Vet charities that are only charitable to themselves
Preston sends us a link to Military.com which reports from the Tampa Bay Times that there are charities out there which are more interested in paying themselves than helping veterans. For example;
National Veterans Service Fund, for example, which is No. 8 on the list, pulled in $70.2 million. The charity paid the solicitors $36.9 million, but spent just $5.5 million in cash aid to those in need, the paper reports
Vietnow, a 20-year-old organization intended to help veterans and their families, raised about $18 million of which nearly $16 million went to the solicitors, about $2.2 million to the charity, and just over $527,000 in cash aid to individuals over that time, about $32,000 per year.
TBT lists the 50 worst charities of all types.
In 2009, while faced with lawsuits by two states and hit with more than $100,000 in penalties, founder Sydney Young shut down Our American Veterans only to set up a new charity, American’s Helping Veterans Corp., operating from the same address in Georgia.
Category: Phony Vet Charities
I hate to say it but I’ve known about this for a LONG time and it goes on here in Maryland as well so I pretty much QUIT giving anyone, any money unless I have direct knowledge of their costs and the benefit of my dollar going *directly* to someone in need…i.e. Fisher house at Andrews AFB. (F$uck this new language “Joint Base” crap.)
I’m not saying that the people doing this should be tracked down and beaten with lead pipes until they qualify for the paralympics, but…
That’s a depressing top 50, Children’s Wish International one of the bad guys….
So f#cking over veterans and kids….next thing you know they’ll tell me that they are killing puppies at the Save a Puppy foundation….
@2 I’m with you, I’m not saying it’s right to beat the sh1t out of these guys but I am saying I sure as h3ll could understand it…
shit like this is why later in my Army career I refused to donate to anybody during the CFC or AER drives. I DGAF if top threatened to hold the company until we were 100%.
Sorry, I have become so cynical and jaded in my current later years that I take it for granted that these charities are corrupt, and that good honest charities are exceptions to the rule…
Having been burned a long time ago by a then well-known international “charity,” I now keep my money local. More of what I give goes to those I am trying to help, and I can register any complaints with a real, live person in a local office if necessary.
That’s why I like CFC. I get to choose where my money goes and I make sure to pick a charity with a high percentage that actually goes to help someone.
AER can kiss my ass. Too many times I’ve seen (and experienced first hand) AER refusing to help a Soldier with plane tickets for emergency leave, yet some dumbass that bounces checks getting money from them.
@Veritas – look at how many people registered domain names right after Superstorm Sandy. How many of those do you think are real charities at all? I stick to church groups and local orgs that use volunteers. NO ONE in the charity biz should be profiting from it (except in Karma).
I’ve yet to find a charitable organization that does what it says it does, except for maybe Goodwill in my local community. As far as giving money to Sally Struthers or that fat guy with the crying kid from a 3d world shit-hole, I just can’t bring myself to save the world since there is so much doubt in my mind any of my $$$ makes it where they say it’s supposed to. We all know the UN is useless, so I don’t take stock in anything they do either.
Jaded? You betcha.
Veterans help groups are no different. Perhaps someone could change my mind, and I’ll start giving again.
Don’t get me started on Vietnow. I knew about it 20 years ago. It was a scam and nothing else when I knew about it, and it seems nothing has changed.
I’ll stick to the food banks, pet rescues and the vets’ programs I know do good work.
I wish I could say this surprises or shocks me. But I learned years ago that many charities were little more than legal “skimming” rackets – and used tactics and pitches similar to used car salesmen, with a similar level of basic honesty. Most IMO are on a par with televangelists.
There are a few I’ll give to. Most others? No way in hell.
Children of Fallen Patriots-100% yes 100% goes to the kids!
Look it up under donate! I am a big supporter and have been to several events.
MOH Col (ret.)Jack Jacobs is incredible!
http://fallenpatriots.org/
@12 – Thanks. I’ll look it up. I’m all about helping kids of our fallen brothers and sisters.
I refuse to give to Red Cross and United Way–the former after the death of a relative where they sat on the emergency verification paperwork from Friday until Monday, and United Way after 9/11 and their donation issues.
“which is No. 8 on the list
Which list?
The one DOD uses called the Combined Federal Campaign?
Which does contain numerous organizations that return just pennies on the dollar.
VFW and DAV. Only.
“American’s Helping Veterans Corp., operating from the same address in Georgia.” These are the “vets” I’ve seen around here with their donation buckets, wearing bdu’s, caps and rank. Wife got upset with me for questioning them. Young looking (20’s) said he’d been a staff sergeant in the sandbox and A’stan. “Just trying to help out my troops” is what he said. Asked his MOS, he began saying 18Delta then jumped right to Special Operations. Next time I’ll have camera in hand
AER came under fire a few years ago when it was revealed they had around half a billion in the bank and were mostly issuing loans instead of grants.
The police and fire people are as guilty of this as anyone. Most of the collected money goes to the solicitors. I understand why the solicitors are paid. It’s big business and they are the ones who make the calls. But, the cut is out of whack. I alsways ask the same question: “Are you a state trooper/fireman/whatever?” If they say yes but are not, they are sooooo screwed. If they say no–and they alsways do–I say goodbye.
Giving locally is always the best option in my book.
I give to Team Rubicon, Lone Survivor Foundation, Soldier’s Angels, and, once in a while, the USO.
I know that my money will be wisely spent at those organizations.
Wounded Warrior Project is the biggest scam of them all.
Anyone read WWP’s Form 990 lately…
Technically if I start a charity and donate all the money to myself, I am a Vet Run Charity, giving money to a Veteran…
Oh this is comedy gold in the making.
I give to VFW and American Legion when they set up places. I’ll also give to the Salvation Army, or to the various youth groups raising funds every year for their respective sports or other activities.
After being taken for a fool by the Navy Veteran’s Association, then getting countless mail and calls from other “charities” (#2 and #10 on that list), I no longer donate anything when I am solicited.
@24, hmmmm….you may be on to something….
#3 Veritas … actually an animal “welfare” foundation killing puppies is not that farfetched. There is a metric-ton shiteload out there on (wait for it!) … PETA, doing exactly that … collecting truckloads of puppies and kittens (always more adoptable than adult animals) and euthanizing them. Ingrid Newkirk and her circle are apparently bat-guano nuts. But the Hollywood lefties love them like they love Breanna.
#27, the last figure I saw from maybe 2 years ago was that PETA euthanized over 90% of the animals that came to them while most local shelters scross the country end up euthanizing no more than 20%. PETA doesn’t want animals to be pets because they’re against animal exploitation, but their solution to that problem is The Final Solution.
One of my college professors explained to us that he regularly donated to a wildlife charity for years. Eventually they fell out of favor with him and he sent in a final donation ($20 or $40 I can’t remember) with a letter stating this would be his last donation and they should put it to good use. Over the next year they continued to send him solitation letters in the mail. At the end of the year he added up all the postage and they spent his entire donation trying to get more money out of him.
TMB: there’s an adjunct strategy that goes well with that.
Some charities send you a prepaid envelope with which to return your donation. I feel that these deserve the courtesy of a reply.
I take a Sharpie or Magic Marker and write, in large print, on the form or card to be returned, “Remove me from your mailing list”, and sign it. Then I stuff that – along with whatever else they sent me that will fit – into the prepaid envelope and drop it in the mail.
That way they are
(1) formally notified in writing to drop me from their list;
(2) have to pay for the postage to send them notification to take me off their mailing list;
(3) have to pay someone to open the envelope and look at the stuff; and
(4) have to pay someone to haul away extra trash (the stuff I sent back to them with their donation form).
Some get the message right away. Others, not so quickly.
If there’s not a prepaid envelope, they get torn in half and put in the newspaper recycling bin or trash.
Good idea, Hondo, I’ll have to copycat that! As for the differences, the Red Cross is headed by “Directors” drawing plush six-digit salaries while the Commanding General of the Salvation Army draws about $33,000 per year, and many who have been hit by natural disasters will tell you that the Salvation Army arrived well before the Red Cross did. I donate to the SA without a second thought, others, forget it!!
Hondo, I’ve heard of that game before. The person who told me about it years ago used to send the organization his junk mail just to be a dick. He also talked about modifying the prepaid envelope to send his real snail mail. I can’t remember if that was something he was planning or he was actually doing it.
TMB: yeah, I can’t take credit for thinking of it originally. But it sure as hell does feel good to send
scamming bastardscharities who don’t seem to take no for an answer back their junk on their nickle. (smile)Not sure if it’s legal to use the franked “Business Reply Mail” envelopes to send mail to other organizations. That seemed a bit . . . unethical to me, so I haven’t done that.
However, if they send me a stamped envelope (a few have), well, as far as I’m concerned that’s fair game. Just remember to black out the narrow barcode near the bottom front of envelope. As I understand it, some postal sorting centers use that to help sort mail. Not blacking it out might delay things.
PETA and Ingrid Newkirk, along with Wayne Purcelli at HSUS, really despise domesticated animals and would just as soon see them dead as not. PETA, in fact, doesn’t even like service dogs or guide dogs. “It’s slavery,” to quote them.
The Northern Illinois Food Bank never turns anyone away, period. Ditto, Society of St. Andrew, which also has gleaning weekends where anyone can join a group of people harvesting edible food left behind by harvesting machines.
There are two pet no-kill pet rescues I donate to, and they’re local. And rather than send money to a vets’ group, I’d donate it to the programs at Hines VA center and Lovell FMHCC.
I prefer volunteering my time rather than my money which I can be pretty sure is being put to good use. When I do make actual donations, its usually material things to the local Goodwill or Salvation Army. I get the warm fuzzy, someone gets some older but still servicable clothes, and I get to lighten my load just before a PCS.
My kids wanted to write to soldiers overseas so I researched different ways to do that. I found a charity that gave you addresses to soldiers for a donation. I didn’t have it to give but this was important to my kids and I so I did it. I later found out it wasn’t what it promised to be and I don’t think my letters were ever received. I know nothing at all about the Military or how that stuff works so I guess I was an easy mark. Through more research I found Don Shipley and then TAH. So I guess some good did come out of it, to bad my kids never got to correspond with soldiers though.
So THAT’s how you ended up here Valkyrie! Too cool. For me, it was a coworker (former USMC SGT, did time in Iraq) who posted a pic of the now-infamous MSgt Soup Sandwich to his FB – he and I have had a long running in joke about .mil posers – and ole Soupy was so jacked up, even to my civilian eye, that I had to learn ‘the rest of the story,’ as Paul Harvey would say. A Google search of teh interneys led me here. I am a connoisseur of morons, so this site is like a candy factory for me.
As a NPO minor; just read the Form 990 before you give. (to any charity)
It tells the tale.
If there is not one, then they made less than 50k in the past fiscal year.
Then it is up to your. After all, its your money.
PS: Salvation Army rocks.