A couple days ago my wife was watching one of those sappy Hallmark Christmas movies, when I plopped down in my chair to make a few posts on TBP. Every ten minutes what seemed like a five minute commercial from St. Jude’s, Shriners, or the ASPCA was run, begging for donations, while rolling out sick or disabled kids, or pathetic abused animals. I began a diatribe about these charity scam organizations and my wife thought I was being unfair to them. She was buying their emotional propaganda without question.
All non-profit organizations must file a publicly available 990 form, detailing their revenues, expenses and the compensation of their top executives. It took me five minutes to leave her flabbergasted by how these so called charities spend the money they shake down little old ladies for on a daily basis.
St. Jude rakes in $1.2 billion per year and pays out almost $700 million in salaries, while sitting on $9 billion of assets. This “charity” pays its Chairman $1.9 million per year, CEO – $1.3 million, Clinical Director – $1.3 million, 2 other Chairs – $1 million each, CFO – $800,000. There are dozens of other overpaid executives doing the Lord’s work. All those sick kids and this is how they use your donations. They also spend $100 million per year on the tear jerking ads.
Shriners may even be worse, as they rake in $450 million per year from suckers, but they generate $283 million of “investment income”. They generate this level of income because they are sitting on $10 billion of assets. The suckers probably think their donations actually help those sick kids, but instead they just pile it up in their investment accounts.
I wonder what the suckers would think if they knew $444 million of their $450 million in donations was paid out in salaries. One of their surgeons makes $2.7 million per year. An anesthesiologist makes $1.1 million. Two chief of staffs make $1 million and $800k. An EVP makes $700k. They spend $49 million on those horrible commercials.
The ASPCA rakes in $351 million per year and “only” pays out $115 million in salaries. Of course, their CEO makes $885k per year, with multiple senior VPs making $400k to $500k per year. Their head of HR makes $385k. The outrage is that they spend $57 million per year on those ads.
These organizations, among many other big charities, are nothing but a scam. They don’t want to cure anything, because that would be the end of their gold mines. Don’t fall for their dishonest propaganda marketing campaigns. Being cynical is the proper stance regarding everything in this world.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
salary typo?
The ASPCA rakes in $351 million per year and “only” pays out $115 million in salaries. Of course, their CEO makes $885 million per year,
Typo. Good catch. It is $885k.
Still too much.
About 10 years ago, a couple of locals put together a hair cutting party where folks were donating long ponytails so the hair could be made into wigs for chemo patients. The hair and any cash donations were handled by the American Cancer Society.
The next year, when the idea was brought up again, someone said we should find a different sponsor because the head of the ACS was getting an annual salary (FY 2010) of approximately $10 Million. Non-profit my butt.
Those types of charities, cancer, heart, Alzhiemer’s etc are why there will never be a cure. There’s big money to be lost.
All salaries and personal expenses at all charities are PROFIT.
I go to pick up my prescription, doctor in front of me was asked would you like to give a $1 to Lou G’s diesease he said ill pass,
my turn, I said no it is a scam, the clerk shocked says what do you mean, I said for fifty years I heard they are going to find a cure, tell me one they found a cure for, she said I cant think of any after thinking for a minute.
I like your approach. Open some eyes, especially for youngsters working the cash registers.
My wife is type 1 diabetic and she has told me that as a child her family was told that they were thisclose to finding a cure.
Fast forward 40+ years and there is no cure, but there have been thousands of walkathons, countless fundraisers and who knows how much money raised.
Insulin therapy, which while it has had some improvements, is 100 years old, and saw price increases of 10% a year like clockwork for a decade or more.
And somehow the glucometers and blood testing strips only get more expensive while we add countless people to the ranks of those with diabetes each year.
I just went to the American Diabetes Association website for the first time in years. https://diabetes.org/
The pop up window you get says the following:
“The American Diabetes Association® has two major goals: To improve the lives of the over 37 million Americans living with diabetes and get closer to finding a cure. But we need your help to achieve our goals!”
Assume every large business, organization, etc is run by sociopaths, and that you are viewed as nothing more than a wallet.
They can’t afford to cure cancer or other dread diseases. In fact,it wouldn’t surprise me if they weren’t trying to develop other diseases to increase profits. ( SARC. )
type 2 diabetics should try keto or carnivore. seriously.
ANY charity that asks for a $19.00 monthly donation is part of the cabal. It must be a demonic number. I was shocked to see the Veterans was also a scam. The boy on the St. Jude’s commercials is now driving a car. They must have realized they get more from when he was young and cute. Some of his commercials are 10 years old.
They fill our babies full of vaccines and then get to treat them for cancer etc. and use them for their own gunnie pigs.
Not sure what the root cause of osteogenesis imperfecta (what that kid has), but personally I’m more pleased to see that Alex is doing well enough to be going to college and driving. Shows that their efforts are actually helping kids leave more normal lives. Yes, I suspect that the Asian girl with polio likely got it from the vaccine (maybe Gates’ concoction), and no doubt the litany of vaccines are causing birth defects, and for sure, none of these kids should be harmed even more with any vaccines. No organization that claims to be helping children should do anything without coming out against childhood vaccines.
there’s a sucker born every minute
alex is going to northwestern. he should have been paid in some manner for his commercials. they may be paying for his college now.
that vet group was poorly run and did have a bad rep with regards to expenditures. a few yrs ago someone else took over and is supposedly doing a much better job. would need to check the 990. not sure if he is even getting paid. i think he is a retired general.
There’s a charity for Lou Grant’s Disease?
At this point, and for the foreseeable future…
Antisemitism>White Nationalism
Thanks for posting these stats. It is one of the reasons I stopped giving to Wounded Warriors. When I heard about the graft in that organization, it sickened me. In fact, on a recent trip to visit my wife’s family in the Pittsburgh area, I saw a very large building that was their headquarters.
Jim, did you see anything about Operation Homefront?
I just found the following on Operation Homefront:
https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/320033325
According to this site, they have a 99% rating. But, after looking up some of the ones you listed above, Jim, they are all getting good ratings. They probably pay for this website!!
Always ask what the head guy makes. If it is greater than the President of the U S makes, forget it.
Until Wounded Warriors comes out AGAINST endless wars for Israel and the MIC, they clearly aren’t serious about ENDING the never-ending problem of wounded “warriors.”
Ron Paul wanted to basically shutter the $Pentagon, except to up funding for Coast Guard and V.A.
Wounded Cannon Fodder more apropos?
Yup WW also pushes the bullshit 9/11 nonsense narrative.
Neither wounded nor warriors, the (((guys))) that run it are just running a grift.
Operation Comfort Warrior is who my Legion supports
And of course DAV is a scam they’ve been running since WW1.
In the case of Wounded Warriors, I wonder how much the execs of Raytheon, Boeing, or Northrup-Grumman donate?
They help supply the “recipients.”
I bought a lifetime to DAV, but wish I hadn’t. It only exists so a bunch of boomers can give each other awards for sucking MIC and fed cock. I just toss their magazine in the garbage when it comes.
There was a big scandal and a clean out. That seems to have been addressed. Wounded Warriors is the only charity I have ever seen that attaches its form 990 to its financial statement and it is easily found on its website. Its directors aren’t paid. Its CEo makes $350k, its senior officers between 320k and $200k. So seems that have cleaned most of the graft up.
That said, I don’t give to charity, my taxes cover it.
Here is the link to the Wounded Warriors report. https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/media/cc4isxch/fy-2021-form-990-wwp.pdf
Three more years, and . . . nothing.
.
.
Are we there, yet?
I do not like my Uncle Sam
I do not like him, Sam I Am!
Although graft is always a concern with charities, the larger problem with Wounded Warriors is that most (all?) of these military members should never have been in a position to be wounded in the first place. This is a charity that has its origins in the lies and subterfuge of men who deal in blood money. The same old tired phrases are trotted out in the WW advertisements like ‘defending our freedom’ when the US never had any business conducting war operations in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, etc where these soldiers get injured. So taxpayers get it twice, first by funding the military budget and filling the coffers of DOD contractors (and politicians via kickbacks and defense stocks), and then later by being solicited for donations when the inevitable wounded return home. Privatize the gains, socialize the losses
And they NEVER acknowledge these truths.
someone else took over ww a few yrs ago and is supposed to be doing much better. would have to check the 990. not sure if he is even being paid? i think he is a retired general.
maybe they need a large hq bec that is where the therapy starts?
I could fix healthcare in 1-2 months, they dont want to fix anything, and I mean nothing, what else could it be.
the root cause love of money
It is working just as they like it.
G.R.E.E.D.
One way to fix healthcare is to fix health. We need food, not bellyfiller, and next to no medicine.
St. Judes REFUSES to investigate childhood vaccines as a possible cause of all the childhood cancers they treat, yet claim they want to stop and prevent childhood cancer. Not one penny to support the COVERUP.
exactly, I was at a wedding a decade ago, met a big pharm, scientist, I said anything new in the pipeline, he mentioned a drug for chrohns, I said that will kill you, oh yes chrons will, I said no the drug, he looked at me stunned didnt say a thing, lost another friend oh well
With friends like that, ya hardly need enemies.
Gawd, if Marlo Thomas gets one more bad nose job she will look like Michael Jackson, he of the falling-off-nose-prosthetic. Use the donations more wisely pleez.
Wowser – I hadn’t paid any attention to her appearance these days. Maybe she has had a chronic nasal wasting disease and it is simply atrophying away?
It hurts my feelings because That Girl is a happy memory from my childhood of saner times. Why would anyone vainly throw away that face for that monstrosity? I watch that and other old shows until it gets too depressing. Not the contrived plots etc but the glimpse into our culture as I experienced it that has been tossed in the bin glibly by brainwashed and their talented brain launderers. And all the while knowing that TV has been a big arrow in the quiver to bring us to 2024 all along.
All that said — maybe they just had to get a new actress to portray her and that was the closest old lady match they could find? Occam’s razor.
I, too, notice all the commercials that tug at your heart strings, especially on Hallmark (which my wife watches non-stop). The parts about charities that bothers me the most are the salaries for the Executives/BoD and the advertising expense.
As far as St Jude, I know quite a few folks who work there and they are doing the Lord’s work for these children. One grandson tried it, but he got too emotionally attached to the kids and could not handle it when they died. I do not really begrudge a Doctor for making money helping the sick, but millions a year is disgusting.
Red Cross is the one that I first noticed 30 years ago. At EVERY disaster, they would go on TV & the news to tell people they did not have extra money for these disasters and needed donations to help those in distress. I thought the reason people gave to the Red Cross was so they would have money to handle the disasters. Turned out, their CEO, Elizabeth Dole (wife of presidential candidate Bob Dull) was knocking down a million a year running this non-profit. In the early 90’s that was a very large salary.
Plus, who knows what “Red Cross” means . . . Rosicrucian? Like the Georgia Guidestones? Paid for by a mysterious “R. C. Christian”?
After the Haiti earthquake back in 2010 the Red Cross received over half a billion in donations but the country is still a hell hole to this day. WTF happened to all that money. You know something was up when the grifter Bill Clinton teamed up with George H. W. Bush to continue the charity scam for the Red Cross.
The salvation army looks like they don’t pay crazy salaries to thier board of directors. They did issue a white guilt statement during the blm riots though
I did a search a few years ago and found that the Salvation Army was the only one that didn’t ask for $19.00 a month. The head of it takes a very small salary
And they hate White People. Fuck the Salivating Army
Sally Ann chased Auntie out of a thrift store during the Pestilence so they can go bark at the Moon.
That’s why I don’t give the the bell-ringers the time of day. Just a “Merry Christmas” as I pass them by.
They are about as woke as you get. Madated the shot for all their volunteers. Will force women to house with men who pretend to be women. No thanks.
How many still give to Salvation Army after being labeled white supremacist?
I have had this conversation many time with my wife. I tell her we give to charity via our taxes. That is taken from us by force. I won’t voluntarily give more so long as they tax us and give it to others.
Addendum – we do fund a dog kennel at a “no kill” animal shelter. They either rehome all animals, or the animal stays with them in comfortable kennels until they do. No animals are euthanized. I think that is worthy of some support.
That sounds very worthy of donations. The biggest thing to be concerned with is the ones charging $19.00
What do they charge for the shots, neutering, chips, fees, etc. when they ‘rehome’ them?
Some animals need to be euthanized. It can be cruelty not to.
I think adoption for a dog is around $80US. Vets volunteer their time for neutering. If they get an aggressive dog in, three vets have to independently decide that it isn’t able to be retrained. Other than dogs that are determined to be aggressive, no dogs get destroyed. Even very sick ones that can be treated get treated. Lots of vets donate time to this shelter, and many local businesses support it. The shelter sits on land worth many millions of dollars, and developers have tried to buy it many times. And tried to force its closure, with no success. It has an old cats home as well, where when an old person dies they house takes in the cats. The cats live together in a huge house, with free roam, and people come in and visit them. The cost of that is a one off payment of around $6000, usually paid by the estate. We haven’t gone in a while, but sitting with the old cats is rewarding, although I am not a cat person. The people that established the place on the family homestead died long ago, and the cat home was their private residence. The land – acres – is where the kennels and runs and play areas are. There are a few paid staff, but mostly volunteers. They of course can only accept animals from the local areas. Many of the staff foster home animals until new owners can be found.
I like cats, but a huge house full of the cats of dead people sounds horrifying.
Last I looked locally, it was around $250 for either pitbulls or deaf/blind/crippled puppymill dogs, and intrusive levels of restrictions.
Cats seem happy to be alive, and love the visitors. They are well cared for. And they were someone’s family, and were loved.
I have a soft spot in my heart for animals too. My wife and I give generously to animal shelters. I cannot bear to see an animal in distress.
https://www.nj.com/hunterdon-county-democrat/2014/01/letter_no-kill_shelters_really.html
KaD – glad you know more about the shelter I support than I do. The kennels are large, there are huge play areas where they get to play much of the day. Those that can’t be allowed with other dogs get individual runs, etc. I wouldn’t support anything that is cruel to dogs. And almost all of their dogs are rehomed quickly.
Local charities are different. You can see where the funds go for yourself.
Merry New Year Llpoh! How are things in Oz, hope you are well.
Thanks BL. All is good with me. Hope you and yours are ok.
My vote for greatest charity scam? “The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews”. Somehow my wife got on their mailing list and we have received multiple heart rending requests to donate money “to help feed elderly starving Jewish Holocaust survivors”. There is always a photo of a white haired elderly starving woman in a heavy coat and her hair wrapped in a scarf. “Just 89 cents a day can help fill a pantry and feed a Holocaust survivor for a month.”
The letter starts out:
It goes on and on like that.
In another 20 years it will be a century since that thing that never happened supposedly happened. No doubt there will still be millions of survivors, starving, alone, and cold. They will all be ancient, white haired widows, and they will all be DESPERATELY needing more money from Christians.
For what it is worth, my wife and I donate a large chunk of our not-that-big income to charity. We live in a poor, rural, region of the US and the great majority of our charity is for our church, and local food banks to feed hungry people. We KNOW where our resources are being used.
Never could work that one out. They run pretty much everything big, they’re the ‘only actual human beings’ and they can’t-won’t-take care of their own? We gotta do it?
Why are people hungry? In the USA? There is a reason. And it isn’t for lack of govt funds available.
Funny how the jews are never asked to donate to white causes.
“Relentless Poverty”
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/oCxf/international-fellowship-of-christians-and-jews-relentless-poverty
Based in Chicago, Illinois, IFCJ raised $220 million in 2021 and reported $177 million in expenses…fundraising and advertising ($41 million)
One of mine is the African village that got flooded. Maybe if all their MEN weren’t coming here they could get shovels and dig ditches to drain the water OUT of their village.
don’t the women do the digging there?
Next time you get stopped by one of the collectors, ask if they get paid or are volunteers. That usually makes them stutter and spew.
Nah, I prefer to pull an avocado out of my wallet and say cash only, knowing full well that the pikey backpacker sluts that do the “collections” are not allowed to accept cash donations, only direct deposit.
Hey, maybe we could just stop producing wounded warriors?
I only donate to my local alcoholics begging outside the liquor store
Me too ‘wind tunnel’, when my buddies are buying rounds, I man up also!
Peace, L.
I have a little theory about charities ngo’s and government agency’s at all levels. It goes something like this. How many grads do the top tier schools graduate every year? Most of these grads expect (at this point) at least six figures, where do they all go? Well if there isn’t any high paying openings available just spin up a new charity, ngo, govt. agency, department, bureau etc. Don’t worry ,if you went to a top tier school you can find someone to fund your enterprise (put a high flyer on your board), guaranteeing that six figure job. So in short it’s a works program for the otherwise unemployable, a tax write off for the sponsors, another way for the sheeple to feel good about giving their money away and on and on. Or you could go Bankman style, (couldn’t resist on that one)
This is a short version of what I’m trying get across, change my mind.
Happy New Year!
How many grads do top tier schools graduate yearly? Fewer than you might imagine. Say 25,000 from the Ivies. Maybe another 75,000 from all the other “top tiers” depending on where you draw the line – Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, U Chicago, Duke, etc.
Maybe 5% of the workforce would be from those type schools.
What’s the old meme?
“A patient cured is a customer lost”
First principle taught at medikil dokter school today.
Check out Kars4Kids. Sounds like a nice place to donate a car to help out kids. They are very clear on their website that EVERY PENNY goes to programs for JEWISH KIDS ONLY.
I used to hear their jingle on WLS-AM a couple decades ago everyday, and got sick of it, especially when an adult is singing it way too seriously (it’s supposed to be sung by the kids alone!). The commercial was even worse!
If they can make a horrible commercial like that, I always figured they’re not really hurtin’ for cash that much.
1 800 cars for kids….. 1 800 cars for kids……..blah
Thanks for the heads up
My dad who was big(real big) in the finance world volunteered for the Big Brother program for decades.
For two years he was the Boston president of Big Brother and had to have a salary(legalese)he and his friends who also over the years were president all made the sum total of a dollar a year for being president of the organization.
I guess would hate to see what the funds raised for them went to otherwise/hope I am wrong.
On a side note,me dad dropped out of the finance world when he realized it was too rigged/too blatant theft in some cases.
He despite being called the “godfather”of bond investing(made major story Forbes in the 70’s)was only worth millions(not bad at all),the reason being he invested for the little guy,i.e. teacher pension funds ect..He told me could have been worth half a billion if he worked in the “bigger” picture,(no Ferrari for me!).
He and the folks he knew I believe gave their time to charity because they cared and were honest,too few today in this world sadly but to those there are I have all respect for.
I think the shriners kids are cgi, deep fake,,something. Their physical movements don’t look natural. The st judes commercial too. The mouths of the people especially Margo Thomas seem deep fake ish.
Many of them are abominations. So of course they don’t look natural.
Also, I always hated her boyfriend – “Donald” – on That Girl.
The military’s Combined Federal Campaign is much the same way. (Do they still have it?)
Too many senior officers wanted 100% participation (donations) by every crew member, so they could put that on their FITREPS as a bullet point whe they were in the one for promotion- even if they couldn’t afford it.
I took participation to mean, ask everybody if they wanted to donate, if not, fine by me.
Then there’s Sam Kinison on topic:
Love to see a breakdown of the demographics that send in donations.
With women being predominantly emotion driven, I’d bet 75-85% are from
bleeding heart females who have the nurturing characteristic in overdrive.
Disabled kids, fighting cancer, neglected animals, poor starving elderly women in the Baltic countries, and the propaganda narrative just oozes a desperate need.
Psych 101.
Maybe some beta men get drawn in by the wounded warrior pleas for $19 a month.
Another parallel is the panhandler dude with the cardboard sign at a busy street corner.
Every day. Same time. Same place. His shift. His corner.
Makes more tax free cash begging than any wage paying position could offer.
He can take a day off anytime he wants.
Only exception might be the dude who lost a leg to diabetes, who really looks downcast in tattered clothes. Especially if he’s braving really shitty weather for hours at a time.
Cold, rainy.
Used to be a “panhandler” on a corner I drove by every day, once his 4 hour shift was over, he put his fake oxygen tank in the wheelchair and walked it back to the motel…apparently several of them collected enough funds each day to pay for one motel room sleeping in shifts, and to have fast food, beer and cigarettes. If someone else tried to take over “their” corner they would beat them.
Marketing / Advertising
Convincing you to buy something you do not need and maybe can not afford. They offend use psychology to do this. The way I look at it is like this. If you need something, you get it. You might do research to find what works best for you, but you buy when you need. If someone is trying you to take action you are not taking, the is a reason why you are not doing it. So anything that marketers market is going to fall on deaf ears. It is the fools they are looking for.
Remember marketers are doing this for PROFIT! if they were required to tell the complete truth, they get no positive results. So they do their business through half truth and out and out lies. I would like to see a pie chart for any charities. I feel it would show about 1$ out of the 19$ a month they want might go to their cause if that. As they “blast” you with ads, one of two things must be true. Either they are finding enough fools to be conned in to give money to “help their cause”, or the people woke up and are no longer funding those huge profits and they need fools very badly.
Put it another way, you never hear of or maybe see a ads for them once a month, those are where you should send your money. The more ads for something you see, you can know they do not need your money. They might need it to keep the ads going. And if you give “to their cause” or buy their products, then you are “Enabling” them and thus the more you give or buy, the more ads you see. After all, think of all the good they cause do to their cause if they spend their ad money on their causes. The more they offer you, the more and faster you should run away from them. The best products and causes use word of mouth for ads. If you need to tell someone your product on cause is the best, you can be certain it not the best and might be the worst.
There is no ‘truth in advertising.’ Anywhere.
It’s called ‘marketing’ to get your cash.
Where is Sally Struthers these days, begging for poor Africans?
And, I’m tiring of Publix® asking me for $1 for some cr*p charity at check out.
Hey, we have a new HarrisTeeter® opening soon. The Dickson Bros. never had such stuff, but they sold HT to Larry Kroger. So, it’ll be the same from now on. BTW, the Dickson Bros. play golf in Augusta quite often.
Larry doesn’t. But Otter might from time to time as a guest. I’d bet Johnny Harris has had him as a guest. Or the Shuford or Dowd Family Members.
Sally still holding out
Do not give to organizations. Give to individuals. Look around your community and you will find people who need a little help. Give directly and 100% of what you give, including the love, goes to the person in need.
Aint that merca…………scam upon scam.
Right. The nonprofit system is loaded with these scam artists.
In America, living off other peoples money and/or donations has become an art form.
Take a good look around you, it’s not just ‘charities’. Having a ‘big name’ and a successful ‘charity’ is a surefire way to live or keep living large. It’s really a slush fund but makes them look like a generous philanthropist. Most just assume that donations are all for charity except for minimal overhead expenses and never check.
Your favorite is probably on the list too.
I must not have a heart. The channel gets changed if one of those comes on. But we only watch commercial TV for about 30 minutes so we don’t see them too often.
We recently left our church of more than a decade because of how it is run. It is large and rakes in millions of dollars. New building and lots of programs on site but very little local outreach. Most of the $ is sent overseas and they made it inconvenient to volunteer locally but very easy to write checks for Wells in Africa etc.
Within the last few years the old pastor left and the new one seems to be more interested in Church, Inc. Doesn’t return calls or emails and now most of the staff also has a spouse on payroll. They brought the minister they used in Guatemala for outreach to here (?) and he only does 1 Spanish service per week. Then they brought his whole family. Wife is now on staff too.
We have a charity line item in our budget. In December whatever was left we decided to give locally. We just started giving random people $20, telling them we had a blessed 2023 and wanted to share it with them. It is much more rewarding than writing a check to Charity, Inc.
While I prefer our charity to stay local, we did send a check to a church we attend in another state while on vacation. They run a soup kitchen for the homeless and our donation was specifically to that. That church does lots of local outreach in their community too.
Whether it is church, charity, or handing out $20 to people who might need it, the most important thing is to keep it local where you can know where it is going. I have had Christians tell me, “I just give it out and I have no need to know what happens. My job is just to be generous.” Bullshit! You are the steward of your resources. Giving money to a heroin addict is only somewhat different from you spending it on heroin yourself.
If you don’t trust your church to be wise with donations, you need to be in a different church or no church at all. Donate to Four H or FFA. Here in my small town I donated some money to a Preppers Group whose founders and some of the members I already knew. Real estate agents talk about “location, location, location”. Same thing with donations, and the only good location is a LOCAL location.
By the way, there is one more way of donating to your community that most people don’t really think about, but it is a way of knowing with certainty who is benefiting. Buy from locally owned small businesses. Screw Walmart. Pay a little extra and shop at the grocery store that employees your neighbors, the store that has served the community for 30 years, the place that is struggling to get by because they can’t buy canned goods by the train car. That extra 5% or 10% is your tithe to your friends and neighbors.
So start a charity audit company with annual honesty ratings put thr truth of the matter in the public’s hands online and put sally struthers et.al. out of business. public accountability
As bad as the TV is on charitable giving this time of year, talk radio provides a platform all year long for various “causes”.
Used to throw a few dollars to various charities but quit when my eyes were opened.
Had a school buddy die of cancer when about 19 and so I gave to cancer research. Years later another family friend got cancer and under went the same chemo and radiation ‘treatments’, and died. It was then that I realized the cancer drive was all a perfect scam.
They got an army of volunteers to collect money by the millions, used emotional tugs to get that money and yet, after decades of ‘research’, still used 60’s chemo to treat people.
The food banks too. Always the pitch to help the hungry. When I drove past one such food bank handing out groceries I saw more than a few I recognized, who had good paying jobs, in the lineup to get their bag of groceries. So yeah, I don’t give much even locally anymore.
After seeing the types of people using food banks as a ‘free shit’ service, I won’t give them anything either. Covid was a real eye-opener for me about how low people will stoop in that regard.
If I know of hungry white kids, I’ll feed them hamburgers or something that’s not just filler, when their parents aren’t around. That’s the extent of my charity. Anything you give the parents is just that much more cigarettes or liquor or drugs they can buy.
Women are easy marks. Way back when, i recorded a message on the house phone indicating that i didn’t care if poor kids got to go to the circus or not. Wifey was appalled.
Another big charity scam is United Way. Everyplace I’ve ever worked has pushed it’s workers to donate to this grifter organization. They also pay their upper level executives extremely lucrative salaries. The whole thing reeks of a pyramid scheme. But, the only product they sell is sob stories about the downtrodden. I also have my suspicions about the YMCA. But, at least in that case they’re forced to build a local building for use by it’s members.
How much does Shriner’s pay their little elf spokesman?
I had my cancer cured at MD Anderson, and I always donate during their fund raisers! Before you criticize how much folks are getting paid learn a little more about the scope of their operations. These folks have more than 23,000 employees, and is the #1 Cancer Hospital in the world!
Two other members of my extended family had their cancers treated at MDA, and are cured/in-remission. Someday you may thank God the NFPs, you currently villify, exist!
PS -MDA is a part of the University of Texas Medical System, but without their Foundations they would not be able to sustain the amount of research they perform or the number of patients they treat.
I did a check on who gets what from my donating to Christian charities and Open Doors was the only one I contribute to. It appears to send a fair proportion to the needy.
Im curious about the shriners assetts. Is the valuation including medical facilities? Or near hospital housing? Its just hard to judge without a clearer picture. It seems like such a high number. Wondering whats driving that.
Our church disbanded their Food Bank because they could not even give the food away. People would show up and ask for cash or gift cards.
At the last food drive they had they gave the food boxes that were left to the volunteers. We ended up with five boxes stuffed with some of the finest fruits and vegetables I have ever seen. We ended up giving some to our friends and neighbors.