Is Your Favorite Charity on This List?
To identify America’s 50 worst charities, the Times and CIR examined tens of thousands of pages of public government records from 36 states. They were looking for a specific kind of charity—those writing fat checks to for-profit corporations to raise the vast majority of their donations, year in and year out. Of course, the more money that’s given to solicitors, the less that is used for direct aid.
Several watchdog organizations say charities should spend no more than 35 percent of the money they raise on fund-raising expenses. However, the investigation identified hundreds of charities giving their hired solicitors more than twice that much—often more than two-thirds of the take. Investigators found these organizations to be rampant with fraud, waste and mismanagement.
Data from this investigation show the worst charities devote less than four percent to direct cash aid. Some gave even less, and five on the list gave zero percent. The top 10 worst charities are listed in the following table, alongside the percentage each spent on direct cash aid.2
Nonprofit Applications Given a Free Pass by IRS
Even some very large, notable nonprofits have been known to engage in unsavory and outright unethical behaviors, managing to pull the wool over the public eye.
Wonder why these charities have not yet been closed down and blacklisted?