Worst charities - worse than you think

John Freund, CM
June 14, 2013

Three cents on the dollar! – Above the law: America’s worst charities ranked by money blown on soliciting and administrative costs.

(CNN has partnered with the Tampa Bay Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting to showcase the results of their year-long investigation to identify America‘s worst charities..)

The worst charity in America operates from a metal warehouse behind a gas station in Holiday, Florida.

Every year, Kids Wish Network 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.

No charity in the nation has siphoned more money away from the needy over a longer period of time.

But Kids Wish is not an isolated case, a year long investigation by the Tampa Bay Times and The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

Using state and federal records, the Times and CIR identified nearly 6,000 charities that have chosen to pay for-profit companies to raise their donations.

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.

Please visit the following for and in depth look at the problem.You may be surprised by whose on the list.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/worst-charities/

The good news… Charity Navigator, America’s leading independent charity evaluator, works to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the Financial Health and Accountability and Transparency of 6,000 of America’s largest charities. Worth a visit before you give.

 


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