ABC investigates veterans charities that mostly enrich their owners
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Friday November 9, 2007
Since the start of the Iraq War, the number of charity groups promising to help injured veterans has mushroomed, but not all of them actually fulfill those promises. According to ABC News, Americans have so far donated $475 million to veterans charities that get a failing grade from the American Institute of Philanthropy.
Institute President Daniel Borochoff told ABC, "Under 35% of your budget on actual bona fide charitable programs will get you an F grade." Thirteen out of 27 military and veterans charities reviewed by the Institute did not meet that standard, and one was found to spend as little as 2% of its receipts on program services.
Meanwhile, some of the people running the F-rated charities are getting rich. For example, Roger Chapin, founder of
Help Hospitalized Veterans, pays himself and his wife more than $500,000 a year, while only 31% of the $70 million he took in last year actually went to help hospitalized veterans. Chapin, described by Daniel Borochoff as "a charity entrepreneur," has founded more than a dozen such charities over the past three decades.
Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America told ABC, "Veterans are not a place to make a buck. ... If you're not serious about being in the business of helping veterans, go find something else to do." Republican Sen. Charles Grassley is also outraged and is looking for some way to crack down on these groups.
Forbes Magazine has looked more deeply into Chapin's operations and recently revealed that his "campaign was orchestrated by firms associated with political operative and longtime Chapin buddy
Richard Viguerie." Viguerie is the grandfather of all such direct-mail fundraising operations, going back to his activities on behalf of right-wing causes in the 1960's, and has mentored many of those who have gone into the business since.
These operations have periodically come under scrutiny because of their use of emotionally-charged appeals, lack of public accountability, and tendency to spend a large percentage of their receipts on fundraising and administration, leaving little to benefit the people or causes in whose name they operate. However, they remain not only legal but unregulated, leaving watchdog groups like Borochoff's to fill the gap.
The full story is available at ABC News' website.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/GOP_Senator_outraged_over_vet_charity_1109.html
