Many vets like to help others in need.\u00a0 Donating to charities that provide services to vets in need is one way to do that.<\/p>\n
But as is always the case, there are veterans\u2019 charities . . . and then there are veterans\u2019 charities<\/em>.\u00a0 They\u2019re not all equally good regarding “bang for the buck” – if you define “bang for the buck” as the proportion of donated funds that actually get spent on helping veterans.<\/p>\n Some veterans\u2019 charities are quite good in that respect.\u00a0 According to CBS News, the DAV Charitable Service Trust spends 96% of its funds on veterans. Fisher House is also good (91%).<\/p>\n Wounded Warrior Project?\u00a0 Um, not so much.\u00a0 CBS News says the actual figure for WWP is around 60%.\u00a0 (WWP claims 80% – but per CBS, they do so by including shipping\/postage costs, the cost of selected promotional items, and the cost of direct response advertising.\u00a0 Remove those overhead items and the fraction falls to around 60%.)<\/p>\n They apparently like to party, though.\u00a0 In 2014, WWP spent over $26 million<\/u><\/em> on “conferences, conventions, and meetings”. That\u2019s up from a bit over $1.74M in 2010 for “meetings and events”.<\/p>\n One 2014 annual meeting alone – for about 500 WWP staffers, held at what appears to be a very nice resort in Colorado Springs – cost roughly $3M.\u00a0 Sounds to me like the people at the VA who plan conferences must have given them a few pointers.<\/p>\n WWP also seems to pay their top employees well, too.\u00a0 As in nearly $500k in 2014 salary for their CEO.<\/p>\n And did I already mention that WWP gave an organization that defends higher<\/span> spending by charities for fundraising, overhead, and executive salaries a grant of $150,000<\/em> last year?\u00a0 I didn’t mention that yet?\u00a0 Well, according to CBS – they did.<\/p>\n Current WWP CEO Steven Nardizzi took over in 2009.\u00a0 Per CBS News, “Former employees say spending has skyrocketed since Steven Nardizzi took over as CEO in 2009.\u00a0 Many point to the 2014 annual meeting at a luxury resort in Colorado Springs as typical of his style.”<\/p>\n CBS News is doing a multi-part report on WWP this week.\u00a0 Part 1 may be found here<\/a><\/em>; part 2 may be found here<\/a><\/em>; part 3, here<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 (I have no idea if CBS plans more parts to the series, so monitoring their web site might be worth your time for the next few days.)\u00a0 The articles are eye-opening – and to me, rather disturbing.<\/p>\n I can say with certainty that until WWP cleans up their act, they won\u2019t see a penny from me.\u00a0\u00a0 But that\u2019s just me.\u00a0 I can’t speak for others on this issue.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Edited to add<\/span>:\u00a0 a belated footnote – a comment on an earlier article by longtime readern<\/cite>bcguy54ACTUAL\u00a0 <\/cite>tipped me to the the first CBS story in the series.\u00a0 My apologies for not giving him that credit earlier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"