Charity rip-offs

Moderators. if you feel this topic belongs in the PWEC please just transfer it there.


http://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/national/h...amp;ocid=AARDHP

Today I found out a charity I have donated to in the past
Was used by its founder and CEO to finance an extravagant life style for him and his family.
This is the second such scandal in Ireland in the space of a year.
The first one was unbelievable nearly all the funds raised went on salaries and pension contributions for its senior managers
Of late I have become very sceptical of charity's, don't get me wrong I have always donated even when things were bad for me financially. I truly believe helping people is the right thing to do.
And will continue to do so.
I will be careful who I donate to in future though, The amount of cold calls and people knocking on my door is getting ridiculous Charity's are now using contractors/canvassers to go door to door.
But when they do call to me I ask very awkward questions like how much of my donation will actually reach the people who need it etc.
They tend to make an excuse and make a hasty exit.
What are your thoughts on this is it right that charity's can use contractors or managers can pay them self hundreds of thousands a year.

I've found that helping people in need directly instead of going through a middle-man (ie charity) works much better. Having said that there are a few organizations that are first rate when it comes to integrity such as St. Jude Hospital.

Yep, I found a charity and work with them. I mean actually work with them as well as make donations. I guess that's the only way you can be sure.

Sadly, I have lost all faith in most of the charitable organizations. The Wounded Warrior case, the Susan G. Komen case, etc.. I can tell you from experience the American Cancer Society, Cancer Care.org, etc, are essentially useless to the people they claim to be helping.

Funny thing, I was assigned a patient advocate from the ACS. Her name was Ashonte. After just one useless phone conversation with here she would not return my phone calls or any of my e-mails. So I just gave up on getting help with them. About three months later I started getting several calls daily from something call the Cure Cancer for Kids Charity (showed on caller ID). After a couple of months I decided to answer one of their calls. I say hello, and the lady says, is this Mr. ______? I say yes it is. She then says, boy you sure are a hard person to get a hold of. Then she goes into her pitch about me donating to this children's cancer fund. As she is talking, I recognize the voice. I say, Is this Ashonte from The ACS? She paused for a moment, and says how do you know who I am ? I just hung up on her. Just disgusted beyond belief.

Guys I am most certainly not advocating not donating to charitable causes.
Just saying watch who you donate to.
I cant think of any worse type of con person then one who pretends he/she is trying to help people.
The thing is what there doing is not illegal, there should be some type of register for charity's and you should need a licence to run one with full police and financial background checks made.
Also all salaries pension contributions and expenses should be published annually for employees of charity's.

When a big typhoon hit the Philippines a few years ago, it made the news and people all over were keen on donating. First of all, I found it weird that people were concerned all of a sudden; typhoons hit the Philippines every year and one time, the eye of the typhoon actually went over the house we were renting at the time! Obviously, some typhoons are worse than others.... anyway, people were donating left-right-and-center. I didn't.

Flashback a few years ago when I was still living there. Big storm hit the city I lived in.... we get rains all the time and the occasional edges of a big storm, but this one hit us dead on. People living near the coast and rivers needed help. The Philippine government along with a reputable charity organization ended up with three big trucks' worth of goods to give to the city and as they made their way to one of the hardest-hit locations, they were told to stop and wait. They ended up waiting for 2 hours or so as a big celebrity flew in, gave a speech, and so on. All the while, the needy were ignoring the presentation and were begging the people on the trucks to start handing out the goods. The volunteers could not as they were told NOT to give out anything. When the presentation was over, the celebrity and the trucks moved on to two more locations before any of the goods were handed out. Disgusting.

At the same time, my alma mater organized a relief fund to help out those in need. Every cent donated made its way to those in need. No speeches, no drama, just go in and give.

My classmates from high school were present in both instances and can verify that this has happened. After that, I would not give to any charity organization at all. I **WILL** give to a trusted friend when they organize relief funds, but not to charity.

BTW, when big boxes of goods reached the Philippines after that big typhoon that made the news, there were reports of relief goods not being given out yet because they had to be "repackaged" into plastic bags with the name and face of a local politician. Again, disgusting.

So it can be the charity itself that's ripping you off or the people who distribute the goods. Some people totally have no shame.

I'm not surprised. The only "large" medical charities I personally support are those for the Children's Hospitals and St. Jude's. But you really don't have to look very far at all to see neighbors and friends whose children are in dire need. Giving directly may not give tax write offs, but it can be more effective. (There are some people who just can't be trusted with donated money.)

I do donate to organized charity. With some research, it's possible to find those which appear to be most useful toward their purposes.

And as Panzer mentions, direct help also works. This can offer it's own challenges, though.

LB4LB, sorry to hear of your experiences.

There are good ones out there. The Salvation Army does great work without bloated administration costs. The Shriners are good ( I always wanted to join so I could were the Fez and drive the little go-carts in he holiday parades). I am just glad the United Way finally stopped their border line extortionist tactics by going into your work place and using your boss as a way of getting you to donate.

Back in the late 1980's my brothers wife and two small children were burned really bad in an auto accident. They spent months in The University of Michigan Burn Center. Everyday there were Shriners in there helping the children. They would bring in toys, play with the kid, help the parents with the stress, etc. and so on. I was really impressed.

I like the Children's Hospital here in B'ham as a cause.

And then there are the 50-50 organizations I support, namely the Red Cross.

While it's dead simple to show the amount of waste and spending a dollar in advertising to get a dollar ten in donations stuff in the Red Cross, I also remember a Red Cross lady smuggling four packs of cigarettes and two bottles of beer into the Landstuhl hospital in Germany, wrapped in a sweatshirt and sweat pants for me to wear instead of a hospital gown back in '91.

I know that probably half of everything I give will most likely be pissed away, but the other half can be very well spent.

Agreed on children's hospitals and St Jude. Otherwise, we don't directly and of our own accord. I assume everyone that comes to the door is a scam artist. For many, you can also set up Amazon Smile for a % of your purchases to go to an organization. We do that for animal charities and mix it up a bit over time.

Found this info. Interesting

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/charities.asp

WWP is a scam, stay away from them IMHO.

For homelessness in the US, I give to Pacific Garden Mission, they receive no money from the government, but do a lot for the people. Some of the homeless don't like the rules, but honestly, I've faced more rules in the military than they do. They really do help a lot of people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0D4ddUCd5c

I also like Feed the Children, they had some issues in the late 90's, but replaced the entire staff and now it has 90% of the money going to the people.

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3691

For mission work I like Voice of the Martyrs, the rating is only a 3 of 4, but that is because the Fund Raising runs about 25%. Now, you might be offended at this number, but the Fund Raising includes a news letter that shares about persecuted Christians (the most persecuted minority in the world and one of the few peoples who are facing extermination in some parts of the world). Christians believe that prayer is important and so the news letter falls under fund raising, but it also brings awareness and encourages other Christians to pray about fell brothers in Christ. I get it if you aren't a Christian and don't get that, but it's a good charity, especially for Christians in Muslim areas in the ME, Pakistan, and Africa.

My general rule for charities is that the smaller the charity, the more likely the funds won't be abused. Hard to abuse the funds when you only bring in $100k, whereas a charity with 200 million will be more willing to splurge on wants and such.

NEVER donate to the professional charities...they have over heads and salaries to pay therefore very little of your donation ever gets to where its needed the most.

If you are going to donate, either give your time or find a local charity that works directly with people so you know every single penny you give ends up where its actually needed.

I say this as someone who has worked closely to help our local cancer unit over the last year. Every single penny we give ends up where its needed.

Regards

Mailman

The whole "Pink out the park" thing that all the pro sports teams are doing is just wrong. They are sending out a false message by saying they are trying to raise awareness. It's like they have no shame.

Boy Scouts is not a charity, and I'm far from wealthy, but that is where most of my support goes. I use my truck and trailer for most camping trips, help kids get uniforms and funds for summer camp and trips, and usually end up funding part of most Eagle projects, buying and hauling mulch and providing tools. I have worked on some Habitat houses, largely because the folks who benefit have a hand in the effort too. Organized and often heavy handed charities don't appeal to me. I do give gladly to the Salvation Army.

The guy I mentioned in the first post has done a runner with his wife it turns out he had a doggy past.
And even more money then first thought has been misappropriated,
There's a public out cry because the charity involved was a suicide hot line.
That had to shut down some lines because of lack of funds.
Today I went to the dump there was a sign asking people to donate cloths for the doggy charity he was running.
The thing is he has been clever so it will be hard to convict him.
Personally I hope they can screw him and take his home and all that he has stolen.

There are watchdog organizations that track charities, for example: charitywatch