Sham Charities

[waltky]

Charities to watch out for this holiday season...

Government says four cancer charities are shams
Tue May 19, 2015 | Washington (CNN) - Government says donors gave $187 million over four years to support luxury lifestyles, private fundraisers; Donated funds used for luxury cruises, trips to Las Vegas, shopping; FTC and 50 state regulators say charities committed nationwide fraud

In a rare joint action with attorneys general for each of the 50 states, the Federal Trade Commission says four cancer charities run by extended members of the same family conned donors out of $187 million from 2008 through 2012 and spent almost nothing to help actual cancer patients. Each of the charities charged were the subject of extensive reporting by CNN in 2013. And in each instance, none of the four charities would comment. We were ordered out of the building at the Cancer Fund of America in Knoxville, Tennessee, and were the object of an obscene gesture by the CEO of The Breast Cancer Society in Mesa, Arizona.

The Cancer Fund of America is run by James Reynolds Sr. His son James Reynolds Jr. is the CEO of the Breast Cancer Society. Another charity, the Children's Cancer Fund of America, is run by Rose Perkins, the ex-wife of the elder James Reynolds. He's also the CEO of the fourth charity, Cancer Support Services. The government says the charities claimed to provide direct support for cancer patients, breast cancer patients and children with cancer. "These were lies," the government's complaint says.

Jessica Rich, chief of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, says that in all, the charities spent about 97% of donations they received either on private fundraisers or on themselves. Only 3%, she says, went to help actual cancer patients. According to the complaint, funds donated to help cancer patients instead went for personal use, in often lavish ways. "[D]onated funds were used to pay for vehicles, personal consumer goods, college tuition, gym memberships, Jet Ski outings, dating website subscriptions, luxury cruises, and tickets to concerts and professional sporting events," the complaint says. "Most of what we are doing is bringing actions against fraud," says Rich. "And this is as about as bad as it can get: taking money away from cancer victims."

There was also what the FTC calls "rampant nepotism" at play in all of the charities. For instance, at the Breast Cancer Society, James Reynolds Jr. hired his wife, Kristina Hixson, to be his public relations manager. The complaint states that he also hired Hixson's two sisters, her son by a previous marriage, her mother and her step-nephew. According to the complaint, Hixson's mother had been a caterer. At the Breast Cancer Society, she was hired to write grant applications. Moreover,on their tax returns, each charity claimed millions of dollars in donated goods shipped to overseas locations on behalf of cancer patients. The complaint says the charities never owned any of the goods in question and simply paid a fee to a private firm in South Carolina to ship the goods, called gifts-in-kind. CNN went to Guatemala in early 2014 to investigate anyone who may have received those gifts and could find no evidence that they even existed.

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See also:

Critics raising questions over breast cancer charity's fundraising, spending tactics
November 7, 2013 - A charity in The Woodlands has raised millions in the name of breast cancer, but critics are questioning where donations are going

Breast Cancer Awareness Month ended last week, but the fight to help women battling the deadly disease continues year round. Whether or not you know someone touched by breast cancer, many make donations to the cause to show support. One of the groups asking for your money is based in The Woodlands and has raised millions. But as 13 Undercover found out, critics are raising questions about where the cash is actually going. We've tried for weeks to get those running the Breast Cancer Charities of America to sit down on camera to answer questions raised by charity watchdog groups about exactly how they spend your donations. But so far, we haven't had any luck.

The Breast Cancer Charities of America says it exists to eliminate breast cancer as a life-threatening disease. They claim to have a variety of programs, including research, education, advocacy and helping cancer sufferers overseas. But their main service is what they call the Help Now Fund. On YouTube, there's video of Erica Tullis, the charity's executive director in 2011, at a Los Angeles fundraiser for the group. "Our main service is called the Help Now Fund, and we pay for the rent and utilities for women going through breast cancer," she says in the video.

And there is also video of Tullis, just a few weeks ago, again promoting the Help Now Fund at a Conroe fundraiser for her charity. Erica says, "That is the primary program service that we have, is called the Help Now Fund. Where we go in and pay for those rent and utilities for women going through breast cancer." According to the group's publicly available IRS forms, it's received almost $45 million in public donations since it began in 2009. But its Help Now Fund has only handed out just over $187,403 to women to help pay their bills. That's less than 1 percent of the $45 million it's collected in donations. "I think it's horrendous," said Leah Napoliello with the Better Business Bureau.

The Better Business Bureau says it's unable to give the charity a grade because it has repeatedly refused to cooperate in a comprehensive review of its finances. "They say the Help Now Fund is a way to help people facing the disease, and then very little money is going to help the victims of breast cancer. So it's very misleading," Napoliello said. Get this: Of the more than 500 women who've gotten money from the Help Now Fund, the average received is just $348. And according to the charity's website, each woman who applies for financial assistance must meet specific criteria and is limited to a maximum of only $500. "That's just a drop in the bucket of the resources needed," said Ken Berger with Charity Navigator.

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[norwegen]

I'd recommend contributing to local charities only.

It's what I do.

 

[waltky]

DAV gets a D rating from CharityWatch...

Disabled American Veterans Non-Profit Charity Execs Paid As Much As the President, While 200,000 Veterans Homeless
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5, 2013 - Revenue Less Expenses Plummets over 96%, from $15,565,459 to $620,644; - Total Expenses Increase almost 10%, from $116,591,022 to $127,226,570; - Salaries Soar almost 15%, from $48,519,029 to $55,719,317; - Total Revenue Drops almost 3.5%, from $132,156,481 to 127,847,214

As President Barack Obama addressed the attendees of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) annual convention last month at the posh Hilton Orlando resort, nearly 200,000 veterans were living on the streets of America, homeless and hungry, according to Veterans for DAV Reform. What Obama was most likely unaware of was that the National Officers of the DAV have presidential incomes. While the President of the United States is paid $400,000 annually, certain highly-compensated DAV employees have incomes rivaling and in some cases exceeding, that of the Commander-in-Chief.

The DAV, founded in 1920 for disabled veterans of the U.S. armed forces returning from World War I, is headquartered in Cold Springs, Kentucky, with 1,248,150 members for the 2012-2013 year, which makes it the largest charity of its kind. Interestingly, the DAV's membership rolls have been dropping precipitously since 2007–2008, when 1,444,866 disabled vets were members, an almost 14% decline in five years. Although the D-rated* charity has seen its rolls diminish and its revenues plummet, even while absorbing annual donations exceeding $100 million over the past several years in the form of contributions and grants from individuals and corporations, it pays out enormous sums to its leaders.

DAV's 2012 IRS Form 990, released after a three-month extension, most-likely timed to avoid negative publicity at the convention, paints a troubling picture for the charity. Arthur H. Wilson, the retired National Adjutant, saw his pay increase from $353,519 in 2011 to $360,004 in 2012. His 2009 income, a relatively slight $328,252, jumped to $345,077 in 2010. Wilson was being paid so much that just his deferred compensation for 2012 was nearly $70,000. Other DAV bigwigs have deferred compensation exceeding $100,000.

Curiously, Wilson's son, David, on the DAV payroll, has also seen his pay soar over those same years: 2009 - $72,388; 2010 - $75,516; 2011 - $89,684; 2012 - $96,604. *CharityWatch has regularly given DAV a score of D. Veterans for DAV Reform are DAV Life Members who have become disillusioned with the direction the DAV has taken, most visibly illustrated by the massive monetary sums being paid to DAV leadership.

Disabled American Veterans Non-Profit Charity Execs Paid As Much As the President, While 200,000 Veterans Homeless

 

[BlueGin]

UNICEF is another that most of the money goes to the Execs that run it.

 

[Disir]

I don't give to charities. Once I figured out the majority of the money goes to overhead I decided to just give to the individual unless we are talking about items that are used for a shelter or residential treatment center.

 

[waltky]

Miss Disir...

... Uncle Ferd says...

... "Well, Hell-ooo!...

... an' lookit...

... there's Blue Gin an' Gracie too!"

 

[strollingbones]

we all know that heart breaking humane ad...showing pics of dogs/cats...total rip off... donate locally

i was a big supporter of one charity then found out it did more harm than good....still kicking myself....and i thought i had looked into it

 

[strollingbones]

peta supporters are fucking idiots

 

[strollingbones]

kiva was the one i supported...then found out they deal with middle men who do charge interest and people were losing their land etc and so forth to the middle man

 

[Disir]

You're not alone. I thought Kiva was going to be a good thing.

 

[waltky]

Another bad report on BCCA (See previous post)

BEWARE of Breast Cancer Charities of America
5 Jan.`16

Received a call this morning from Breast Cancer Charities of America. During their intro on the call, they used the term "professional fundraiser" which made me suspicious. I instinctively asked how much of my donation would go to the charity. The caller covered the mouthpiece and yelled out "PERCENTAGE" and said they'd connect me with their supervisor. During the short wait I could hear the other callers, Boiler Room style. The supervisor made me ask the question again to which he answered 20%. 20%!! I told him we already make direct donations to several breast cancer orgs, as we do, and then told him his organization should be ashamed of keeping 80% of the donations to turn around only 20% to the charity. I then hung up in disgust.

We support the work done by charities involved in the research, care and rehabilitation of breast cancer patients. You can find many responsible places to donate through organizations such as:

The National Breast Cancer Foundation
Susan G. Komen for the Cure
Avon Walk for Breast Cancer
American Cancer Society

UPDATE 5/25/10: Finally reached Erica Harvey at BCCA! We discussed the thousands of visits you all have made to this blog looking for information about whether BCCA is a scam. I also told her that my blog post was based on the very bad experience I had when called by BCCA and the suspicions I had. She apologized for the bad experience I had, but didn't have much more to say. I offered her the opportunity to comment further to you on the validity of their fund raising, she declined. I asked her if the 20% was the actual amount that makes it to the charity to help women with breast cancer, she said she didn't have those numbers. Come on, this is the executive director of the Breast Cancer Charities of America and she doesn't know how much money goes to benefit patients? That information should be on the tip of her tongue. To conclude, my suspicions and doubts on the BCCA remain. Make your own decision but don't say you were uninformed. Vox Unum is now the #1 search result on Google for "Breast Cancer Charities of America Scam". Can more than 2000 people be wrong?

UPDATE 11/14/09: This post has gotten by far the most traffic on my blog, hundreds of views, showing I'm not the only one looking for info about these guys. I'm glad this has been helpful. If you have a story or experience you want to share, please leave a comment. Clearly, other visitors are coming here for more information and could benefit from you.

UPDATE 11/21/09: Below is a comment from BCCA's executive director Erica Harvey. I will call Ms. Harvey on our collective behalf to challenge the legitimacy of her organization and behavior of their callers. If you have had experiences or questions you'd like me to pose to her, please add your comment below. Please submit your comment below by Saturday Dec. 5, 2009.

Beyond Common Knowledge: BEWARE of Breast Cancer Charities of America

 

[waltky]

$55M of $64M paid to solicitors...

Firefighters Charitable Foundation
Firefighters Charitable Foundation was created to provide financial assistance to people who have been affected by a fire or disaster.

Over the past decade, its professional solicitors have been the biggest beneficiaries. From 2002 to 2011, it raised $64 million in donations and paid $55 million of that to its solicitors. The charity spent less than 10 cents of every dollar raised on direct financial assistance to those in need. The charity's founder, Louis Pelico, left the organization in 2006. He said he couldn't reduce fundraising costs and decided he had had enough. "I tried for years to get it down. I figured if I hadn't gotten it down by now that I wasn’t going to," he said. "It’s a sword that really cuts you. It helps you and then it cuts. It’s doubled-edged."

Frank Tepedino, who became president of the charity after Pelico, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinelin 2007 that he planned to slowly change the way the charity raised money. That hasn't happened. Today, the charity pays its for-profit solicitors 90 cents of every dollar raised. Some of that money goes to a broker who arranged contracts between Firefighters Charitable Foundation and some of its telemarketers. The broker earns about 4 percent of any donations collected by the telemarketers, records show.

Some industry experts say it is absurd for charities to use brokers. Lists of telemarketers are readily available and using brokers just wastes more money. Tepedino said he is trying to raise money from other sources, such as fundraising dinners and golf outings. “If you have a better way of helping us, I’m open,” he said.

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[shadow355]

I'd recommend contributing to local charities only.

It's what I do.

I get Chastised, verbally reprimanded and criticized, and have been for the past 15 years in the work place. I get in trouble because supervisors believe I cannot do anything right at work. Inspections, computer work, paperwork.....and other tasks.

If I argue my point, reasoning, why I "done this"---. I get retaliated against. A day later......a week later.....six months later - some point in time, I will have to deal with the retaliation.

But if someone needs a favor, needs help, if someone gets "messed over".....I get picked. Hard tasks, the worse of worse of jobs, jobs and tasks no one wants....I get assigned the job. But I get reprimanded verbally if I do it wrong.....or even the slightest mess up.....for the job or tasks that no one wanted.

Shadow 355

 

[Muhammed]

I'd recommend contributing to local charities only.

It's what I do.

I agree. With the exception of Freemason charities.

 

[boedicca]

Cancer Charity Scams are minor league compared to the Organized Crime Syndicate aka the Federal Government.