Brutalizing Charities

Into the old email feedbag comes another bit of dubious email. It feeds off some true life scandals, making it easy to lead its readers down scurrilious paths. Due to its nature, I’ll quote it in total and then descend upon it. It was quite colorful, with red dominating the first set of entries, and green the second half.

FALL IS NEARLY UPON US WITH THE GIVING SEASON RIGHT BEHIND – DONATING ITEMS OR MONEY… WHICH GROUP? A TIMELY REMINDER BEFORE YOUR GENEROUS SPIRITS OPEN YOUR WALLETS. Who Would Have Imagined That This Was The Case   The  American Red Cross President and CEO Marsha J. Evans’ salary for the year was $651,957  plus expenses MARCH OF  DIMES It is called the March of Dimes because only a dime for  every 1 dollar is given to the needy. The  United Way President Brian Gallagher receives a $375,000 base salary  along with numerous expense benefits. UNICEF CEO Caryl M. Stern receives $1,200,000 per year (100k per month) plus all expenses including a ROLLS ROYCE. Less than 5  cents of your donated dollar goes to the cause. GOODWILL  CEO and owner Mark Curran profits $2.3 million a year. Goodwill is a very catchy name for his business. You donate to his business and then he sells the items for PROFIT. He pays nothing for his products and pays his workers minimum wage! Nice Guy.  $0.00 goes to help anyone!  Stop giving to this man. Instead, give to any of the following GO “GREEN” AND PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE IT WILL DO SOME GOOD:   The  Salvation Army Commissioner, Todd Bassett receives a small salary of only $13,000 per year(plus housing) for  managing this $2 billion dollar organization. 96 percent of donated dollars go  to the cause. The  American Legion National Commander receives a $0.00 zero  salary.  Your donations go to help Veterans and their families and youth! The Veterans of Foreign WarsNational Commander receives a $0.00 zero  salary. Your donations go  to help Veterans and their families and youth! The  Disabled American Veterans National Commander receives a $0.00 zero  salary. Your donations go to help Veterans and their families and youth! The  Military Order of Purple Hearts National Commander receives a $0.00 zero salary.  Your donations go to help Veterans and their families and youth! The Vietnam Veterans Association National Commander receives a $0.00 zero  salary. Your donations go  to help Veterans and their families and youth! Make a Wish: For children’s last wishes. 100% goes to funding trips or  special wishes for a dying child. St. Jude  Research Hospital 100% goes towards funding and  helping Children with Cancer who have no insurance and cannot afford to pay. Ronald  McDonald Houses All monies go to running  the houses for parents who have critically ill Children in the hospital. 100% goes to housing, and feeding  the families. Lions  Club International 100% OF DONATIONS GO TO HELP THE  BLIND, BUY HEARING AIDES, SUPPORT MEDICAL MISSIONS AROUND THE WORLD.THEIR LATEST UNDERTAKING IS MEASLES VACCINATIONS (ONLY $1.00 PER SHOT). Please share this with everyone you can.

So do these accusations fly? Or is this more like that poor cow used in catapult testing? Here’s my analysis:

American Red Cross – Via Charity Navigator, here is the data on the American Red Cross:

Compensation of Leaders     (FYE 06/2015)

Compensation	% of Expenses	Paid to	Title
$517,364	0.01%	Gail J. McGovern	President, CEO

ARC is characterized as being in excess of $1 billion. While the mischaracterization of the CEO’s salary is minor, it’s important to keep in mind the size of the organization, the high rating of the organization – and how little impact the CEO’s salary has on it. So long as the CEO is an effective leader, it’s difficult to fault the salary. Still, it’s a judgment call.

March of Dimes – Via Charity Navigator, I chose to use their Financial Performance Metrics, since the complaint was about how much money makes it to the recipients.

 

Financial Performance Metrics

	Program Expenses (Percent of the charity’s total expenses spent on the programs and services it delivers)	75.6%
	Administrative Expenses	11.0%
	Fundraising Expenses	13.3%
	Fundraising Efficiency	$0.14
	Working Capital Ratio (years)	< 0.01
	Program Expenses Growth	0.6%
	Liabilities to Assets	88.1%

All data for Financial Performance Metrics calculations was provided by March of Dimes on recent 990s filed with the IRS.

Questions concerning the above categories can be answered by following the link, above, and clicking on the category names. In general, it appears to fairly well run, but with room for improvement – Charity Navigator’s score of 75.6% for Program Expenses is near the top of its second-tier in that category, nearly first tier. I’d rate this claim false.

The United Way – Via Charity Navigator –

Compensation of Leaders     (FYE 12/2015)

So the mail is accurate. However, here are The United Way financials:

Financial Performance Metrics

 

	Program Expenses (Percent of the charity’s total expenses spent on the programs and services it delivers)	91.4%
	Administrative Expenses	5.4%
	Fundraising Expenses	3.0%
	Fundraising Efficiency	$0.04
	Working Capital Ratio (years)	0.49
	Program Expenses Growth	0.3%
	Liabilities to Assets	44.5%

All data for Financial Performance Metrics calculations was provided by United Way Worldwide on recent 990s filed with the IRS.

A Program Expenses value of 91.4% is very good, indeed. So here you have to decide if you’re terribly offended at the high salary of a very well run, apparently, charity.

UNICEF – Via Charity Navigator –

Compensation of Leaders      (FYE 06/2016)

Compensation % of Expenses Paid to Title
$537,682 0.09% Caryl M. Stern President, CEO

Or less than 50% of the claim. Still, it’s a hefty amount, isn’t it? Does the CEO deliver?

Financial Performance Metrics

	Program Expenses (Percent of the charity’s total expenses spent on the programs and services it delivers)	89.8%
	Administrative Expenses	2.7%
	Fundraising Expenses	7.4%
	Fundraising Efficiency	$0.07
	Working Capital Ratio (years)	0.22
	Program Expenses Growth	3.1%
	Liabilities to Assets	50.2%

All data for Financial Performance Metrics calculations was provided by UNICEF USA on recent 990s filed with the IRS.

Program Expenses of 89.8% puts it in the top tier for efficiency, and suggests far more than 5 cents of your dollar makes it to recipients.

At this juncture, honestly, the authors of this mail are beginning to look like cold-blooded manipulators who object to these causes on ideological grounds – and will lie and bully to get their way. Still, let’s see on this last one.

Goodwill – In Charity Navigator there are a number of Goodwill entries, confusing me, so I did a search of the Web for Mark Curran and Goodwill. The result, as summarized on Wikipedia (other sites supporting):

A widely circulated email titled “Think Before You Donate” aims to convince readers that “Goodwill CEO and Owner Mark Curran profits $2.3 million a year”, but fact-checking groups have debunked the content of the email: the CEO of Goodwill Industries International is not Mark Curran, nor does he make $2.3 million a year.^[27] The current President and CEO of Goodwill is Jim Gibbons, who in 2014 received a total reported compensation of $689,418.^[28]

So this appears to be out and out deception. For those who believe that all scandals should be revealed, Goodwill has certainly had a few, such as pay out of line for CEOs of  the various branches, and some questions about the use of disabled labor. In the end, this out and out lie was unnecessary, as the facts on the ground may be enough to discourage potential donors.

So how about this manipulator’s favorites?

The Salvation Army – I do not see a Todd Bassett on the Salvation Army’s list of Commissioners. Ah, here we go – PRO bono of Australia covered a similar email, and I’ll just borrow their coverage on The Salvation Army:

Finally, in reference to The Salvation Army Snopes.com said “The information presented above is outdated, as W. Todd Bassett stepped down as National Commander of The Salvation Army in April 2006; the current National Commander of the Salvation Army is William A. Roberts. The Salvation Army is not required to file a Form 990 with the IRS because it is primarily a religious organisation, but according to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Roberts’ last reported total annual compensation was $126,920, much higher than the $13,000 reported above. Forbes rates this organisation’s efficiency at 82 per cent, a fair bit lower than the 93 per cent figure claimed in the story.”

The American Legion has been difficult to find uptodate figures. Back in 2009 and 2011 stories were published refuting this $0 salary claim, but of course, this may have changed – perhaps current General Rohan is not receiving a salary. However, given the size of the organization, I feel that’s not true, and feel reasonably confident in the suspicion that the author of this mail has, once again, lied through his teeth.

Well, that’s enough of today’s game of Manipulate the Reader – I feel full up to the ears of malignant lies. We’ve seen buttons pushed and money thrown around. Were you a victim? Or did you smell rotten fish and ignored this one? I hope it was the latter.

And I must say there are many sites out there that will discredit mail like this. Rather than accept these malignant lies into your lives, perhaps a little research is in order.

Or just discard the damn things. They rot the mind and the soul.