The 50 worst, ranked by money blown on soliciting costs

[SugarShack]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by NancyBlueINOklahoma (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Tampa Bay Times


The 50 worst, ranked by money blown on soliciting costs

Totals from the latest 10 years of available federal tax filings

Rank

Charity name

Total raised by solicitors

Paid to solicitors

% spent on direct cash aid, the middle number is what was paid to solicitors!


1 Kids Wish Network $127.8 million $109.8 million 2.5%
2 Cancer Fund of America $98.0 million $80.4 million 0.9%
3 Children's Wish Foundation International $96.8 million $63.6 million 10.8%
4 American Breast Cancer Foundation $80.8 million $59.8 million 5.3%
5 Firefighters Charitable Foundation $63.8 million $54.7 million 8.4%
6 Breast Cancer Relief Foundation $63.9 million $44.8 million 2.2%
7 International Union of Police Associations, AFL-CIO $57.2 million $41.4 million 0.5%
8 National Veterans Service Fund $70.2 million $36.9 million 7.8%
9 American Association of State Troopers $45.0 million $36.0 million 8.6%
10 Children's Cancer Fund of America $37.5 million $29.2 million 5.3%
11 Children's Cancer Recovery Foundation $34.7 million $27.6 million 0.6%
12 Youth Development Fund $29.7 million $24.5 million 0.8%
13 Committee For Missing Children $26.9 million $23.8 million 0.8%
14 Association for Firefighters and Paramedics $23.2 million $20.8 million 3.1%
15 Project Cure (Bradenton, FL) $51.5 million $20.4 million 0.0%
16 National Caregiving Foundation $22.3 million $18.1 million 3.5%
17 Operation Lookout National Center for Missing Youth $19.6 million $16.1 million 0.0%
18 United States Deputy Sheriffs' Association $23.1 million $15.9 million 0.6%
19 Vietnow National Headquarters $18.1 million $15.9 million 2.9%
20 Police Protective Fund $34.9 million $14.8 million 0.8%
21 National Cancer Coalition $41.5 million $14.0 million 1.1%
22 Woman To Woman Breast Cancer Foundation $14.5 million $13.7 million 0.4%
23 American Foundation For Disabled Children $16.4 million $13.4 million 0.8%
24 The Veterans Fund $15.7 million $12.9 million 2.3%
25 Heart Support of America $33.0 million $11.0 million 3.4%
26 Veterans Assistance Foundation $12.2 million $11.0 million 10.5%
27 Children's Charity Fund $14.3 million $10.5 million 2.3%
28 Wishing Well Foundation USA $12.4 million $9.8 million 4.6%
29 Defeat Diabetes Foundation $13.8 million $8.3 million 0.1%
30 Disabled Police Officers of America Inc. $10.3 million $8.1 million 2.5%
31 National Police Defense Foundation $9.9 million $7.8 million 5.8%
32 American Association of the Deaf & Blind $10.3 million $7.8 million 0.1%
33 Reserve Police Officers Association $8.7 million $7.7 million 1.1%
34 Optimal Medical Foundation $7.9 million $7.6 million 1.0%
35 Disabled Police and Sheriffs Foundation $9.0 million $7.6 million 1.0%
36 Disabled Police Officers Counseling Center $8.2 million $6.9 million 0.1%
37 Children's Leukemia Research Association $9.8 million $6.8 million 11.1%
38 United Breast Cancer Foundation $11.6 million $6.6 million 6.3%
39 Shiloh International Ministries $8.0 million $6.2 million 1.3%
40 Circle of Friends For American Veterans $7.8 million $5.7 million 6.5%
41 Find the Children $7.6 million $5.0 million 5.7%
42 Survivors and Victims Empowered $7.7 million $4.8 million 0.0%
43 Firefighters Assistance Fund $5.6 million $4.6 million 3.2%
44 Caring for Our Children Foundation $4.7 million $4.1 million 1.6%
45 National Narcotic Officers Associations Coalition $4.8 million $4.0 million 0.0%
46 American Foundation for Children With Aids $5.2 million $3.0 million 0.0%
47 Our American Veterans $2.6 million $2.3 million 2.3%
48 Roger Wyburn-Mason & Jack M Blount Foundation For Eradication of Rheumatoid Disease $8.4 million $1.8 million 0.0%
49 Firefighters Burn Fund $2.0 million $1.7 million 1.5%
50 Hope Cancer Fund $1.9 million $1.6 million 0.5%



Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/americas-worst-charities/

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So little is going to help. The greed here cannot be ignored.

[ThoughtCriminal]

1. Interesting

Noticeable that there seem to be a disproportionate number of law enforcement related charities on this list. Anyone have theories on why?

[Bay Boy]

4. My hunch would be..

...that many of these 'charities' are run by the same group of thieves. They find a scam that works and stick with it. IOW people like saying yes to an organization that has 'law enforcement' in it's name so they make another one up and continue the scam.

[naaman fletcher]

9. people have a soft spot for disabled firemen and cops

These aren't real charities that happen to be greedy. These are straight up scams.

[Bay Boy]

2. And just to make it worse...

...these low lifes often prey on the elderly who have a hard time saying no to what they think is a worthwhile charity.

[BainsBane]

3. These are largely con operations

They choose names similar to legitimate charities to deceive the public. The worst part is this is legal, and the IRS and other federal authorities do nothing to stop them.

[Fuddnik]

5. My wife made the mistake of giving $10 to the Florida State Troopers Assn. once.

They bugged us for fucking years, sometime 5 times a day. Even when I told them she was dead, they kept calling.

Once they started telling me that a State Trooper was shot in the line of duty. I asked if I gave them $10, would they shoot another one! They kept calling, until we got rid of the land line.

[gvstn]

6. These charities are terrible

But there are many that actually do good but still pay out lots of money to the companies that solicit donations for them. It has always saddened me that so little goes to the actual cause. Just to give a little perspective, the charities look at it like something is better than nothing. So if by hiring an outside company to solicit, the company raises $10 million but charges $6 million the charity still sees it as a net gain of $4 million to run the charity. It is only when something like $3.8 million of that goes to operating expenses rather than the actual work of the charity that you get numbers like the list in your link.

Like you said, so little to actually help the people that most need it. Wish I had a solution.

[adieu]

7. And remember,

the GOP position is that the government shouldn't be helping the poor and that the poor should go to charities. If you were to compare the monetary efficiency of the government, as profligate as it is, with these and thousands more charities, one would have to wonder why not make it more efficient and save everyone more money by having the government do it.

The government steps in because it is cheaper and more efficient to do so. That's often the overlooked fact about the government doing things.

[Danmel]

8. charitynavigator.org

I always check before I give. Lots of really bad charities, crowding out the good ones.

[Hissyspit]

19. Yes.

Although they are not perfect. The rankings fail to take in subjective criteria, but lots of good info.

For instance, Alleycat Allies' rankings go up and down, but the fact is they are the only organization doing what they do, so comparative analysis is somewhat misleading.

[BigThrill]

10. A bit pertinent to the thread...

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong.html

Maybe, maybe not.

[Deep13]

11. Doctors without Borders, Am. Red Cross: not on the list. nt

[Mnemosyne]

15. Neither is Heifer. Nt

[rhett o rick]

17. I think an important point to be made here is that the charities listed my

be legitimate charities. I have seen this investigated before and the legitimate charities were asked why they put up with this scam. Some answered that if they only get 10% of the money raised, at least they got that. In my mind that doesnt cut it. People are donating thinking all their money is going and these legitimate charities that enable these scams are just as guilty.

I will not donate to anyone via solicitation and I wont donate to any charity that deals with these scam'ers. I donate to local organizations that have low overheads.

[BlueJazz]

12. Those scam pricks are out in force, here in Florida. They catch you at major intersections...

...and have these pathetic signs.."Help the poor children, Help the disabled" and other assorted catch lines.

I've known for years that these sons-a-bitches pocket 90-95 percent of the money and give the scraps to those in need.
I usually tell them to "Fuck Off"

[cloudbase]

13. Just say "no"

to anybody that solicits by phone or (e)mail. We're all capable of determining where our giving will do the most good.

[ErikJ]

14. Compare to Conservation International

80% of their revenue goes toward their programs!

REVENUE
Total Contributions $134,217,050
Program Service Revenue $3,436,952
Total Primary Revenue $137,654,002
Other Revenue $3,112,895
TOTAL REVENUE $140,766,897

EXPENSES
Program Expenses $96,382,930
Administrative Expenses $13,324,285
Fundraising Expenses $9,850,291
TOTAL FUNCTIONAL EXPENSES $119,557,506

Payments to Affiliates $0
Excess (or Deficit) for the year $21,209,391

Net Assets $248,736,089

[jessie04]

16. Anyone know about Susan Komen For the Cure ??

I tried looking it up but couldn't find it.

[jessie04]

20. Found this in wiki

In the 2009-2010 fiscal year, ending March 31, 2010, Komen reported approximately US $400 million in earnings. Of this, $365 million (91.3 percent) came from contributions from the public, including donations, sponsorships, race entry fees, and contributed goods and services. Approximately $35 million (8.8 percent) came from interest and dividends and gains on investments.[28]

That same fiscal year, Komen reported approximately
$360 million in expenses.

$283.2 million of this went towards program services:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$75.4 million (20.9 percent of total expenditure) went to research,
$140.8 million (39.1 percent) went to public health education,
$46.9 million (13 percent) went to health screening services,
$20.1 million (5.6 percent) went to treatment services.



The other $76.8 million went to supporting services, including
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$36.1 million (10 percent of total expenditure) toward fund-raising costs
$40.6 million (11.3 percent) toward general and administrative costs.[28]

The Komen CEO salary in 2010 was $459,406 a year.[29] Komen paid founder and CEO Nancy Brinker $417,712 in 2011.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

18. I think the Tampa Bay Times, or maybe a St. Petersburg newspaper,

turned the spotlight on the fake U.S. Navy Veterans Association "charity."

http://www.tampabay.com/topics/specials/worst-charities.page

[OKNancy]

21. very interesting but not Breaking news - Locking

This was published May 26th. The Tampa Bay article about it was published June 6th.

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