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MORE QUESTIONS RAISED ABOUT VETERANS CHARITY --
Veterans Charitable Foundation shares just
pennies per
dollar donated. Most of the rest goes to
telemarketers.
Background story on the Veterans Charitable
Foundation here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/
nfJUN07/nf062507-5.htm
Story here...
http://www.palmbeachpost.
com/localnews/content/south/epap
er/2007/07/13/0714vet.html
Story below:
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Veterans group gets pennies per dollar donation
By Susan R. Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Frank Cariello started the Veterans Charitable Foundation nine years ago
after going with his World War II buddies to veteran's hospitals and
seeing a need.
Concerned that a door-to-door fund-raising effort wouldn't pull in much
money, Cariello of Boynton Beach hired telemarketers in Florida, and
eventually in other parts of the country, who began dialing for dollars.
The strategy has paid off, but not for the veteran's hospitals that are
supposed to benefit from Cariello's foundation.
Since 2000, telemarketers have reeled in nearly $833,000 in donations,
close to $700,000 of which went right back into the coffers of those
companies hired to rake in the dough, according to the organization's
tax returns. Outsourced fund-raising companies demonstrate a huge flaw
in the world of giving. While many donors think their money is going to
a good cause, only a fraction goes to the nonprofit. A large chunk
actually lines the pockets of companies hired to raise money.
A boxing promoter, Cariello, 69, pulls no punches when it comes to
defending his organization.
"It's the nature of the business," Cariello said. "The average person
who gives $10 expects $9 to go to the VA, but if you use a telemarketer
it doesn't work that way." Cariello, who says he's operating in about a
dozen states, including North Carolina, freely admits that most of the
deals he's signed with telemarketers around the country provide for an
85-15 split.
Add to that the money he puts out on marketing, overhead costs and the
accountant he pays to file the organization's tax returns, and the VA
gets pennies on the dollar.
Neither Cariello nor any of his board members take a salary, according
to the organization's tax return.
Thanks for something
Some veteran's organizations say charities like
Cariello often do more harm than good. Others take what they get and
simply say thanks.
"There's a number of organizations that are ripping people off and they
hurt legitimate organizations," said Charlie Smith, director of the
North Carolina Division of Veteran's Affairs, a state agency.
But Marcus Wilson, a public affairs specialist for the Washington
Regional Office of Public Affairs for the Department of Veterans Affairs
was a little less critical. "We are a government agency. We can't tell
them how much to give us or what to give us. We just say thank you," he
said.
Cariello said the groups he's helped are grateful and he has letters to
prove it.
"You can give $250 and they say 'thank you'. It's something they didn't
have last week," he said. "If we didn't do it, they wouldn't get it."
The money is used to pay for things the government doesn't pay for such
as food, personal care items, bus tokens to assist veterans get to and
from job interviews and television sets in hospitals rooms.
Less than the truth
Charity watchdog groups say veteran's
organizations are one sector where it's easy to prey on people's
heartstrings.
"Veteran's groups rank way up there, especially with the war going on,"
said Sandra Miniuitti, a spokeswoman for Charity Navigator.
Vic Hamburger of Westborough, Mass., is one of those whose heartstrings
were pulled. He received a call a few months ago from a woman who said
she was a volunteer and that 100 percent of the money went to Cariello's
foundation.
Hamburger gave $20 and then got to thinking.
"I did a Google search and found an interesting article about these
folks and how they didn't come clean with their fund-raising tactics,"
Hamburger said in a telephone interview.
"If their fund raising isn't illegal, it's at the very least immoral and
unethical," he said.
Cariello said the telemarketers are supposed to follow a script when
soliciting donations, but agreed there may be some rogue callers.
"They may have a guy on the phone who is trying to sell, sell, sell.
Sometimes that happens," he said. "People get carried away."
Pennies on the dollar
By using telemarketing companies, nonprofits do
get more money but it comes at an enormous cost to members of the
public, who think their generosity is benefiting the charity.
Cariello's nonprofit is far from alone, many of the veterans, police and
firefighters charities evaluated by Charity Navigator rank among the
least efficient. Of the 22 veterans charities evaluated by the watchdog
group, more than one-third have fund-raising expenses over 20 percent
with three spending more than 50 percent and two spending more than 95
percent of donations on fund raising. By watchdog standards, nonprofits
should spend no more than 10 cents on the dollar on fund-raising, with
75 percent going to program costs and the rest toward administration.
"It's outrageous that you can call that a charity. There seems nothing
charitable about it," said Miniuitti.
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Larry Scott --
