Wounded Warrior Project reportedly accused of wasting donor money

[SouthernDZ]

I'm sincerely hoping this is some kind of misunderstanding. Brian Kolfage's article on the Blaze debunks this, he's a wounded vet. Hopefully O'Reilly can get to the truth quickly.


The charity for wounded veterans, the Wounded Warrior Project, is facing accusations of using donor money toward excessive spending on conferences and parties instead of on recovery programs, according to a CBS News report.

Army Staff Sergeant Erick Millette, who returned from Iraq in 2006 with a bronze star and a purple heart, told CBS News he admired the charity’s work and took a job with the group in 2014 but quit after two years.

"Their mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors, but what the public doesn't see is how they spend their money," he told CBS News. Millette said he witnessed lavish spending on staff, with big “catered” parties. "Going to a nice fancy restaurant is not team building. Staying at a lavish hotel at the beach here in Jacksonville, and requiring staff that lives in the area to stay at the hotel is not team building," he told CBS News.

According to the charity's tax forms obtained by CBS News, spending on conferences and meetings went from $1.7 million in 2010, to $26 million in 2014, which is the same amount the group spends on combat stress recovery.

Two former of employees, who were so fearful of retaliation they asked that CBS News not show their faces on camera, said spending has skyrocketed since Steven Nardizzi took over as CEO in 2009, pointing to the 2014 annual meeting at a luxury resort in Colorado Springs. "He rappelled down the side of a building at one of the all hands events. He's come in on a Segway, he's come in on a horse,” one employee told CBS News. About 500 staff members attended the four-day conference in Colorado, which CBS News reported cost about $3 million.

Wounded Warrior Project declined CBS News' interview requests for Nardizzi, but instead sent Director of Alumni and a recipient of their services, Captain Ryan Kules, who denied there was excessive spending on conferences.

"It's the best use of donor dollars to ensure we are providing programs and services to our warriors and families at the highest quality," he said. Kules added the charity did not spend $3 million on the Colorado conference, but he was not there and was unable to say what it did cost. He also told CBS News that the charity does not spend money on alcohol or engages in any other kind of excessive spending.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/01/26/wounded-warrior-project-reportedly-accused-wasting-donor-money.html?intcmp=hplnws

[Ret10Echo]

http://www.greenberetfoundation.org/

Just sayin'

[UWOA (RIP)]

I don't think it's a misunderstanding. Steven Nardizzi gets paid a yearly salary of $350,000. That doesn't include expenses like those exposed by CBS. That salary comes from the $19 a week that donors are paying, thinking that they're aiding wounded vets when, in truth, they're lining the pockets of Nardizzi and his cronies ....

Just my $0.02.

.

[Sohei]

They have been under the spotlight for a long time as this is nothing new. I know many who no longer support them because of it.

[Streck-Fu]

My stomach turns every time I see that WWP commercial that looks like the commercials for the starving African children or the SPCA commercial with starving and beat animals. It almost looks like they are advertising that for $19 a month, you can adopt a wounded veteran. .... :vomit:

[Team Sergeant]

Wounded Warrior Project nothing but a scam

Been posted on here for years that the Wounded Warrior Project is nothing but a scam.

Fisher House, donate to them.

[Badger52]

Yup, their publicly available records ($ to cause vs. "overhead") have long been a big parachute flare to anyone who deigned to pursue such a story. GBF gets my stuff (incl online shopping via AmazonSmile).

Maybe the big entertainment names would like to rethink their "image" for those big-buck prime-time commercials...
:munchin

[SF_BHT]

I cut them off years ago.....

[Tree Potato]

Charity Navigator's review; <60% of expenses go toward programs:

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=12842#.VqmWiyorKM8

(Fischer House and DAV are both rated much higher)

[VVVV]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/us/wounded-warrior-project-spends-lavishly-on-itself-ex-employees-say.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

[Flagg]

I work with a big US household name that has a partnership with them.

http://www.harley-davidson.com/content/h-d/en_US/home/community/military-riders/wounded-warrior-project.html

I'm actually wearing a WWP wristband I got 6 months ago at the annual global corporate circus.

I heard similar anecdotal stories about WWP a few months ago while in the US from both folks working with smaller charities as well as a few service injured folks themselves.

Having a quick look at the WWP website, what I noticed is that they like to share a lot of "powerpoint-y" numbers, but none of them include important things like % ratio of $ received actually going to wounded shooters.

Every dollar spent unnecessarily/frivolously is one that could/should have gone to a wounded shooter.

Are there "tooth to tail" KPIs that are required to be reported and disclosed?

Or is it OK to bury it all and have to dig for it?

[bushmaster11]

I've been sending to SF Foundation and Special Operations Warrior.

Their tooth to tail is most impressive when compared to all charities.

J R sends
DOL

[fred111]

When Wounded Warrior Project first began it was small and did great work. As it got larger it seemed to become more interested in fund raising and "administration" than directly taking care of soldiers. I looked through their annual filings and noticed this change.

Needless to say I stopped donating to WWP and now donate directly to SF related projects.

[tonyz]

Every dollar spent unnecessarily/frivolously is one that could/should have gone to a wounded shooter.

Are there "tooth to tail" KPIs that are required to be reported and disclosed?

Or is it OK to bury it all and have to dig for it?

See link to Form 990 - from the web so can't vouch...break out the NoDoz.

https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/media/879225/2014_form-990_wwp.pdf

ETA Forbes magazine snapshot at link below:

http://www.forbes.com/companies/wounded-warrior-project/

[DaveP]

Will second (third?) the Fisher House suggestion.
Quality people, quietly doing some heavy lifting. Every day.

DaveP

[Flagg]

See link to Form 990 - from the web so can't vouch...break out the NoDoz.

https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/media/879225/2014_form-990_wwp.pdf

ETA Forbes magazine snapshot at link below:

http://www.forbes.com/companies/wounded-warrior-project/

Cheers,

Yeah I went thru their filings for about 10 minutes last night.

They certainly don't make it easy to compare apples to apples do they?

A few things I noticed was that they had a rather substantial surplus this past year, and that they're sitting on a lot of "stuff" like vehicles.

A few of the US Vets I met mentioned they had a quite flash new HQ building either finished or under construction.

The Forbes largest ranked charities is not too bad. It's a shame there isn't a "50 worst" in terms wasteful spending.

Out of that Forbes top 50 biggest, Wounded Warrior Project is 6th WORST in terms of charitable services as a % of donations received.

[tonyz]

^^^ No worries.
Seems there might be better bang for buck places to donate.

Most direct route might be to walk into a Fisher House facility and ask what they need at the location.

ETA link to locate FH facilities:

http://www.fisherhouse.org/programs/houses/

[Ret10Echo]

WWP is starting to swing back at the CBS claims....

Twitter (https://twitter.com/wwp/status/692764147994374144)

[UWOA (RIP)]

I don't think it's a misunderstanding. Steven Nardizzi gets paid a yearly salary of $350,000. That doesn't include expenses like those exposed by CBS. That salary comes from the $19 a week that donors are paying, thinking that they're aiding wounded vets when, in truth, they're lining the pockets of Nardizzi and his cronies ....

Just my $0.02.

.

My bad. My info was old; Nardizzi gets $496,000 a year. Even more reason not to contribute to these low-lifes.

.

[DJ Urbanovsky]

Two summers ago, I was walking through the Old Market here when I saw a brand new 5.0 Mustang with full wrap Wounded Warrior graphics, fancy wheels, the whole works. A bunch of people were crowded around it having their pictures taken. I said to myself "Self, that must be $50,000 sitting there..." Which I think is BULLSHIT. That money could have helped a lot of people, but they bought a fancy car with it?!

Personally, I tend to stick with The GBF and then individual SF and their families. That way I know exactly where the money is going.

[cbtengr]

It's too bad that organizations such as this exist. If there are veterans in need then Uncle Sam better be taking care of them. I about gag each time I see a WWP commercial. The people supporting them financially have good intentions but are naive. WWP and similar organizations see none of my money, there are plenty of good causes out there that one can contribute to directly.

[Flagg]

Two summers ago, I was walking through the Old Market here when I saw a brand new 5.0 Mustang with full wrap Wounded Warrior graphics, fancy wheels, the whole works. A bunch of people were crowded around it having their pictures taken. I said to myself "Self, that must be $50,000 sitting there..." Which I think is BULLSHIT. That money could have helped a lot of people, but they bought a fancy car with it?!

Personally, I tend to stick with The GBF and then individual SF and their families. That way I know exactly where the money is going.

I think I saw a figure of between $1 and 1.1 million in vehicles on their asset portion of their reporting statement.

It didn't have any additional depth as to promotional vehicles such as that one, vehicles necessary for operations(I would think Uber or economy rental cars would suffice when traveling, but that's just what I do with my company), or compensation perks.

[Flagg]

It's too bad that organizations such as this exist. If there are veterans in need then Uncle Sam better be taking care of them. I about gag each time I see a WWP commercial. The people supporting them financially have good intentions but are naive. WWP and similar organizations see none of my money, there are plenty of good causes out there that one can contribute to directly.

I think I saw something like $80-100 million of "in kind" value that I think consisted almost exclusively of gratis advertising from big media, which I presume big media would get the full retail value(nobody pays retail advertising rates) tax write off, but I'm not an accountant and you might want to check my numbers and how it all works.

Free advertising is awesome if you can get it, and there's nothing wrong with that. But WWP seems to have to spend $1 in fundraising cash costs(and mostly advertising donation) for every $3 received in donations.

That's a pretty messed up ratio.

To me it seems like if WWP takes a big hit to its donated advertising(maybe thru bad press) it might take a disproportionately larger hit to it's cash collection, which would cascade into an even worse tooth/tool ratio if corporate gravy train expenses didn't get immediately eliminated.

I reckon their critical vulnerability is their big media advertising donation relationships.

If people wanted WWP to get kneecapped to free up mindshare and money for more worthy charitable groups I reckon the way to do it is to disrupt their big media advertising donation relationships with a coordinated email and phone campaign.

If $10 million in donated advertising was disrupted by upset public, that could potentially see a reduction in $30 million cash donations as one hypothetical speculation.

And here I was wearing one of their rubber bracelets thinking they were the good guys.....looks like I'll be shopping for a GBF replacement. :confused:

And I'll try to bring awareness to this evolving embarrassment to the relevant folks in the corporate machine.

Just my 0.02c