Can somebody in the know recommend a couple of these where the funds largely go towards the actual intended purpose? I always hear, right or wrong, that Wounded Warriors is bloated and has high operating expenses. Thanks

http://www.charitynavigator.org/

The WWF is bloated and pays its CEO $473k in salary. They spend 6.1% of donations on administrative functions and 34.7% on fundraising. They took in $307M last year in donations.

The Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund took in $20M last year and put 92.7% of donations to injured Marines and only 3.6% to administrative and 3.6% to fundraising. Their CEO's salary is $112k.

Marine wife raises $101M to support troops

The Fisher House Foundation is also a better choice a charity that caters to wounded Veterans of all services but they deal mostly with building the Fisher Houses themselves and the benefits while convalescing there.

www.ProjectHealingWaters.org and www.HeroesontheWater.org are two that I have personally been involved with both while in recovery/rehab and now on the volunteer side and I would strongly recommend both.
Both were started and are run by veterans.

TeamRWB

Rush Limbaugh always talks about the Marine Corps Law Enforcment Foundation.

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MC-LEF Mission
MC-LEF provides scholarships to the children of fallen United States Marines and Federal Law Enforcement Officers (FLEO).
Since our founding in 1995, MC-LEF has awarded over $64 million in scholarships and other humanitarian assistance, and supported over 3,600 children.

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They claim that

quote:

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MC-LEF is an approved IRS 501(c)3 organization that has been recognized for our excellence and efficiency by the Independent Charities of America. With only one paid employee, working only part-time, and a full network of over 65 volunteers, 98.4% of all donations to MC-LEF go directly to fund our mission

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Military Warriors Support Foundation is an excellent Military/ veteran friendly charity. They have donated a lot of houses to Veterans in need.

MC-LEF is an outstanding organization that is very efficient with donations. I have witnessed MC-LEF in action after the sudden death of a Corpsman from a heart attack. He was just a few months away from retirement at the time. MC-LEF provided bods or certificates of deposit to cover the cost of four years of college to each of his two children. That is essentially their only mission is to provide for the surviving children of Marines and Sailors serving with Marines. It is a fairly narrow charter but an important one. As far as I know they do not provide benefits to living Veterans.

I've also had concerns about the amount Wounded Warriors spends on advertising and fundraising. I have given to Fischer House in the past which seems to have high percentage to the cause.

Lately I've been giving to Camp Hope (http://ptsdusa.org/camp-hope/). Same comment about high percent to the troops. Glad you asked because it reminds me that I wanted to make another donation for this year... Which I will do right now.

I'm torn by the stats.

WWF does pay their CEO a lot. They spend a lot on marketing (See them a lot on Foxnews, for example).

However, they seem to raise a lot for the cause.

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I'm torn by the stats.

WWF does pay their CEO a lot. They spend a lot on marketing (See them a lot on Foxnews, for example).

However, they seem to raise a lot for the cause.

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The amount they raise is irrelevant. The amount the actually forward on counts. Non-profits are not hard to judge

Based on Ulysses' numbers, WWF spent about 41% on admin and fundraising, raising $304 M.

If they forwarded $179 M for the advertised programs, are they to be discounted? That's all I'm trying to say.

Thanks for the good info. Texags knows stuff as always

My daughter in law is executive director of Quality of Life Foundation. It is an exceptional organization that impacts wounded vets lives. http://qolfoundation.org PM me and I'll tell you all about it.

Why PM? We'd all like to hear.

Thanks, sounds very good. One final thing. Can you give us the pass-through rate, as discussed above? What % of donations make it to the intended programs?

Happy to. Program Services 90% ($425,974), Administrative 8% ($38,668), Fundraising 2% ($10,974). Source is Annual report- independent auditors report and audited Financial Statements. qolfoundation.org

Thanks, again. Wasn't trying to be a jerk, just trying to draw out of you the information and numbers that all of the posts above you mentioned as important in decision-making.

No problem. It's all about taking care of soldiers and families. This thread is so refreshing from others on the site. Think I'll camp here for a while.

My company partners with Operation Finally Home. OFH builds homes for wounded vets and the widowed wives and families of vets lost. We design the foundations of the homes and it is really awesome seeing neighborhoods adopt and welcome these families to the neighborhoods. It isn't uncommon for the neighbors pitch in to furnish the home and all homes are built using donated time from the builders. I'm on a mobile so I don't have a link but I'm proud to be able to be a part of this organization.

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Based on Ulysses' numbers, WWF spent about 41% on admin and fundraising, raising $304 M.

If they forwarded $179 M for the advertised programs, are they to be discounted? That's all I'm trying to say.

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This is why it matters:

Let's take Susan G Komen (considered by many to be the worst charity around) as an example. Suppose all of the cancer-funding philanthropists in the world decide to collectively donate $100 this year (using that number for ease of statistics). If they donate it all to Susan G Komen, who spends about 80% of their donations on themselves, that leaves only $20 for actual cancer research. If they had donated to the American Cancer Society, as an alternative, that $100 in donations would have eventually funded $85 in research. In fact, you could donate as little as $23 to the American Cancer Society to get the same net research dollars as if you had given $100 to Susan G Komen.

This is the same argument Ryan the Temp and I had with the Commandant re: the Corps of Cadets Association. Donations are finite, so percentage forwarded is a very important metric. If you donate $100 to the Wounded Warrior Foundation, only $0.59 is getting to veterans. There isn't an unlimited supply of $100s, so we need to make the best use of our finite resource to maximize the value to the stakeholders.

So, yes, in short, raw numbers forwarded don't matter, only good financial controls and % put to intended use matter.

For anyone who enjoys the little inspirational magazine Guideposts, they offer a chance to gift a year subscription to a veteran or active duty service member for $10, and if you give 2, they'll add a third. They also accept donations for an outreach program they run, but I don't know anything about it.

https://www.guideposts.org/Giving2Military

Spending some time this weekend with one of my wife's former nursing students, a Marine infantryman, reminded me of this thread. He specifically mentioned the Semper Fi Fund which Ulysees referenced. I registered on Charity Navigator (no cost) so I could save the charities I'd like to follow. I guess because they were all military/veterans related, I received an email from them with a link about all related charities that they track. I wish I could post that link but it was very eye opening. Semper Fi, Fisher House, Air Warrior Courage Foundation (founded by Red River Rats Fighter Pilot Association) and DAV among others rated very high with 4 stars. Surprisingly other like USO and Vietnam Veterans Memorial (that I've donated to for several years) only rated 2 stars. WWF rated 3 but they are on the Charity Navigator watchlist.

My point is there are too many good military/vet charities that rank over 95% for financial and 100% for accountability and transparency to give to organizations that spend too high a percent on fundraising or pay their executives too much (in my estimation) for a charity.