But Kids Wish is not an isolated case, a yearlong investigation by the Tampa Bay Times and The Center for Investigative Reporting has found. An additional $4.8 million has gone to pay the charity's founder and his own consulting firms. His mother, Phyllis Wolf, had founded the Baltimore-based charity and was its president until she was forced to resign in 2010. No charity in the nation has siphoned more money away from the needy over a longer period of time. America's 50 Worst Charities 1. Tracking donations diverted to fund-raising is just one way to rate a charity's performance. 8. United Breast Cancer Foundation Often the value of goods that are shipped overseas cannot be verified. "We just happened to be the low bidder," he said. Cancer Fund of America 3.
The end of the year is quickly approaching, and charities are scrambling to ask for year-end donations. Children's Cancer Recovery Foundation Bowen's charity pays his own for-profit production company about $200,000 a year to make the videos. ), Kendall Taggart, of The Center For Investigating Reporting. By Kris Hundley and Kendall Taggart, Special to CNN, Updated 1150 GMT (1950 HKT) June 13, 2013. In the past decade alone, Kids Wish has channeled nearly $110 million donated for sick children to its corporate solicitors. Lauder is also the co-creator of the original pink ribbon launched in 1992 with Alexandra Penney, former editor-in-chief of Self magazine.
Then the charity pays to air Rick Bowen Deep-Sea Diving on a local Knoxville station. Veterans Assistance Foundation They say they are helping dying children and others in need, but thousands of charities actually spend billions helping marketing executives get rich. You can check out the charity on this list of charity watchdog websites: These organization monitor whether your donation is going to the cause you actually want to support. American Foundation for Children With Aids; $5.2 million; $3.0 million; 0.0%. Youth Development Fund Before you give your hard-earned money to any charitable cause, Consumer Reports suggests you look for reports or commentary from the three major charity watchdogs (see below). Thankfully, there are a few reputable organizations online that can help us search charities to differentiate the good from the unscrupulous.
Breast Cancer Relief Foundation Is there a way to know which charities are legit? Children's Wish Foundation International 4. 34. These nonprofits adopt popular causes or mimic well-known charity names that fool donors. Firefighters Assistance Fund Disabled Police Officers Counseling Center 32. American Breast Cancer Foundation -- Even as they plead for financial support, operators at many of the 50 worst charities have lied to donors about where their money goes, taken multiple salaries, secretly paid themselves consulting fees or arranged fund-raising contracts with friends. Some are one-person outfits operating from run-down apartments. Yes, there is. 43. See the full list on Consumer Reports’ website here. The Times and CIR used those records to flag a specific kind of charity: those that pay for-profit corporations to raise the vast majority of their donations year in and year out. The patient's wife was so disgusted, she threw the entire package away.
The nation's worst charities are large and small. Donors who answer calls from the 50 worst charities hear professionally honed messages, designed to leverage popular causes and hide one crucial fact: Almost nothing goes to charity. Then reporters took an unprecedented look back to zero in on the 50 worst - based on the money they diverted to boiler room operators and other solicitors over a decade. The Veterans Fund Then they rake in cash, year after year. 7. International Union of Police Associations, AFL-CIO 28. A third charity's president took off in his truck at the sight of a reporter with a camera. By this measure, Kids Wish tops the list. American Association of State Troopers Optimal Medical Foundation But experts called the rating fair and said it would provide a unique resource to help donors avoid bad charities. Vietnow National Headquarters One cancer charity paid a company owned by the president's son nearly $18 million over eight years to solicit funds. 15. They leave out the fact that most of the charity's good deeds involve handing out gift cards to hospitalized children and donated coloring books and board games to healthy kids around the country. Approached in person, one charity manager threatened to call the police; another refused to open the door. Below is a short list of some of the best and worst charities by category. for reports or commentary from the three major charity watchdogs (see below).
29. Well-run charities rely on their own staff to raise money from a variety of sources. But unfortunately, the non-profit sector is a big industry that is ripe with scams and fraud — like many other industries. Insert details about how the information is going to be processed, 8 ways to give to charity that don’t involve dollars, See the full list on Consumer Reports’ website here, How to run a background check on that charity. Cancer Fund of America You’re thanked for a pledge you never made to convince you that you already agreed to donate. "When you weigh that in terms of values, of what the charity is supposed to be doing and what the donor is being told in the process, the house comes tumbling down," said White, who teaches in Columbia University's fund-raising management master's degree program. $109 million of it went to paying solicitors to raise the money. 46. The Times and CIR charted each charity's performance over the past decade and ranked them based on the total donations diverted to fundraisers, arriving at the 50 worst charities. Kids Wish has hired Melissa Schwartz, a crisis management specialist in New York City who previously worked for the federal government after the 2010 BP oil spill. National Caregiving Foundation 2. America's worst charities look nothing like Habitat for Humanity, Boys and Girls Clubs or thousands of other charities, large and small, that are dedicated to helping the sick and needy.
26. 9. Daily Kos moves in solidarity with the Black community. Charity Watch gives the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation a C+ rating with program percentage of 62%-77% and the cost to raise $100 of $12-$27. Prime Day deals: Here are the best early Prime Day bargains you can get right now! (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication. United States Deputy Sheriffs' Association The Federal Trade Commission says four cancer charities conned donors out of $187 million and spent almost nothing to help actual cancer patients. Make-A-Wish officials say they've spent years fielding complaints from people who were solicited by sound-a-like charities. A medical charity paid its biggest research grant to its president's own for-profit company. 22. Police Protective Fund, 21. But several watchdog organizations say charities should spend no more than 35% of the money they raise on fund-raising expenses. 33. The end of the year is quickly approaching, and charities are scrambling to ask for year-end donations. Reporters started in California, Florida and New York, where regulators require charities to report results of individual fund-raising campaigns. 44. The effort identified hundreds of charities that run donation drives across the country and regularly give their solicitors at least two-thirds of the take. And then there are charitable goods shipped domestically that are outright insults to the recipients. The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central and North Florida is one of dozens of Make-A-Wish chapters across the country. "While some of the donations go elsewhere, all the bad public relations that comes with telemarketing seems to come to us," said Make-A-Wish spokesman Paul Allvin. Most of the rest gets diverted to enrich the charity's operators and the for-profit companies Kids Wish hires to drum up donations. 38. Her storied... Sign and send the petition: The Senate must wait until after Inauguration Day to confirm a new Supreme Court justice. The biggest difference between good charities and the nation's worst is the bottom line. Several play off the names of well-known organizations, confusing donors. 4. Firefighters Charitable Foundation … Search for charities that have been disciplined, Doug White, one of the nation's foremost experts on the ethics of charity fund-raising, How states failed to regulate charity scams, Center for Investigative Reporting: A failure of regulation, Family of connections bind several of America's worst charities, A year-long investigation identified America's 50 worst charities, At the top of the list is Kids Wish Network, which gave nearly $110m to corporate solicitors, This charity, like many others on the list, mimic well-known charity names that fool donors, The data show the worst charities devote less than 4% of donations to direct cash aid. 23. Others claim hundreds of employees and a half-dozen locations around the country. Most of what's left pays for one thing: scuba-diving videos starring the charity's founder and president, Rick Bowen. Until today, no one had tallied the cost of this parasitic segment of the nonprofit industry or traced the long history of its worst offenders.