Human Kindness

Human Kindness?

        We all get the phone calls, "Hello, this is Bobby, calling for the HF - the Hemorrhoid Foundation - our motto -  'Don't  be a pain in the ass'! "  We all see those solicitors wading into traffic with pool chemical buckets when the lights are red, sort of like homeless persons with (somewhat) better haircuts.  Our mailboxes  are flooded with the slick mail outs featuring a Starving Child, Vet, Law Enforcement Officer, Cancer Ridden Child, etc. All these methods of delivery feature much the same message - "Send us your money; trust us, we'll see that it helps those we purport to serve."  Should you (we) do so?

        If these organizations were all trustworthy, then it would be simply a matter of social conscience. Unfortunately, that is far from the reality of the Charity Industry. I refer to it as an industry because that's what it is in more cases than not. How do we arrive at defining of "good/worthy" charity vice ill intentioned  scam preying on our sympathies? Probably there is no "one size fits all" yardstick for such a determination, but as a general approach, there are some common factors for analysis. Appropriate questions might be as follows: 

        First, "How much money in donations flow into the box labeled 'your charity's name here' ?"  Second, "How much of what is  donated  simply pays the persons or organizations which solicit the donations?" Finally, "How much of the remaining money actually gets to the nominal objects of the charity?"  This final question seems as if it ought to be the simple subtraction of  the amount collected minus solicitation costs, but almost never comes even close to that amount because of that great black hole labeled "administrative costs."  These include salaries, some ludicrous in size, as one story farther along will show.

        First, let's look at charities which fare very well when these questions are posed:  In the below table, "efficiency" means collections minus all costs, with the remains actually spent as the donors intended. In actuality anything over 80% places a charity well up in the rankings of the Top 50 U.S. Charities

Rank        Charity                             Revenue     Efficiency 

1.     United Way                             $4.14 B       91%

2.     Salvation Army                       $4.11 B       90%

3.     Feeding America                     $2.06 B       99% (!!)

4.     Task Force for Global Health  $1.66 B      100%(!!!)

5.     St. Jude Children's Hospital     $1.3 B         83%

6.     YMCA                                      $6.60 B      86%

7.     Goodwill                                   $5.37 B      97% (!!)

8.     Food for the Poor                      $913 M       96% (!!)

9.     Direct Relief                             $892 M       100%

10.   American Cancer Society         $886 M        79%

Just as a matter of interest, note than there are neither Veteran's organizations or Law Enforcement/Fire Fighter groups among the best in the nation. Make of that what you will

        On the other hand, there are some charities, similarly named, but less worthy which fail the above questionnaire miserably. The worst of these , number 1 and number 2 on a national list of the Worst Charities in America are  Florida based.

        The ostensibly worst charity in America operates from a metal warehouse behind a gas station in Holiday, Florida, benefitting to a great extent from a name recognition similarity to a more worthy charity with the same stated aims, helping terminally ill kids and their families. Children's Miracle network, based in Utah and currently chaired by Marie Osmond,  actually devotes almost 90% of revenues to those it serves.  Likewise, "Give Kid's the World" based in Florida, channels 91.6% of donations to....deserving kids!

        However, going to the Dark Side - Every year, Kids Wish Network  (note the name similarity to the above superb organizations?)  raises millions of dollars in donations in the name of dying children and their families. Every year, it spends less than 3 cents on the dollar helping kids. Most of the rest gets diverted to enrich the charity’s operators and the for-profit companies Kids Wish hires to drum up donations. In the past decade alone, Kids Wish has channeled nearly $110 million donated for sick children to its corporate solicitors. An additional $4.8 million has gone to pay the charity’s founder and his own consulting firms!  It's easy to see how the name and the slick publications coupled with  phone solicitation might confuse some persons with good intent.   

        Equally mendacious and every bit as deceptive is the other Florida based scam charity (or actually a group of related cancer and disease charities all run by the same family as the "family business."  

       Cancer Fund of America and its spinoffs, like Center Support Services, the Children’s Cancer Fund of America, the Breast Cancer Society, and the American Association for Cancer Support, all are run by James T. Reynolds or members of his family. Best estimates (the Reynolds' are, unsurprisingly, less than forthcoming in this regard) are that less than two cents of every dollar given to the Cancer Fund ever gets in any manner to aid patients or families with cancer (the organization actually gives cancer patients care packages with shampoo and toothbrushes).  A decidedly  larger amount of pennies on the dollar has gone toward paying salaries to Reynolds and his relatives and to fundraising solicitors. During a recent three year span,  Cancer Fund and its affiliates raised $110 million, of which $75 million went to its fundraisers. Cancer Fund paid salaries of over $8 million in one recent year alone. This figure, just salaries, mind you, not solicitation costs, amounts to over 90% more  than patients received in support from the organization during the same period. Well over a million of this went to Reynolds family members.

        The entrepreneurial leader  this collection of nominal of charities is one Jim Reynolds, Sr. The Tampa Bay Times characterizes Mr. Reynolds thus:   “Jim Reynolds, Sr. is a former Army medic with no college degree who worked his way up to lead the Knox County, Tenn., chapter of the prestigious American Cancer Society. In 1984, after eight years with the charity, his boss told him to resign or be fired. The organization accused Reynolds of sloppy bookkeeping, irregular hours and taking title to a 1968 Mustang meant to be auctioned for the charity. After resigning, Reynolds started his own charity. He eventually settled on the name Cancer Fund of America, mimicking American Cancer Society. He even rented a mail drop that shared a similar Atlanta address.” 

     “Urgent pain medication” supposedly provided to critically ill cancer patients amounted to nothing more than over-the-counter ibuprofen, regulators determined. A program to drive patients to chemotherapy, touted by the charity in mailings, didn’t even exist.

        Some truly glaring details include: A Reynolds family charity, Breast Cancer Society, told the IRS it shipped $36 million worth of medical supplies overseas in 2011-  noteworthy if true, however the two companies named as suppliers of the donated goods told the IRS they have no record of ever dealing with the group.  Over the past 20 years, Cancer Fund has been fined by regulators in at least six states, paying more than $525,000 to settle charges that include lying to donors. Those  fines amount to just one-third of one percent of the $177 million raised by Cancer Fund of America over the same period!

       Ultimately, less than one percent of the money raised by the Cancer Fund of America goes to help cancer patients…

In fact, Cancer Fund’s charitable activities over the past decade: Family members nearly $5 million. Cancer patients $890,000. The biggest winners of  Cancer Fund and related charities operations  were the fundraising companies. They earned more than 80 cents of every dollar donated for a total of $80.4 million.

        So, as with Kids Wish Network, we see lofty sounding causes serving simply as conduits for good faith donations to bad faith organizations.       Of the Tampa Bay Times' list of the 48 worst charities in America there are some interesting, but not unexpected common features.

        Of the 48 worst charities in  America, as determined by the income to disbursal to client ratio, there  are 10 nominally Cancer related  charities listed which collected in aggregate more than  $310 million and reimbursed solicitors $260 million of that.  For this "group of shame" an average of a mere 1.8% actually reached cancer sufferers or their families!  An additional 6 are veteran's affairs related, with only marginally better performance. Sadly, as a 26 year military veteran and as previously mentioned, that statistic is disappointing at best

        Numerous Law Enforcement  related titles, totaling  over $50 mil, averaged less than 3%  in  payments to those served  and more than 80% to solicitors. The rest of donation disbursal especially in the top group, The International Association of Police Associations,  an AFL /CIO union, is "administrative costs (union leader salaries?) This is by no means an indictment of the purported beneficiaries (Law Enforcement Officers or Fire Fighters), but more an attempt to expose those who benefit from name recognition of what we are led to believe is support of a worthy causes.   

     In the below table donations refers to all income from donors in millions," paid to solicitors" is what paid solicitors receive in compensation in millions, "% to cause" represents what actually helps those whom the charity allegedly benefits

Charity                             donations /paid to solicitors/% to cause

Int. Assn. of Police Assns:      $66.6 mil / $50.4 mil / .05% (!!!)

Fire Fighters Char. Foundation:  $62.8mil /  $53.8 mil / 7.4%

Amer. Assn. of St. Troopers:     $48.1 mil / $38.6 mil / 8.9%

Assn. of FF's and Paramedics:  $24.0 mil / $21.4 mil / 0.3% (!!!)

US Deputy  Sheriff's Assn:      $25.6 mil / $17.9 mil / 0.8% (!!!)

Police protective Fund:            $37.7 mil / $12.2 mil / 0.7%

     Of these, the last on the list, the Police protective Fund exemplifies the concept of "take the name in vain" theory of charitable "entrepreneurship." From 2001 to 2010, Police Protective Fund raised about $50 million, and reported spending about 85 percent of that on fundraising, including the cost of running its phone rooms in the Tampa Bay area, where callers talk to potential donors about "police safety."  These calls were generally along the line of  "Be careful if you pass a Police car on the side of the road."  The charity paid about $14.8 million of its total fundraising bill to private solicitors.  The charity pays about $1 million a year to a company owned by one of its employees to acquire donor lists and rent phone room equipment. 

             In 2003, Police Protective Fund changed its mission statement from providing aid to officers to "promoting their well-being through education." This  enables  the charity to count its telemarketing operation as an educational program, ergo an expense write off come April 15th. Callers asking for donations also remind people who pick up the phone to "be cautious when driving near police officers."

     From 2001 to 2010, the Police Protective Fund "charity" spent only $260,000 total on direct cash assistance, including benefits provided to the families of police officers killed in the line of duty. This represents a mere .052% of contributions received over the same period. Other than outright theft, this could be the all time low donations to direct assistance ratio in all of American charity. It could be, but sadly it isn't.

        The distinction of taking millions and giving absolutely nothing - zero, zilch, nada,  back in direct aid goes to "Project Cure" of Bradenton Fl., which also operates the related  Alzheimer Disease Fund, National Diabetes Fund, Prostate Cancer Fund, Center For Advanced Heart Research.

        Since 1995 Project Cure (and aliases)  has raised $65 million to (mission statement alert!)  "lobby Congress and educate the public about alternative treatments for cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease." The "office" just off  I-75 south of Tampa is a storage unit filled with plastic bins, unused furniture and Christmas decorations. The "lobbying"  aspect was been limited to a total of under $3000 over the 13 years from 1995 to 2008, while any "educational" efforts are a couple of websites that mostly provide links to articles from other sources. The group claims that its letters to donors serve an educational purpose. "educational,"  get it? The tax exempt refuge of the charity scoundrel.

        The longtime president, one Michael S. Evers, is paid about $200,000 a year.  In one year, 2011, the group spent 90 percent of all donations on fundraising fees and expenses. But that still didn't cover the cost of fundraising, according to Project Cure’s financial reports. Understand the concept here;  "We spent all the donations raising donations and paying  Mr. Evers!"  For over 16  years, Project Cure’s fundraiser has spent more than it raised, leaving the nonprofit in debt, (a true "non-profit!) after paying the President,  Mr. Evers, who works from home. (wanna bet he claims a home office expense?)  In fact, Project Cure owed their phone solicitation company over $3 million after fiscal year 2011,but Mr. Evers got paid!  A reporter, reaching Mr. Evers  at the house he rents about five miles away from his group's office/storage locker, spoke to Evers  who said he frequently works from home  because “It’s not necessary to go into the office,”  (and the house is air conditioned, I'll bet. ). Project Cure is one of a group that is tax-exempt under IRS code but not as a traditional 501c(3) charity. So at least the loss they show every year doesn't give them a tax credit!

       Finally, and given special consideration here  are the veterans groups, some very good, some OK, some really little more than fronts for money grubbing scam artists.

                       Veterans Charities Ratings

This rating system assigns a letter grade based on similar considerations to those I have previously discussed, such as ratio of income to admin costs and the % of direct aid to deseeving vets.   Note, and this is scandalous in my opinion: Many of the "F" rated, and some of the "D" rated charities earn that rating due to grossly inflated compensation to officials and board members, usually veterans, sadly. Note that all the active duty service aid societies are A+ rated!  

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)

Coalition to Support America's Heroes (F)

Disabled American Veterans (D)

Disabled Veterans Association (F)

( MY note: Notice the similarity of the name to Disabled American Veterans, a somewhat better group)

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)

        So, the next time you get the letter or phone call, reflect on this, or even ask the caller what the charity's rating is.  Most will have no clue, but will think it's OK since they get paid! And as a general guideline, just about the only group you should roll down a window for are those Firefighters doing so much, usually in the hot sun, for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, which carries a 92% rating for accountability and transparency!