Veterans Support Organization under scrutiny again
Someone sent us a link to story at WPTV in Palm Beach County, Florida in regards to a veteran who confronted a fellow soliciting near a Publix store there. The fellow was soliciting for a group called Veterans Support Organization. The veteran who confronted him was Andy Rubenstein, a Desert Storm veteran who asked the beggar some basic questions that he couldn’t answer. So, the beggar called his boss. The boss came and cleared out the booth and took off – not the reaction of a legitimate organization.
A quick Google of VSO turns up a warning from Charity Navigator. They were fined in Tennessee for violating the state’s charitable solicitations law. A report last year by a local Dallas station says that they’ve been banned from several states for things like hiring felons and misleading the public. In fact, Florida, where the initial story occurred, has recently fined them.
According to the article in dallas, VSO takes in $7 million/year, but most of it goes to soliciting for more money and paying it’s officers. They have been accused of threatening their beggars for not making daily goals. Sounds like a sweet gig.
Category: Phony Vet Charities
haven’t they been featured on here before? I know I have run across them before, it had to do with the same crap they are accused of today.
Yup, they have been in here a few times now… bunch of frauds.
Interesting, more and more of this bullshit in Florida. Makes me ashamed to live here. Maybe I’ll go back to Pennsylvania. Ive seen this in the county I live in. It’s pretty rampant. I swear I’ve run across more of my share of phonies.
Live where you want to live, because you’ll see this wherever you go. Our local Walmart looks like a flophouse for SV in the evenings here — guys walking around with patches and pins and long beards and scraggly hair, making sure everybody notices them and thanks them for their service, and you can be sure a few bucks won’t be turned down. It’s rampant, and it’s everywhere.
About as shady as Wounded Warrior Project…
Word.
Oh come on, WWP is not even close to this level of buttfuckery.
Wanna bet?
Word.
I just read their latest After Action magazine.
Read page nine about their criteria to become a member.
What did it say?
You are eligible for inclusion if you served post 9/11.
Period.
+1000.
SCUM!
These POS’s were up in front of a Safeway store here in Tucson a few months ago, the jackass could not answer any of my questions about where to money was going, store manager kicked them off the property.
Where was that?? I’d like to put the word out to steer clear of these types.
Silverbell and Grant /// store manager had the cops throw them out they were at the west door to the store…. A Master Sargent. Up at D-M said they had issues with these same clowns over at Rita Ranch back in December also
I’ll be watching for these asshats now
They’re in Vail, AZ every week. Today there were two of the at the Walgreens on Mary Cleveland. Claimed they were Agent Orange disabled. One guy did have a VA ID, but it said he was born in 1960.
Usual poser wear–camo pants, Special Forces t-shirt and boonie hat with POW/MIA patch. Aforementioned scraggly neck beards and ponytails completed the ensemble.
Fuckers.
This appears to be nothing more than All-Points Logistic’ civic outreach program that allows them to connect (and fleece) the greater Florida community.
A subsidiary of APL responsible for the raising of funds to help maintain the “lifestyle” of senior executives. Phildo the anal dildo “strongly” supports their work!
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Here’s their website, if you want to lose your lunch.
http://theveteranssupport.org/
Old site. Looks to have been created in 2012, last updated 2013.
I was looking to see if there were any “chapters” (sarc/) in Utah.
Yeah, it’s an old site, but it shows where they are based out of, now, which is Florida and meathead is still HMFIC.
Take a look a the financials. Almost $5M total revenue in 2012, $1.25m paid out in salaries, compensation, and benefits.
Hey, that’s only 25% for salaries/compensation/bennies. Isn’t that the norm for a “good charity”?
(Yes, I’m being sarcastic. As hell.)
If I remember correctly, that’s not far off from the American Red Cross (not that I’d advocate for the ARC these days).
Excerpt from CFC review:
“Most striking, the federal government’s Combined Federal Campaign, which raised nearly $250 million for nonprofits in 2003, requires that participating organizations certify that their combined fundraising and administrative costs constitute no more than 25 percent of the organizations’ total revenues.”
FWIW: Charity Navigator says the ARC spends 9.5% of it’s intake for fundraising and administrative expenses – 6.0% for the former, and 3.5% for the latter.
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3277#.VZ7ZfEa2qew
Threatening their beggars? What is this, some kind of Dickensian charity?
Someone needs an asswhipping.
Yesterday as I was coming out of supermarket I saw a car with a large, diamond-shaped logo that said Veterans Support Organization of Arkansas and wondered if it was these same phonies.
The guy who heads up this organization, Van Houten, pays himself almost $150k a year but I wonder how much he’s raking off in over a million bucks worth of expenses?
Has anybody FOIA’d Vanhouten yet?
Think I’ll take this fraudulent load of crap (Veterans Support Organization) up in my 747 and flush it.
Veterans Support Organization should give this guy a job. 😉
WARNING: This video contains extremely graphic language
Shit… she tore his ass up! GET SOME!!!