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Top 10 Uncharitable Charities and their Scams
Your donations to charity may be helping more than just those in need. More than 12,000 Canadian charities — almost one in six — spend more money on fundraising and administration than they do on charitable work, a Toronto Star investigation once revealed.
Down south, people face a very similar issue. The Center for Investigative Reporting and the St. Petersburg, Fla. newspaper Tampa Bay Times studied the tax records of 6,000 charities that utilize the services of paid fundraisers, only to uncover that for 50 U.S. charities, an alleged 11 cents or less of each dollar donated went to help the people of their cause. According to a report from MSN, some of the worst charities have been cited by the Better Business Bureau for their controversial profit-making way.
These 10 uncharitable charities were ranked based on how scandalous they are and how much money is being spent on administration rather than the cause.
Top 10 Lists
10. COVENANT HOUSE (CH)
Father Bruce Ritter established Covenant House in 1972 to give shelter to homeless teenagers. At first the Charity was exactly what it set out to be and it quickly grew into a well-known and well-respectedcharity in the nation. He even got a claim for his charitable work from the likes such as President Reagan, President Bush and Mother Teresa. With this being said rumours has started appearing over years about Ritter’s sexual relations to the residents at CH.
4 people stepped up against Ritter between 1989 -1990. Although he denied the charges he stepped down from CH. Covenant House then led their own investigation into Ritter and found evidence to support that he had at least 15 cases of sexual relations with residents.
The structure of CH made it so the board of directors had little authority and made it so Ritter could do as he pleased with all the money the charity made and with some of the money he funded one of his other charities the Franciscan Charitable Trust and loaned money to two senior staff member who then later resigned.
Sister Mary Rose McGeady, the associate director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Brooklyn under Ritter, became President of Covenant House, instituting both financial and program-related reforms.
9. UNITED WAY OF AMERICA (UWA)
William Aramony was president and CEO of United Way of America(UWA) for 22 years, a larger group that represents thousands of local United Way organizations that fund social and human service projects nationwide. In 1992, the President resigned amidst allegations that he siphoned money from UWA through spin-off companies he created. Before the scandal broke, Aramony was one of the most respected nonprofit leaders of his time. He even had a hand in creating many of the rules under which many charities now operate in North America. In 1995, Aramony and two conspirators, Thomas Merlo and Stephen Paulachak, were convicted of fraud, specifically stealing money from the charity. Aramony was convicted on 25 felony counts and sentenced to seven years in prison for fraudulently diverting $1.2 million of the charity’s money to benefit himself and his friends.
Aramony’s wish to take money away from the charity and use it for his own good was particularly the most memorable. For instance, he used UWA cash to woo a girl, Lori Villasor, who was only 17 years old when they began dating; Aramony was 59 years old at the time. He met Villasor while dating her older sister. Both young women were added to UWA’s payroll. For his notoriously young girlfriend, Aramony spent $450,000 of the charity’s money to purchase and lavishly furnish a New York condo; $78,000 to chauffeur her around New York City; and $4,800 to renovate her home in Florida. The couple enjoyed time off in Egypt, London, Las Vegas, and Atlantic City. The New York Times reported on the testimony of Aramony’s former aide, Rina Duncan, with whom he was sleeping with and cheating on while married to his wife. Duncan testified to falsifying Aramony’s expense records for seven years so that he could charge the charity for things like champagne, flowers and plane tickets for Villasor.
Aramony was also known for treating female employees inappropriately. He offered some women financial benefits if they slept with him and would transfer employees who politely said no, according to the indictment. Aramony’s lawyer claimed there were medical reasons for his client’s behavior, arguing Aramony’s ability to control impulses was impaired by brain atrophy.
8. ANGEL FOOD MINISTRIES (AFM)
Joe Wingo, his wife Linda Wingo and their son Andy owned the non-profit charity Angel Food Ministries. Joe Wingo, who served as a pastor in a church that he founded started the charity in 1994 after a year since coming out of a prison for extortion charges. Its goal was to sell food to the needy for very affordable prices by buying in bulks and this was enough to convince the USDA (US Department of Agriculture) to issue a $7 million low-interest loan in 2005.
In 2011 they decided to shut their charity down and 2 months later federal investigators did a 4 year-long investigation on the company. They found evidence that they bought things for personal gain things likecars, sporting goods, electronics and even a down payment on an aircraft which was then leased back to the charity. They issued millions of dollars worth of ‘bonuses’ back to their family. Since the charity was under investigation they tried to cover up their tracks by giving the money back and coming up with complex schemes to cover up all their tracks and destroy evidence which was used to support political campaigns.
This however was unsuccessful and in 2013 Joe Wingo had admitted to prosecutors that he used his place at AFM to make personal purchases with charity funds and then tried to hide these expenditures. Joe and Andy was convicted to 7 years in a federal prison and was ordered to give back $3.9 million dollars between them and Linda was sentenced to 5 years probation for having knowledge of the crime and concealing its commission.
7. FEED THE CHILDREN (FC)
In 2010, the American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) that evaluates charities in order to help people who dobnate make informed decisions about where to give their money, handed Feed the Children (FC) the worst Charity Award possible. The decision to hand the charity the most derogatory “award” in the charity spectre was influenced by a string of claims made against FC.
In 2009, Larry Jones was fired by the FC board after admitting that he authorized the bugging of three offices belonging to FC officials. Despite admitting to this offence, Jones filed a ‘wrongful termination’ suit against the FC board.
Jones has also made major decisions without the board’s approval like awarding a $40 million annual, no-bid television buying agreement to a company that employed Jones’ son, Allen. This was no surprise since Allen was in huge debts to FC of nearly $1 million. Despite all the many scandals he remained president until 30 years later when the board finally taken action against him when he admitted to wiretapping offices so he could record conversations he had with colleagues. So in light of this he tried to completely get with of FC’s board to create another one which would be more loyal to him but this failed. He then tried to file a lawsuit under wrongful termination, which also failed.
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