White also criticized reputable nonprofits that refuse to condemn bottom-tier charities. But White said the Times/CIR findings, based on a decade of data, show that the nation's worst charities can't use that excuse. He said charities with high fundraising expenses often rationalize that such costs are inevitable in the early years. A consultant to nonprofits for more than 30 years, White teaches in Columbia University's fundraising management master's degree program. Thelen said his group has worked with about 300 parents since 1997.īut he publicly claims credit for reuniting as many as 1,600 children with their families, even if his charity's involvement was as minimal as posting the child's picture on the charity website.ĭoug White is one of the nation's foremost experts on the ethics of charity fundraising. The charity's efforts primarily consist of giving advice to families whose children have been abducted. It spent about $21,000 each year on its cause, most often buying plane tickets to reunite families. Over the past decade, the charity paid its solicitors nearly 90 percent of the $27 million it raised. "No parent has ever turned me down for assistance because we got our money from a telemarketer," said David Thelen, who runs the Committee for Missing Children in Lawrenceville, Ga. She declined to answer additional questions about Kids Wish's fundraising operations, saying the charity "is focused on the future."Ĭharity operators who would talk defended their work, saying raising money is expensive especially in tough economic times. Schwartz also said donors who give directly to the charity instead of in response to solicitations ensure that 100 percent of their pledge will be spent granting wishes. According to its 2011 IRS filing, the charity has 51 employees. Schwartz said Kids Wish hires solicitors so its staff can focus on working with children, not on raising donations. Kids Wish has hired Melissa Schwartz, a crisis management specialist in New York City who previously worked for the federal government after the 2010 BP oil spill. A third charity's president took off in his truck at the sight of a reporter with a camera. Nearly half declined to answer questions about their programs or would speak only through an attorney.Īpproached in person, one charity manager threatened to call the police another refused to open the door. Six spent nothing at all on direct cash aid. Over a decade, one diabetes charity raised nearly $14 million and gave about $10,000 to patients. The 50 worst charities in America devote less than 4 percent of donations raised to direct cash aid.Until today, no one had tallied the cost of this parasitic segment of the nonprofit industry or traced the long history of its worst offenders. The nation's 50 worst charities have paid their solicitors nearly $1 billion over the past 10 years that could have gone to charitable works. These nonprofits adopt popular causes or mimic well-known charity names that fool donors. Then reporters took an unprecedented look back to zero in on the 50 worst - based on the money they diverted to boiler room operators and other solicitors over a decade. Using state and federal records, the Times and CIR identified nearly 6,000 charities that have chosen to pay for-profit companies to raise their donations. Explore our one-of-a-kind national database of charities and fundraisers that have been cited by state regulators.Use our interactive database to see who really benefits from the 50 worst charities in America.No charity in the nation has siphoned more money away from the needy over a longer period of time.īut Kids Wish is not an isolated case, a yearlong investigation by the Tampa Bay Times and The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.
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