Veteran Charity Ripoffs

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Stuff like this makes me crazy ...

Today, I was watching FOX and they were reporting about a charity (DVNF) that had raised between $52 million and $54 million and ZERO went to any veterans.

Charities generally hire a "fundraising company", pay them first and keep what is left.

So when you pay a "fundraising company" more than a dollar to raise a dollar, the "fundraising company" (not the charity) gets to keep ALL the money.

This "fundraising company" ... Quadriga Art, LLC ... is a "fundraising company" for over 500 charities. ...

So, I googled this when I came home and found this link ---> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/...d-national-veterans-foundation_n_1499314.html

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Some of the text below:

A charity that claims to offer services to veterans with disabilities has squandered millions of dollars on marketing costs, instead of addressing the needs of its clients, CNN reports.

Disabled Veterans National Foundation (DVNF), based in Washington, D.C., was slapped with an “F” rating by a charity watchdog group for failing to spend the nearly $56 million its raised since 2007 on actual veteran services.

The organization says its mission is to help underserved veterans -- those suffering from PTSD, brain injuries and battling homelessness –- and to collaborate with likeminded nonprofits, but it appears to have been concentrating its efforts on paying for fundraising services and doling out cheap giveaways. But according to CNN, the nonprofit has used most of its donor dollars to pay Quadriga Art LLC, which helps the organization with its fundraising efforts.

"Up to $2 billion is raised in the name of veterans in this country and it's so sad that a great deal of it's wasted," said Daniel Borochoff, president of CharityWatch, the group that rated the organization. "Hundreds of millions of dollars of our charitable dollars intended to help veterans are being squandered and wasted by opportunists and by individuals and companies who see it as a profit-making opportunity."

CNN has tried to contact the DVNF for more than a year, but hasn't received any specific replies.

But DVNF is hardly the exception.

Nearly half of the 39 veterans charities rated by the American Institute of Philanthropy in its April/May 2011 report received F grades, The Huffington Post reported in June. These nonprofits failed mostly because of their exorbitant fundraising expenses and the fact that they spend a small ratio of their expenses on charitable services.

"[DVNF] sent us 2,600 bags of cough drops and 2,200 little bottles of sanitizer," J.D. Simpson of Alabama veterans charity St. Benedict's told CNN. His nonprofit was hit hard after last year’s tornadoes."And the great thing was, they sent us 11,520 bags of coconut M&M's. And we didn't have a lot of use for 11,520 bags of coconut M&M's.”

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