I have given to and have been following K9s for warriors on FB. They seem to be doing really good work.
I recall some negative comments here regarding WWP.
I’m wondering, being in a position to able to give back in a limited way, which charities are out there that are positioned to get me the most bang for my charity buck?
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One that you can’t ever go wrong with is the USO. Fisher House is another since it helps the families as well as the service member.
In OIF WWP hooked me up in the hospital with shirts, shoes, basketball shorts, and an assortment of other goodies so I didn’t have to wear dirty skivvie shorts and a hospital gown like some sort of dork.
I don’t recall ever getting anything from the USO except one donut before a deployment. Whether that is due to lack of funding, or what, I don’t know. But the WWP gets my $$$. They also, at least appear to, do more for veterans than many others.
Not sure how good their rating methods are, but take at look at http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=531#.U1UL4ZtWYr8
There are also other charity ratings, just do a google search. Edited to add: Here is another one: http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html#index
Personally, I am very cautious before I donate to anyone. I’m active duty and I look at the “veterans’ charities” with great suspicion, especially after what I’ve recently read about WWP and others. Many start out well intentioned, but after a while it appears that greed takes over and “administration costs” skyrocket while actual giving to veterans drops dramatically. I think this is especially true about the big charities.
Like the elderly, in this day and age following the longest war(s), vets are big money. The great support we enjoy from our nation is a blessing and a curse sometimes. I am not saying “Don’t donate!” but please do so with an educated intention. Alternatively, I think our dollars would go much further supporting more localized grass-roots projects.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/12/08/wounded-warriors-project-a-legal-scam/
Semper FI fund!
I would suggest steering your funds away from the WWP scam, their top guy’s making a $333,000 annual paycheck with a $100,000.00 “incentive bonus”. Another article of interest about WWP, using fake disabled vets, to promote their “cause”. Showing some of the salaries of these organizations people, many over $350k a year.
Happy Monday to all.
This is very disturbing. A lot of money going toward those fat paychecks could be used to help Veterans in dire need.
You just made my Monday.
I’m always suspicious as well, especially of large organizations. At work, we have an option to donate to united way out of our paycheck but the amount of cents per dollar that actually help people is appalling.
This is one of the reasons why I brought up K9s for warriors. They seem small, and have a singular mission, that I believe to be something that actually can help, one soldier at a time.
These are the types of charities I’d want to find out more about. Orgs that pass out donuts, not as much.
I think Euro is over-exaggerating a tad. The USO does a lot more than pass out donuts as many veterans on here can probably attest to.
I would like to hear about it. I’m sure during Vietnam USO and Bob Hope did a lot of good things. However, I can’t remember the USO doing anything for me or my unit. Maybe they’re under the radar, maybe they do so much that they don’t have to put their logo on everything (unlike WWP), or maybe they just weren’t there. This may be one of those cases where we send billions of dollars to Africans, and yet they all want to kill us because our big boxes of food don’t have American flags on them and are delivered half empty by their own warlords to boot.
As for the WWP, I’m only speaking from in person experience. I know nothing about their financial statements so I’m glad Irish brought that up. This was also ~10 years ago.
This isn’t a personal attack on you… The only thing WWP seems to do is pass out piddly shit with their logo on it and occasionally pass along tickets to events that were donated to them. There have been people who’ve challenged the organization to show any meaningful, substantiative way they’ve helped any veteran and so far they’re batting ZERO.
They sound like a great charity, they’ve got a cool logo and who doesn’t want to help our wounded warriors? The problem is that it’s all marketing based bullshit.
Also, WWP is anti-gun and that to me is a huge red flag unto itself.
WWP is a pure scam as far as I’m concerned:
https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/additional-opportunities.aspx
WWP does not co-brand, create cause marketing campaigns or receive a percentage or a portion of proceeds from companies in which the product or message is sexual, political or religious in nature, or from alcohol or weapon companies.
They’re glad to take your money as long as you are apolitical, not religious, not a gun company or sell alcohol. The sexual thing is vague, so I won’t comment, but the remainder are pretty clear cut. And this omits being supportive of programs like Jack Daniels Operation Ride Home they do during the holidays.
Sorry, but a charity that decides they have enough support to deny funds from particular groups obviously doesn’t need my money. And the big honkin salaries of the executive members isn’t exactly helping win me over either.
As for the USO, here’s the web site stuff, some of which I’ve been able to take part in like the airport centers as well as the phone home and deployed shows:
http://www.uso.org/Centers/USO-Centers---United-States.aspx
And all this within the last ten years, some of it within the last three. I’ve set up for the Sesame Street show for the kids which was a huge hit, gotten additional phone cards for my troops downrange with no questions asked, used their free internet, snacks and drinks at USO lounges in four different airports as well as their complimentary luggage storage. The USO had grown by leaps and bounds beyond the donuts and Christmas shows they used to do and just because you didn’t happen to see them doesn’t mean they either aren’t/weren’t there either then or these days. They have adapted and changed with the current deployment environment of the military and do a lot of good things. And as it benefited me as well as many of my troops, I’ve always felt they were entirely worthy charity.
WWP helped me out in a similar situation to Eurodriver. Gave me a clean set of clothes in the hospital when no one else did.
But I don’t really care for their commercials. They are the same as the dumb poor kids or shelter animal commercials. The last one I saw really pissed me off with a ‘vet’ talking about how unstable he was due to PTSD. It was aired the weekend after the recent FT Hood shooting. Not exactly what I want vets to be portrayed as.
We support and donate to Special Operations Warrior Foundation. I don’t want to get into private details, but they performed as promised. They post their financials online and you can see where the money is going to. Their operation expenses are just over 5%. From my experience they are a fine organization.
I wish the same level of service would be available to ALL combat veterans.
I’m starting to work with Project Healing Waters, teaching vets with various problems how to fly fish, tie flies, etc. That’s a bit more meaningful to me than writing a check or handing out supplies. From what I gather there’s other ones that take them horseback riding, hunting, kayaking, skiing, and all kinds of other activities.
I will also second the Semper Fi Fund. They support members and families for ALL branches of the services (including you Coasties!) and are very highly rated by Charity Navigator and others.
Last year, I started supporting an organization called Carry The Load: http://carrytheload.org/. They support military, first responders, fire and LEO. I’ve meet the two guys that started it, and they are solid dudes.
I also send money to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, and the Officer Down Memorial Page.
I moved my contributions from the WWP to the organizations listed above. But I had been sending SOWF and ODMP money for years.
Thank you.
The only organization I have been consistently supporting the past few years is Disabled American Veterans, because they lead the fight against the Veterans Administration bureaucracy.
It’s good to know which organizations will do the most for Veterans when we make donations. We need to take good care of personnel rotating back from deployments who need assistance.
The sad reality is nearly every charity, even the legit ones, allocate about half of their contributions to administrative costs. So that means if you give $20 to the Red Cross, expect $10 to go to somebody who makes way more money to decide how the other $10 will be spent and who will benefit.
It’s kinda like the NRA taking most of their membership money and spending it on membership solicitations in order to get more members instead of using it to get BS laws overturned. In fact if you aren’t donating to the ILA, pretty much none of your money is being used for legislative purposes.
Obviously some charities are more effective and efficient than others but they all pay themselves to “help people.”
Professional solicitors are a necessary evil, but they take a big percentage of donations. Every cent they take for profit could go to assist Veterans who needs assistance.
Unfortunately there are not a lot of wealthy benefactors willing to volunteer to run charitable organizations that support deserving combat Veterans.