Thursday, December 13, 2007

Charities claiming to help veterans offer very little real charity...

The problem is not just that we need government regulation of charities, the real problem is that people do not do enough research as to how much money donated to a charity really ends up in the hands of the person that particular charity is designed to help. When you realize there are charities out there who claim to be helping veterans yet only one penny out of every dollar ends up being given to veterans, it's a sign of the time that some of these charities, related to the military or not, have become money making schemes for those involved. Read some of the examples shared in the Washington Post, but I recommend going even deeper, take a look at the salaries earned by some of the top charities in the United States:

Harold Varmus, M.D., President/CEO, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center $3,016,138
Kenneth L. Connelly, Asst. Chief Scout Executive Boy Scouts of America - N.O. $1,076,626
Donald E. Thomas, COO American Cancer Society $974,819
Wayne Lapierre, Executive VP National Rifle Association $953,110
M. Cass Wheeler, Exec. Dir./CEO American Heart Association $926,467
Gloria A. Feldt, Past President Planned Parenthood Federation of America $926,106
Roxanne Spillett, President/Governor Boys & Girls Clubs of America - N.O. $878,567

ABC News has an additional report on this I recommend watching that states a much higher dollar amount, over 400 million that has been donated to military charities, the Washington Post reports this at $266 million.

It should also be pointed out that Roger Chapin, head of the California-based charity, Help Hospitalized Veterans, has gone into hiding rather than to testify before Congress. They've also provided a pdf so you can see which charities received an A+ so that if do want to donate to a charity that is designed to help veterans, you'll know who you can trust...

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