Volunteering, Giving, Charity, Tithing

[Crafty_Dog]

With December arriving tomorrow, this is a good moment to bring this thread back to the top.

[C-Kumu Dog]

I've been pretty inactive in various forums for various reasons but in terms of volunteering etc.  It can certainly do good for the soul and mind. My wife and I volunteer to coordinate quarterly Blood Drives at church, we volunteer every 3rd Saturday w/ an Autism event for Teens and Tweens and then I volunteer as the President of a Youth Rugby organization.  It's a lot of work and can kind of be like a side job or two but the rewards of helping the Red Cross save lives, help create an environment where kids on the spectrum can be themselves without anyone batting an eye and creating a program that I hope will grow and provide more opportunities for kids to be active along with potential opportunities for college scholarships other than your standard sports which are already highly competitive and I guess you could say saturated.

[Crafty_Dog]

https://news.yahoo.com/irish-dig-deep-support-virus-201156553.html

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-red-cross-raised-half-a-billion-dollars-for-haiti-and-built-6-homes

[Crafty_Dog]

GoFundMe Seizes $10 Million of Trucker Protest Fundraising, Will Give to Charities Instead
By Omid Ghoreishi February 4, 2022 Updated: February 4, 2022biggersmaller Print
GoFundMe says it won’t be giving the C$10 million ($8 million USD) raised to support the truckers protesting COVID-19 mandates to the organizers anymore, saying it will instead work with the organizers to send the funds to “established charities verified by GoFundMe.”

“To ensure GoFundMe remains a trusted platform, we work with local authorities to ensure we have a detailed, factual understanding of events taking place on the ground,” the fundraising platform said in a statement on Feb. 4.

“Following a review of relevant facts and multiple discussions with local law enforcement and city officials, this fundraiser is now in violation of our Terms of Service (Term 8, which prohibits the promotion of violence and harassment) and has been removed from the platform.”

GoFundMe added that it has “evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity.”

John Carpay, president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) which is providing legal representation for the organizers, told The Epoch Times that the linking of protesters to violent or unlawful activity is unfounded.

“I would like to see what evidence there is,” Carpay said. “That’s political spin.”

Carpay said the organizers have maintained that the protests are peaceful.

“It’s a constitutional freedom to protest peacefully,” Carpay said.

He also said that it’s his understanding from people on the ground that people can move freely in Ottawa, and for example in a recent case an emergency vehicle was able to “rapidly race through the streets because the trucks were neatly parked off to the side.”

“They’re not obstructing the daily lives of people in Ottawa, and they’re committed to peace and non-violence,” he said.

The Epoch Times reached out to GoFundMe for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

GoFundMe had earlier put a freeze in withdrawal of the funds as it undertook a review “to ensure it complies with our terms of service and applicable laws and regulations.”

Keith Wilson, a lawyer from JCCF representing the organizers, had said earlier at a Feb. 3 press conference that GoFundMe has been “bombarded with an orchestrated social media and other campaigns to try and shut [the fundraiser] down.”

Ottawa police have made a few arrests while the protesters remain in Ottawa. On Feb. 1, the Ottawa Police Service announced that it had charged one man with mischief under $5,000 and another man with carrying a weapon to a meeting. Police charged another man from Quebec while in Ottawa on Feb. 2 in relation to “threats and comments made on social media.” Police say there have been no injuries or riots during the protests.

“I have it on very reliable information that people from the movement were not associated, and that offences related to property damage, and just an assault this morning, committed by agitators were witnessed and reported by a trucker and one of our volunteer security personnel, which was reported to the police and handled by the Ottawa Police Service,” said Daniel Bulford, a former RCMP officer who worked as a sniper to protect the prime minister and is now helping the protest organizers, at the Feb. 3 press conference.

GoFundMe had earlier allowed withdrawal of C$1 million by the organizers to be used for expenses such as fuel and food for the protesters. The fundraising platform said in its Feb. 4 statement that donors may submit a request for a full refund of their donation until Feb. 19.

The trucker convoy demonstration initially started as a protest against the federal government’s requirement for truck drivers crossing the U.S.-Canada border to have COVID-19 vaccination, but became a large movement as many across Canada opposing various COVID-19 mandates and restrictions joined the protest.

The convoy converged in Ottawa on Jan. 29, and many protesters have remained in the city, parking their trucks and vehicles by Parliament Hill.

The protesters say they will remain in the nation’s capital until the government removes COVID-19 mandates.

The organizers have now set up an alternate donation site on GiveSendGo, which they say will ensure the money gets to the protesters. The donation site had raised over $175,000 in just a few hours after its creation.

[Crafty_Dog]

Don’t waste generosity on mismanaged veteran charities

IRS isn’t doing enough to protect patriotic donors

By Rebekah Mercer

The IRS is supposed to keep a sharp eye on nonprofit organizations that enjoy preferred tax status. And yet, it was recently discovered that 76 phony charities hiding in plain sight (all registered with the same New York City post office address) earned the IRS’ stamp of approval.

The scam wasn’t even good. The fake charities adopted names similar to trusted organizations and filed paperwork with the IRS. The IRS had received warnings from real nonprofits with similar names, including the American Cancer Society, that these copycat scam organizations were fraudulent.

The IRS rubber-stamped each one. And it’s no surprise. The agency rejects only one out of every 2,400 applications for new nonprofit groups.

Aside from the intentional abuse of donor intent, many legitimate charities are poorly managed by people with little experience handling large sums of money or delivering program services.

Veterans charities are among the worst offenders in this category.

In an average year, Americans donate more than $1.2 billion to groups that support vets and their families. Too many of these charities over-promise and under-deliver at the expense of their donors and of those they claim to support.

Consider three well-known veteran charities: Tunnels to Towers, the Wounded Warrior Project and the Disabled Veterans National Foundation.

You have probably seen their ads on TV or been solicited at home by one or more of them. Over the last two years, these three organizations collected hundreds of millions of dollars from donors who expect their money to be spent wisely.

According to recent tax filings, one of the three organizations has overhead costs of just 6%. Another spends five times as much on overhead. The third spends more than 70% of the money they receive in overhead expenses before a dollar reaches veterans in need. But, short of inspecting their tax filings, how would you know which is which?

There are others that squander more than half of their donations on overhead expenses for rents, salaries, etc.

Some groups maintain a relatively low overhead but keep too much of their donations in the bank or investments.

Some have held back enough donations to run themselves for a decade. Donors are deceived when their gift is stashed in an overly funded rainy-day reserve.

For veterans and families in need, every day is a rainy day. Despite these different financial profi les, all veteran charities appear similar from the outside. They promise a range of benefits from housing support to scholarships to providing service dogs and more. Doing the research to decide where you want to donate without having your money mismanaged can be time-consuming and sometimes requires a paid subscription.

The IRS isn’t doing enough to protect patriotic donors. It recently became apparent to myself and others that America needs a no-cost internet research service like a Consumer Reports targeted at veteran charities.

So, we made one.

The Robert Alexander Mercer Veterans Foundation reviews dozens of veterans charities and recommends which are worthy of your investment.

Our recommended charities, which can be found at Charities-ForVets.com, have each proven to be efficient, effective stewards of their donations. They keep overhead spending to a minimum and pass other financial tests while fulfilling their mission. And you can quickly check — if you are curious — which of the three named charities mentioned above runs the more efficient organization.

Nearly a billion dollars are donated annually to charities we do not recommend. We encourage donors to seek out the best ones who are making a difference. The RAM Veterans Foundation will help.

Rebekah Mercer is president of the RAM Veterans Foundation

[ccp]

" Consider three well-known veteran charities: Tunnels to Towers, the Wounded Warrior Project and the Disabled Veterans National Foundation.

You have probably seen their ads on TV or been solicited at home by one or more of them. Over the last two years, these three organizations collected hundreds of millions of dollars from donors who expect their money to be spent wisely.

According to recent tax filings, one of the three organizations has overhead costs of just 6%. Another spends five times as much on overhead. The third spends more than 70% of the money they receive in overhead expenses before a dollar reaches veterans in need. But, short of inspecting their tax filings, how would you know which is which?"

".According to recent tax filings, one of the three organizations has overhead costs of just 6%. Another spends five times as much on overhead. The third spends more than 70% of the money they receive in overhead expenses before a dollar reaches veterans in need. But, short of inspecting their tax filings, how would you know which is which? "

There simply is no shortage of white collar crime
which mostly goes unchecked 

" And yet, it was recently discovered that 76 phony charities hiding in plain sight (all registered with the same New York City post office address) earned the IRS’ stamp of approval."

Me:
Are the new IRS "agents" going to look into this and raid the organizations that are stealing?
How about these agents go after the fraud not of just taxes but those defrauding the 100s of billions in government spending
alone that could require 87,000 "agent"

not holding my breath

it will be for chumps like me .....   because I am a Conservative who hates Liz Cheney et al.

[Crafty_Dog]

IIRC I posted here some years back that I ceased supporting WW for excessive overhead.   Looks like they are still at it.


https://washingtontimes-dc.newsmemory.com/?token=7d75a59d9632d6d657a1365f14c7f38e_65b126a2_6d25b5f&selDate=20240124

Donors are wasting money on bad veterans charities

Fox News is one reason why

By Rick Berman

Mike Lindell, the My Pillow Guy who has seemingly been the largest paid presence on Fox News, recently announced he has been banned from the network for his political beliefs. Newsweek reported it was due to a failure to pay for ads that had already run (the specifics are in dispute).

The squabble caught my attention as a board member of the RAM Veterans Foundation. Fox News has also banned us — and not for a refusal to pay our bills.

This past Memorial Day, RAM was scheduled for an on-air interview that was canceled hours before the agreed-upon time. We were not offered a reason for the cancellation or a substitute time. For Veterans Day, our foundation requested to run a 30-second ad promoting our website, CharitiesforVets.org. We were denied again. It all seemed strange, given that Fox News is known to run lots of ads for veterans charities.

The research on our website is valuable to donors. For example, if you are interested in housing for veterans, you can easily find several highly recommended organizations on our site. We make donors comfortable by suggesting which groups deploy donations responsibly and which ones waste funds on excessive overhead or are otherwise poorly managed.

RAM’s mission is to divert much of the billions of dollars given to poorly rated veterans charities to those worthy of support. Deciding which organizations are worthy (or not) appears to be the issue with Fox News. My advertising agency was told that a network lawyer dismissed our ratings as reflecting only our own opinions.

With more strict grading than other rating agencies, Charities for Veterans makes recommendations based on four simple tests: percentage of budget spent on overhead vs. programs, fundraising efficiency, amount of asset reserves, and the use of a deceptive (but not illegal) accounting method. Most of that raw information is publicly reported by the charity itself or state attorneys general.

It’s unlikely that Fox News is clamping down on opinion-based advertising. The many pillow commercials — replete with unsubstantiated claims of superior products — have been allowed to air. My guess is that a large veterans charity advertiser that we rated poorly complained to the TV network.

Admittedly, the network relies on advertising dollars from charities that we have rated as “not recommended.” RAM does not recommend one Fox News advertiser, Wounded Warrior Project, because the group spends nearly 40% of its roughly $334 million budget on overhead (among other issues). Disabled American Veterans — another Fox News advertiser — is also profiled on our site, failing three of our four core standards.

And yet Novo Nordisk has promoted the weight-loss injection Ozempic on Fox, which also gave competitor Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro a platform. Mr. Lindell has often used Fox News to sell bedding, while the network allowed Red Land Cotton to promote a competitive bedsheet.

Why no ban? Perhaps no one complained.

RAM’s ad doesn’t specifically call out Wounded Warrior Project or any other charity; it simply encourages viewers to visit the Charities for Vets website to get facts beyond emotional promotions. Our website also rewards many other groups, including a Fox News advertiser — Tunnel to Towers — with a “highly recommended” rating. We are calling balls and strikes based on public information. When we offer a grade, it is based on evidence and evenly applied. We are transparent in every case.

In its own guidelines, Fox Corp. claims it considers ads on a “viewpoint-neutral basis,” accepting ads that “express divergent points of view.” Yet Fox News is apparently picking winners and losers with a resultant loss of information for donors.

RAM has no issue with any legitimate charity; there are scams profiled on our site. We should all want donors to make informed decisions on organizations asking for their money.

So before you donate to a veterans charity, don’t just take Fox News’ implied support as a stamp of approval. It may not care if you give wisely, but we do.

Rick Berman is president of RBB Strate-gies and serves on the board of the RAM Veterans Foundation.

[Crafty_Dog]

https://theupheaval.substack.com/p/the-foundation-of-american-folly?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=330796&post_id=145551425&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=z2120&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.theepochtimes.com/business/warren-buffett-reveals-plans-for-130-billion-fortune-in-his-will-5677508?utm_source=Goodevening&src_src=Goodevening&utm_campaign=gv-2024-06-29&src_cmp=gv-2024-06-29&utm_medium=email&utm_term=full&est=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYvAqcwcVzc7PzLYPrHFRB710wA0AIj31kx5JTWZu9FddhEg4S8RP

[ccp]

Not the Gates Foundation:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/warren-buffett-s-breakup-with-the-gates-foundation-will-hurt-the-world/ar-BB1qGjD3?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=07f346dd763c48c58006943990e6169d&ei=17

Amazing he is 137 bill and *only" the fifth richest in the world.

I don't know how you give away this much and be able to know it goes where it is supposed to.