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December 25, 2007
Nyew York Times Editorial
Giving Till It Hurts
The public has rightly shown its empathy with wounded and troubled war veterans, contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to private charities that claim to have the veterans’ best interests at heart. A new study details rampant abuses of the money flow.
Of 29 military charities vetted by the American Institute of Philanthropy, a nonprofit watchdog group, only nine received passing grades in managing resources. Eight offenders passed on less than a third of the donations to those in need and one spent 99 percent of its take on overhead. Sullying the meaning of charity, executives squander money on costly direct-mail appeals, patriotism-tinged trinkets and bloated salaries.
It is important to stress that the institute gave high ratings to several veterans’ charities (www.charitywatch.org). But, as a category, veterans’ charities were found to perform far worse than the average of more than 500 charities studied in 36 categories.
Because there is so little regulation, for-profit fund-raising companies can work with sympathetically named veterans charities and keep 80 percent or more of donations. Dickens’s Fagan could only envy another dodgy enterprise that saw $18 million in “charitable” phone cards distributed to overseas military personnel last year — cards not to let soldiers call home, but rather to call up a stateside business that sells sports scores.
Some legitimate charities hoard their donations. Even as homeless veterans became a major national problem, the charities run under the auspices of the military services spent only $59 million on assorted educational and financial programs in 2005 while sitting on more than $600 million in combined balances. Their eligibility requirements don’t easily accommodate the homeless and clearly need to be revised.
There are no laws adequately tracking scurrilous performers, enforcing accountability or limiting the amounts charities can waste on overhead as they enjoy tax exemptions. Congress had better act quickly to come up with an effective remedy before the trust of a generous public becomes buried in cynicism.
The 12 veterans’ charities rated as the worst failures collected more than $260 million last year while keeping at least double the recommended 35 percent for overhead — that as the flood of needy veterans continues to grow. This is a disgrace that threatens to make the notion of charity a casualty of war.#
Nyew York Times Editorial
Giving Till It Hurts
The public has rightly shown its empathy with wounded and troubled war veterans, contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to private charities that claim to have the veterans’ best interests at heart. A new study details rampant abuses of the money flow.
Of 29 military charities vetted by the American Institute of Philanthropy, a nonprofit watchdog group, only nine received passing grades in managing resources. Eight offenders passed on less than a third of the donations to those in need and one spent 99 percent of its take on overhead. Sullying the meaning of charity, executives squander money on costly direct-mail appeals, patriotism-tinged trinkets and bloated salaries.
It is important to stress that the institute gave high ratings to several veterans’ charities (www.charitywatch.org). But, as a category, veterans’ charities were found to perform far worse than the average of more than 500 charities studied in 36 categories.
Because there is so little regulation, for-profit fund-raising companies can work with sympathetically named veterans charities and keep 80 percent or more of donations. Dickens’s Fagan could only envy another dodgy enterprise that saw $18 million in “charitable” phone cards distributed to overseas military personnel last year — cards not to let soldiers call home, but rather to call up a stateside business that sells sports scores.
Some legitimate charities hoard their donations. Even as homeless veterans became a major national problem, the charities run under the auspices of the military services spent only $59 million on assorted educational and financial programs in 2005 while sitting on more than $600 million in combined balances. Their eligibility requirements don’t easily accommodate the homeless and clearly need to be revised.
There are no laws adequately tracking scurrilous performers, enforcing accountability or limiting the amounts charities can waste on overhead as they enjoy tax exemptions. Congress had better act quickly to come up with an effective remedy before the trust of a generous public becomes buried in cynicism.
The 12 veterans’ charities rated as the worst failures collected more than $260 million last year while keeping at least double the recommended 35 percent for overhead — that as the flood of needy veterans continues to grow. This is a disgrace that threatens to make the notion of charity a casualty of war.#
Labels: charitable abuses, charity watch, New York Times
posted by Dr. Stephen L. Goldstein at 11:43 AM
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