East Texas Military Families and Friends Support Network

The East Texas Military Families and Friends Support Network, a non-profit organization ostensibly dedicated to helping veterans and active duty soldiers came to our attention during the discussion of Deserea Hopkins yesterday when it turns out that they recommended the fake soldier to the media as a subject for their article. One of our ninjas decided to do some background on the organization. It seems that they’ve been around since 2009. One of it’s co-founders, Ann Gonzales, has a son on active duty, which is probably what motivated her to help found the organization. So, we know that her heart is in the work that she planned to do. But, as is often the case, she was overwhelmed by the record-keeping process that the IRS requires;

As a support network, they seem to be working with other organizations in the local area, to include the local Patriot Guard, Rose Capital Chapter of the MOAA, and Welcome Home Soldiers.

Their last accessible IRS report was from 2008. The IRS will revoke your status after 3 consecutive years of not filing your paperwork. If they were revoked in 2012, they haven’t filed since 2008-2009, which makes sense as 2008 is listed online. With this being said, as a non-profit, one could argue they have only officially been operating for a period of a year or two versus 10 years.

Once your Charity status is revoked, it doesn’t clearly say you have to close down operations, but you are liable for donations received, meaning paying taxes. They should make it clear to the public that they have lost their status , but it’s really on the donor to verify if they are in good standing.

Significant Facts:

1. They are no longer active according to the IRS as of 15 May 2012.

2. They no longer have an active website

3. They are still having meetings as an organization

4. They are still soliciting donations as of this year

5. They haven’t filed with the IRS since 2009.

6. Haven’t officially been in operations for 10 Years.

7. They don’t have a process in place to verify Veterans they support.

So, they are certainly operating within the limits of the law, although they probably need to do a better job of informing their supporters about what happens to their donations.

The most surprising part of our ninja’s research is in the numbers of the veteran support charities;

In December 2010, there were some 320,000 Non-Profits that were in a revoked status. According to the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) there is currently 1.5 Million nonprofit organizations as of 2015. Texas reported around 100,000 in their state in 2009 alone. There is roughly 100 active nonprofits in the Longview, TX or Gregg County area. Keep in mind, nonprofits that raise $25,000 or less each year, don’t have to file a 990, so there could be several million in operation across the country. Of those millions, 50,000 or more are nonprofits that are specific to military related support….

On top of that, an estimated 400,000 service organizations (i.e. VFW, American Legion, etc.) exist to serve Veterans in some form or fashion. There are roughly 21 Million Veterans living in America. Just in the last 7 years, additional military nonprofit organizations have increased by 41% compared to 19% for general nonprofits. Let’s talk crazy numbers here. If you take the number of current Veterans in America and divide by the number of registered military nonprofits and related service organizations, each organization would be responsible for 47 Veterans each. Raising money on the heads of Veterans has become big business. The issue comes down to legitimacy. I would estimate only 10% of these military organizations actually make a difference. This would mean the other 90%, such as the East Texas Families and Friends Support Network are taking away from those who actually comply with law and have an established service record.

That there is a service organization for every 47 veterans in this country makes me wonder why we have a homeless veteran problem, why there is a veteran suicide problem, why there is a veteran employment problem. It makes me think that there needs to be an overarching organization which could direct the work and spending of these organizations into some sort of focus on the problems instead of the shotgun approach that they are using now – just throwing money and resources at these problems willy-nilly.

The fact that East Texas Military Families and Friends Support Network thought that Deserea Hopkins was a legitimate veteran also points to the problem of verification. The fact that James Waldby is able to scam hospitals and veterans services organizations out of money, his primary means of support, apparently, and they don’t discover his fake service until they Google and find our posts about him, shows that their verification process is in disarray.

This highlights the reason that I don’t do posts about charities – I would spend all of my time researching these thousands of organizations, not a fruitful endeavor, especially given that they have little impact on the lives of veterans.

Category: Who knows