http://viralhouse.net/the-10-most-corrupt-charities-in-america

Guess what religion the people who run #6 and #10 belong to.

These charities give little, and even worse, some of them "give" to other groups which themselves do little good for the at-risk target populations they claim to serve. Yes, there are charities and organizations which "feed" off other "charitable orgs". And there are many other "charities" which give little more than number 10.

There are whole charitable industries that use affiliation with the United Nations to gain legitimacy. Bono's "RED" comes to mind. Almost all their income stays in house, and little makes it to Africa.

They may be taxpayer supported, but they are a business masquerading as a religion. They give precious little of their money to charity, limit most charity to their own members, and you have to give to a separate fund other than the required tithing. Most of their money goes to investments, followed by buildings and marketing. They pay their own employees poorly or not at all, and expect tithe paying members to clean their own toilets.

I forwarded it because the #6 and #10 most corrupt charities in the nation are run by an extended family of TBMs. They're all members of our former ward. Here's a CNN piece on them:

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/13/beware-of-these-cancer-charity-rip-offs/

Mormonism is a perfect breeding ground for businesses attempting to sell lies. I wonder why that is?

I often see their ads airing late at night on TV. I've never seen them during prime time or even during the day. Does this tell us something about them!??

...ad rates are cheaper then than in the daytime.

Thanks for sharing randyj. I've worked in the non-profit sector most of my life and nothing upsets me more than seeing these slimes ripping people off in the name of helping others. Of course, LD$ Inc. only donates a tiny portion of the billions they make each year so why wouldn't some of their members act the same. I recall another TBM family in Utah who raised millions for playgrounds and equipment. All the funds raised went to their lavish life style. They served jail and so should these people. Always check Charity Navigator before making donations!

...in senior care, providing services for thousands of elderly clients. They have over 200 employees. The CEO's salary was around $80k, but he and the other corporate heads recently took a 10% pay cut because the org, like many others, is struggling.

By comparison, James Reynolds, the Mormon CEO of the Cancer Fund of America, pays himself a salary of $237k. As the CNN article states:

"He admits 80 percent really goes to fundraisers, along with this $237,000 salary. He said the mission of his charity isn’t to give financial assistance, but rather to give gifts, like moon pies, to cancer patients and their families to make them feel good. And yes, they may be donated gifts he has re-gifted."

That's an example of how these orgs work: they get surplus goods (like Moon Pies) donated to them, and they turn around and "re-gift" them to alleged cancer patients---and the org claims the value of the goods as a charitable donation, even though they didn't actually pay anything for them.

A few years ago, the Cancer Fund of America did the same thing with surplus, outdated M&Ms. And a few years before that, they were given a WWII-era MASH unit, and they donated it to some other org, and claimed its value as a donation (even though a WWII-era MASH unit can't have much actual value).

Also, somebody donated a bunch of outdated vegetable seed packets to the CFA, and the CFA in turn donated them to Indian tribes on a reservation. The ostensible purpose was for those poor Indians to grow their own vegetables, but reports said that most of the seeds packets were re-sold by the Indians at flea markets etc. It's all just a huge money-churning scheme.

I am not affiliated, but think donating to Charity Navigator is a good idea if you use their website to assess charities so they can continue to do their good work.

As a former non-profit employee, I would suggest doing the following to help weed out scammers who call: Ask them to send their information to you by mail or e-mail. Any legitimate organization is more than happy to send you something in writing. The not-so-legitimate ones will hem and haw and come up with a million excuses why they can't.

Before we dropped our land line, we were always getting calls from police and fire associations - many of which are scams or very poorly run organizations. Every time I asked them to send me something in writing they never would. They always had a ton of excuses. And I always told them politely that if they would send me information in writing, my husband and I would discuss whether we would like to support their cause but that we did not make donations over the phone.

Also, any non-profit organization that spends more than 20% on administrative costs and less than 80% on programming (building playgrounds, feeding the homeless, cancer research, whatever it is they actually do) is not a well run organization.

Rather than cry and moan about these corrupt bastards, is there anything practical we can do...besides not donate?--
Like sic the US Attorney General on them or encourage a Congressional Investigation, or perhaps the ACLU?
(I know, I KNOW. That's asking the wolf to guard the whorehouse...however, doesn't seem to be many other options.)

If it wasn't, such "charities" would have been put out of business years ago. CBS 60 Minutes did a piece on the Cancer Fund of America about 20 years ago, revealing much of the same info that these new articles have. But not only did that not affect the CFA's fortunes, the CEO founded two spin-offs, the Breast Cancer Fund, with his son James Jr. as CEO, and the Children's Cancer Fund, with his ex-wife as CEO.

All of these people are long-time prominent local Mormons, and they have several other Mormons working for them. Even when we were active TBMs 20-30 years ago, and going to church with those people, we kept our distance from them. We didn't want anything to do with them, and we were disgusted at the other TBMs who worked for them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2014 02:01PM by randyj.

What are the names of these people?

Okay watched the CNN clip and now know the names, but are these people active in the LDS church today?

Also appalling is the number of con-groups there who "raise" money for cops and firemen. I love getting spam phone calls from these hucksters--I really put 'em through the ringer!

For a little better source information than the listicle linked above, here's the actual list they used. Each charity can be clicked on for lots more detail.

http://www.tampabay.com/americas-worst-charities/

Just wait until you forward the mail of your parent who died of cancer to your home because you are the personal representative for their estate in probate. I was shocked to see how these scam charities prey on the old and the (desparately)sick because when we did the probate it all of a sudden became open-season with the direct mail campaigns and phone calls to the house. Died six years ago...still getting direct mail appeals and phone calls asking for specific parent from these charity scammers. Despite do not call dot gov list. I am sure they rake in much of their money from confused oldsters who think they are legit because their name sounds legit or is purposefully meant to sound like a legit and branded charity.
Morally bankfupt is what it is.

Despite the optimism I've had since birth, I have ALWAYS been suspicious of charities. I've never trusted them. Never will. Go ahead and post a list of "legitamite" charities, but I will not trust. No way, no how. No.

I give here:

http://www.foodforthepoor.org/index-1214.html

Food For The Poor has maintained fundraising and administrative costs of less than 5% of its expenses; more than 95% of all donations go directly to programs that help the poor.

That little blurb above is from the bottom of their website.