This is outrageous! Do NOT donate to these charities.

[madinmaryland]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/opinion/08fri1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes and Help Hospitalized Veterans.

An envelope arrived in our office the other day. It had the bulky, tawdry look of junk mail: pink and lavender Easter eggs, a plastic address window and a photo of a young man in fatigue shorts using crutches to stand on his only leg. “Thousands of severely wounded troops are suffering,” it read. “Will you help them this Easter?”

It was a plea for money from the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes, one of the worst private charities — but hardly the only — that have been shamefully milking easy cash from the suffering and heartache caused by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The coalition and its sister organization, Help Hospitalized Veterans, were among a dozen military-related charities given a grade of F in a study last December by the American Institute of Philanthropy, a nonprofit watchdog group. These and other charities have collected hundreds of millions of dollars from kind-hearted Americans and squandered an unconscionable amount of it on overhead and expenses — 70 percent or 80 percent, or more. The usual administrative outlay for a reputable charity is about 30 percent. Money that donors surely assumed was going to ease the pain and speed the healing of injured soldiers went instead to junk-mail barrages, inflated executive salaries and other forms of corporate-style bloat.

It’s all legal. There is very little regulation in the charity game, and if someone like Roger Chapin, the “nonprofit entrepreneur” who founded the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes and Help Hospitalized Veterans, wants to mismanage your money, he has great leeway in doing so. His veterans’ charities raised more than $168 million from 2004 to 2006, but spent only a pittance — about 25 percent — to help veterans. The rest, nearly $125 million, went to fund-raising, administrative expenses, fat salaries and perks. Mr. Chapin gave himself and his wife $1.5 million in salary, bonuses and pension contributions over those three years, including more than $560,000 in 2006. The charities also reimbursed the Chapins more than $340,000 for meals, hotels, entertainment and other expenses, and paid for a $440,000 condominium and a $17,000 golf-club membership.

And what did the soldiers get? Try almost $18.8 million in “charitable” phone cards sent to troops overseas in 2006 — not to let them call their families, but rather to call up a stateside business that sells sports scores.

..snip

:grr:

[sellitman]

1. I wonder how much Mr Chapin gave to the Repiggies in political contributions?

Inquiring minds.....

[madinmaryland]

5. Not much, according to Newsmeat...

http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=CA&last=chapin&first=roger

:shrug:

[rpannier]

2. Recommend

Hope this story makes 100 recs

[panader0]

3. Sadly, it's not just this charity

Even so called 'reputable" charities pay their leaders outrageous salaries. I don't give to charity.

[madinmaryland]

7. Yes, a lot of them have high overhead, but this guy has taken it

to the ridiculous level.

[intaglio]

4. Odd how open the "entrepreneur" is

Coalition Saluting America's Heroes = CSAH = CASH :puke:

[BOSSHOG]

6. I'm on their mailing list

Their trash fills up my shredder. They should be jailed. Sadly my donations to Vets organizations has dwindled down to the DAV. I know they are legitimate.

[madokie]

8. the trouble with giving to charities far off is you have no idea what they do with your money

plus when you give to one then your mailbox will be full with others wanting to drink of the same well. Finally my Wife is seeing the light on that. We have a local charity that takes in the down trodden from our local streets so thats where our commitment lies.

[Donnachaidh]

9. I seem to recall something recent about them being investigated

It may have been local news here in Atlanta. I wonder if anything is being done on the Federal level?

[madinmaryland]

11. He has had to testify in front of congress.

There is some info in the link I provided.

[Nye Bevan]

10. Here is a list of *good* charities

who do not waste most of their donations on fundraising, salaries etc.

http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html

This is from the AIP (American Institute of Philanthropy) which assigns each charity a grade (from A to F) depending upon how much money donated actually gets to the worthy cause.

[madinmaryland]

12. Thanks MathGuy!

:thumbsup:

[DCKit]

13. "The Police Widow's and Orphan's Fund" distributes 5% of their take.

A west coast "charity" with a nation-wide reach. I may have the exact name wrong, but all the words are there.

They used to call me all the time, but I haven't got a call from them since I told them I'd think about sending money - if I ever saw any police patrolling my neighborhood (old ladies were being routinely robbed on the street right below my balcony). I found out about their largess much later.

Give locally to the groups working in your city or town. They're a lot easier to keep an eye on.

[conspirator]

14. In UK charities are usually big business, they employ a lot of people and have CEOs and

everything.

[Blue_Tires]

15. shameful

even though i know he is not alone and there are even shadier people out there

[madinmaryland]

16. Kicked for the afternoon crowd.