Veterans charities and their grades

[Mesen]

Thought this would be interesting to you. Ashamed to see the grade the VFW got.
Alls well in whoville but got a house full of kids that wear me out.

c ya
Bree

A word to the wise..

See this web site for ratings:
http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20071213131834.pdf


Among other things, the

rating chart shows fund raising costs per $100 raised for each

charity.Some of the figures are truly

shocking!
Americans gave millions of dollars in the past

year to veterans charities designed to help troops wounded in Iraq and

Afghanistan, but several of the groups spent relatively little money

on the wounded, according to a leading watchdog organization and

federal tax filings.

Eight veterans charities, including some

of the nation's largest, gave less than a third of the money raised

to the causes they champion, far below the recommended standard,

the American Institute of Philanthropy says in a report. One

group passed along 1 cent for every dollar raised, the report

says. Another paid its founder and his wife a combined $540,000 in

compensation and benefits last year, a Washington Post analysis of

tax filings showed.

Richard H. Esau Jr., executive

director of the Military Order of the Purple Heart Service

Foundation, based in Annandale, said the cost of fundraising

limits how much his group can spend on charitable causes. 'Do you have

any idea how much money it costs to advertise? It's unbelievable the

amount of money it takes to advertise in the print and electronic

media,' he said. 'I'm very proud of what we do, and we certainly

do look after everybody. The point is we do the right thing by

veterans.'

Borochoff said many veterans charities are

'woefully inefficient, ' spending large sums on costly direct-mail

advertising. 'They oversolicit. They love to send out a lot

of trinkets and stickers and greeting cards and flags and things

that waste a lot of money that they get ittle return on,' said

Borochoff, who plans to testify before Congress today.

The

philanthropy institute gave F's to 12 of the 29 military charities


reviewed and D's to eight. Five were awarded A-pluses,

including the Fisher House Foundation in Rockville, which the

institute says directs more than 90 percent of its income to

charitable causes.

One group received an A, and one received

an A-minus.

Jim Weiskopf, spokesman for Fisher House, said the

charity does not use direct-mail advertising. 'As soon as you do

direct mail, your fundraising expenses go up astronomically, ' he

said.

One egregious example, Borochoff said, is Help

Hospitalized Veterans, which was founded in 1971 by Roger Chapin, a

veteran of the Army Finance Corps and a San Diego real estate

developer. The charity, which provides therapeutic arts and crafts

kits to hospitalized veterans, reported income of $71.3 million last

year and spent about one-third of that money on charitable work, the

philanthropy institute said.

In its tax filings, Help

Hospitalized Veterans reported paying more than $4 million to

direct-mail fundraising consultants. The group also has run

television advertisements featuring actor Sam Waterston, game show

host Pat Sajak and other celebrities.

Bennett Weiner,

chief operating officer of the Better Business Bureau, said the

agency has 20 standards for reviewing charities, including that a

charity's fundraising and overhead costs not exceed 35 percent of

total contributions.

The American Institute of

Philanthropy, a leading charity watchdog, issued a report card

this month for 29 veterans and military charities. Letter grades

were based largely on the charities' fundraising costs and the

percentage of money raised that was spent on charitable

activities. The charities that received failing grades are in bold

type.

Air Force Aid Society (A+)

American

Ex-Prisoners of War Service Foundation (F)

American

Veterans Coalition (F)

American Veterans Relief

Foundation (F)

AMVETS National Service Foundation (F)



Armed Services YMCA of the USA (A-)

Army Emergency

Relief (A+)

Blinded Veterans Association (D)

Disabled

American Veterans (D)

Disabled Veterans Association

(F)

Fisher House Foundation (A+)

Freedom

Alliance (F)

Help Hospitalized Veterans/Coalition

to Salute America's Heroes (F)

Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund

(A+)

Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation

(F)

National Military Family Association (A)



National Veterans Services Fund (F)



National Vietnam Veterans Committee (D)



Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (A+)

NCOA National

Defense Foundation (F)

Paralyzed Veterans of America

(F)

Soldiers' Angels (D)

United Spinal

Association' s Wounded Warrior Project (D)

USO (United Service

Organization) (C+)

Veterans of Foreign Wars and Foundation

(C-)

Veterans of the Vietnam War & the Veterans Coalition

(D)

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (D)

VietNow

National Headquarters (F)

World War II Veterans

Committee (D)


makes you wonder huh?