left out of that pie chart to actually BENEFIT the veterans huh?
Where does the purchase of flags to burn fall under? Office expenses or supplies?
Okay, I’m confused. If it’s a non profit organization, shouldn’t the biggest piece of the pie be for programs? In fact, I don’t see any indication of programs.
Earlier this year at an event, Riekhoff claimed IAVA clothed a high number of veterans returning to the workforce. The truth is, JC Penneys did that. IAVA was the conduit JC Penneys used to get the word out about its program.
I think it’s like that for a lot of the IAVA “programs.” Big corporation needs a mailing list, a base of members, and IAVA provides it. In return, IAVA gets a lot of press, increases its membership. However, what none of the corporations do is look at their record of programing.
But being a conduit for programs such as JC Penney, is different than coming up with innovative community programs that bring men and women of a younger generation together in real life. That’s a much bigger challenge, and frankly, I don’t think any organization has figured out how to appeal to them in an age where civic organizations are struggling with membership.
As far as the jobs. There are veterans who could easily fill those positions, from Digital Entertainment, Director of Operations, and most especially communications. (There are any number of PAOs from every branch of the military who could step in and do an incredible job, and also possess the insight needed to do more than just provide glossy advertisements that appeal to the corporate sectors).
I have met many of their volunteers. They are young, passionate, well meaning, and almost all were veterans. However, many were working on a virtual level that works the body politic. The problem with this is that changes to the body politic come in increments that are slower than a snail’s pace. Sure, it’s very exciting to go to D.C. but that’s not where the help is needed. It’s needed right where they live, and that’s where they need to find solutions and make things happen.
I’ll leave it at this for now.
I don’t think it’s a charity, it’s an advocacy group; their overhead is not going to look like a standard charity. I’d imagine much of what they do is basically networking and very little of it is actual grant giving or donations. Then again many donations/grants are tax deductible so, depending on which tax form you’re looking at, they might not show up here anyway.
With all that in mind it still doesn’t mean they’re doing jack or shit for veterans. Most groups like this are simply partisan groups looking to ride the coattails of the country’s goodwill toward veterans.
[…] Money July 20th, 2011 Last month we looked at how the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America spent their money according to IRS filings. We felt like we were slighting some other organizations […]
While I understand how bad this looks for the average consumer of information I want to take a minute for us all to step back and try and look at it from a more realistic point of view.
The graph you point to only shows the top level breakdown of expenses. Salaries for employees could mean a lot of different things. In this example the salary of a manager who just works in the back office is lumped in with the salary of an organizer or a policy advocate who are performing front line services that benefit vets.
This graph doesn’t look at all that different from many organizations, like the IAVA, who’s bulk impact comes not from giving away money or providing direct services but from organizing, advocating, and connecting veterans with services. The proof is in the size of the organization. Compare IAVA’s modest $3,000,000 budget with the $39,000,000 budgets. Now which organization would you guess has a larger staff and larger impact in the VSO scene?
About me:
6 year US Air Force veteran
IAVA Member Veteran
MS in Nonprofit Management, graduate assistant for Financial Management for NGOs
BS in International Business
#18:
1. $3m in today’s economy is not “modest.” For $3m I can hire 25 personnel – that’s mid-career, Master’s Degree. Or I can hire a dumptruck loaded with recent college grads at $40K apiece and they’d worship the ground I walked on because they have a job. And every single one of them would be combat veterans.
2. If it looks bad, it just may be bad. As a person learned in business, you know that.
3. Personnel is policy. Either IAVA’s HR department can’t wrap its collective head around “Veteran” or it doesn’t want to pollute the corporate atmosphere. Either way, dump the amateurs, get veterans dedicated to the goals of the organization, and stop the BS.
As a person learned in business, you know that if you do 2 and 3, and make the receipts and expenditures known, you will grow IAVA exponentially because you will have gained the trust of a group of men and women who live for trust.
Paul created this organization as a huge PR campaign for self promotion, anyone who believes otherwise is simply a fool. Is it really that hard to see?
Too many civilians on both the staff and board, grossly overpaid, abusing travel expenses to the fullest extent, does he really need to go to EVERY sporting event IAVA members are invited to? The dude is CAMPAIGNING. How about putting that money towards something like, oh I dunno, veterans? Developing all these corporate sponsors that supposedly “have our back” ? LOL. Not to mention the fact that he uses IAVA to push a leftist political agenda through social media when it doesn’t accurately reflect the entirety of IAVA’s membership… you call this bi-partisan? This sh*t doesn’t pass the smell test.
I would bet the farm that Paul runs for a political position within the democratic party in either NY or DC, no question about it… Paul I know your type, former investment banker eh? Pretty slick I tell you… hate to blow up your spot kid, but you need to be put on blast.
I’ll leave with this last little red flag about one of your board members:
Yannick Marchal. Yannick Marchal is currently an exotic derivatives trader at Deutsche Bank in London in the Foreign Exchange Complex Risk group. He co-founded IAVA with Paul in 2004 and acted as IAVA’s Chief Operating Officer through December 2005. Prior to his time at IAVA, Yannick worked in the Investment Banking and Equity Research divisions at JPMorgan for over three years. He graduated cum laude from Stern Undergraduate Business School in January 2000 and received an MBA from INSEAD, class of December 2006, with distinction.
You and another investment banker co-founded IAVA? IF THAT DOESN’T SOUND THE ALARM I DON’T KNOW WHAT DOES. When you know how to steal money “legally” for a living, doesn’t sound too far fetched as to WHY this organization was started.
I have always been a bit suspect of many of these professional military organizations. While there are some injustices, too much in never enough and it seem like their only purpose is to tell the masses how much they are being screwed and by the way our $29 dues are late. They just never seem as altruistic as they would have you believe.
Very interesting, they’ve been after me for a while, good thing I did some research.
[…] for parades will somehow cleanse them of their bad behavior that extended these wars. Remember how we wrote about IAVA and the way they spend their money, and how IAVA only had one paid veteran on their masthead – that veteran was Rieckhof. And […]
Well that’s a lovely trackback.
Forget a parade, how about I actually get my VA disability evaluation appointments sometime in the near future? I would like to have a realistic hope of getting my rating and compensation before the Mayan end of the world shenanigans roll around. I can’t even trust the VA to send my GI Bill BAH on time.
The guy wrote a book about how he “stepped up to be a hero” because he was in NYC on 9/11..Hey Douche, I was on Active Duty while you were on Wall Street and decided to use this as an opportunity–your book is ridiculous and more than likely a bunch of fabricated “Disney” stories. IAVA claims they help veterans with job assistance too, ha! sure, Paul if you want to call “job shadowing” a job then roll with that..I think the IAVA and WWP should partner and call them sleves God and Jesus and start building ships for veterans “Veterans Ark”, this might save them from drowning in the abundance of BS. If I worked for the WWP, I would be making 309k top two scum bags at the WWP 2011 salaries- $309.036
$340,810
Nuff said…
[…] Rieckhoff and needless embellishment July 13th, 2012 I’m sure you all know Paul Rieckhoff, the Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Paul and I have been sparring […]
[…] sure you all know Paul Rieckhoff, the Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Paul and I have been sparring […]