{"id":443,"date":"2010-12-10T18:13:22","date_gmt":"2010-12-11T01:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mattfife.net\/wordpress\/?p=443"},"modified":"2013-04-29T10:19:54","modified_gmt":"2013-04-29T17:19:54","slug":"worst-non-profits-in-oregon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/?p=443","title":{"rendered":"Worst Non-profits in Oregon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tis the season for giving.\u00a0 I’m a fan of charities, and regularly set aside 10% of my income for charitable giving.\u00a0 But how do you check to see if that guy standing on the street corner is a *real* charity; or if that charity actually will get the money to those in need?\u00a0 After Bono’s ONE charity scandal this year, we are learning how to be more careful with our giving:<\/p>\n

According to New York Post investigation <\/a>of tax records – of the just under $15 million that U2 singer Bono’s ONE charity collected in 2008 – only $184,732 was distributed to actual aid organizations. $8 million went to executive pay and most of the rest went to ad agencies for promotions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Turns out that the Oregon Department of Justice allows you to look up the records of your favorite charity<\/a> to see if they actually *are* a charity, and also to see exactly how much of that money they’re gathering is actually going to the cause; and how much of it’s going into their own pockets.\u00a0 To be considered a charity, a charity cannot have over 35% of their money going to ‘administration’.\u00a0 While 35% is still a huge amount of potential abuse IMHO, it’s the law at the moment and I can understand it for some particular causes.\u00a0 My own take is that the charities I give to are in the 10% or less in overhead category (90%+ going to actual programs).<\/p>\n

While not an exhaustive list of dubious charities, the official Top 20 worst charities in Oregon for 2010<\/a> are mind-numbingly bad with about half of them under 20% going to actual programs\/aid.<\/p>\n

Here’s the list with the percentages of how much goes to their actual activities.\u00a0 In order for them to be considered in accord with a non-profit, these numbers need to be 65% or HIGHER.\u00a0 I encourage you to check out your charity, and give to those that will do the most good with the money you give.<\/p>\n

Shiloh International Ministries <\/strong>3.63%
\nPurpose: To provide medical necessities and moral support to needy children and to
\nprovide assistance to the homeless<\/p>\n

Law Enforcement Education Program <\/strong>6.26%
\nPurpose: To educate teenagers on the effects of alcohol<\/p>\n

Korean War Veterans National Museum and Library\u00a0 <\/strong>7.03%
\nPurpose: To preserve a record of participation in the Korean War, educate the public, and to promote friendship among vets<\/p>\n

Foundation for American Veterans, Inc<\/strong>. 10.22%
\nPurpose: Promoting social and recreational welfare for current and past U.S. Armed Forces members, dependents, widows, widowers and others<\/p>\n

Dogs Against Drugs\/Dogs Against Crime\u00a0 <\/strong>10.30%
\nPurpose: Drug Education and Crime Prevention<\/p>\n

National Vietnam Veterans Foundation <\/strong>10.92%
\nPurpose: Support of Veterans Organizations<\/p>\n

Firefighters Charitable Foundation <\/strong>11.09%
\nPurpose: To provide financial assistance to individuals affected by a fire or disaster<\/p>\n

Committee for Missing Children <\/strong>11.51%
\nPurpose: Distribution of photos of missing children, education and case management, and the development of an international database<\/p>\n

The Wishing Well Foundation <\/strong>11.57%
\nPurpose: Fulfilling the fondest wish of any terminally ill child not expected to reach 18 years of age<\/p>\n

Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund <\/strong>13.16%
\nPurpose: To provide legal assistance to law enforcement officers
\n
\nDisabled Police Officers of America <\/strong>14.24%
\nPurpose: Educational Programs for Police Officers<\/p>\n

Disabled Police Officers Counseling Center, Inc<\/strong>. 14.84%
\nPurpose: Assist disabled police officers
\n
\nFoundation for Children with Cancer (formerly Reach Our Children)<\/strong> 15.23%
\nPurpose: To provide financial assistance to families with children with pediatric cancer<\/p>\n

American Medical Research Organization <\/strong>16.19%
\nPurpose: To support medical research in the cause, cure, and treatment of macular degeneration<\/p>\n

National Veterans Service Fund, Inc. <\/strong>20.44%
\nPurpose: Inform and educate in conjunction with service-related illnesses and work to raise public awareness of the contributions veterans make to our society<\/p>\n

Children’s Leukemia Research Association, Inc<\/strong>. 20.49%
\nPurpose: To support research efforts into the causes and cure of leukemia and to provide assistance with expenses incurred in leukemia treatment<\/p>\n

Dakota Indian Foundation <\/strong>21.55%
\nPurpose: Assist in education of Indian people and preservation of Native American culture<\/p>\n

Cancer Support Services\u00a0 <\/strong>22.27%
\nPurpose: To support the charitable mission of Cancer Fund of America and to provide financial support to indigent cancer patients<\/p>\n

Project Cure, Inc<\/strong>. 24.28%
\nPurpose: Increasing public and professional awareness about the prevention, detection, and treatment of various chronic diseases<\/p>\n

Operation Lookout National Center for Missing Youth <\/strong>24.53%
\nPurpose: To provide free services 24 hours a day 7 days a week regarding missing youth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tis the season for giving.\u00a0 I’m a fan of charities, and regularly set aside 10% of my income for charitable giving.\u00a0 But how do you check to see if that guy standing on the street corner is a *real* charity; or if that charity actually will get the money to those in need?\u00a0 After Bono’s ONE charity scandal this year, we are learning how to be more careful with our giving: According to New York Post investigation of tax records…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cool"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4WECr-79","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions\/870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mattfife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}