Wounded Warrior Project on Charity Watch List

[Ben]

I seem to recall quite a few of you in uniform not being enamored of the Wounded Warrior Project. Looks like they've been placed on a charity watch list for misuse of funds.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/01/31/charity-watchdog-reportedly-places-wounded-warrior-project-on-its-watch-list.html?intcmp=hpbt2

[Andiron]

but... but fireman carry soldier decal!

They've got good marketing.

[Boomhauer]

I'm surprised it's taken this long it's been known for a while they are are no good

[Brad Johnson]

Could be they're a victim of their own success. I saw a local charity spiral down that hole. They decided to up their game and go for big money donors. To do so they had to spend a bunch of money on marketing, social networking, events, personnel, etc.. Then the big money started coming in. Then they found out to keep the big money coming in they had to keep spending even more on marketing, social networking, events, personnel, etc.. It spiraled out of control, eventually imploding under the weight of their own success. The last straw was when they hired a high-powered (and high dollar) Executive Director who's success was networking rather than fundraising. She upped their community standing considerably, but at the expense of their core mission. Donors noticed the change and started sending their money elsewhere.

I'm kinda seeing the same thing here. Starting out local and solid, and with a simple, achievable goal. Got some national recognition and morphed into something completely different, especially after Power Players got involved. Took a legit charitable service organization and turned it into a giant Look-What-I-Did! social status club.

Brad

[Hawkmoon]

I'm surprised it's taken this long it's been known for a while they are are no good

Roger that.

[Battle Monkey of Zardoz]

WW is a waste. Been that way for years. Fisher House is good, or do the absolute best thing and find local charity or local Vet that needs help and help.

[K Frame]

They've also got a nasty habit of suing other organizations that use the words wounded or warrior, or which have a shadow outline of a soldier. They even tried suing one that had been using a shadow logo FAR longer than WWP has been around. Not sure how that one turned out.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/04/wounded-warrior-charity-unleashes-hell-on-other-veteran-groups.html

It's an organization that doesn't deserve support. There are many other programs out there that do.

[bedlamite]

http://thelawdogfiles.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-hell.html

[MechAg94]

Doesn't WWP end up giving most of the charity money to other charities who actually do the work?  I don't know who those are.

[Hawkmoon]

Doesn't WWP end up giving most of the charity money to other charities who actually do the work?  I don't know who those are.

You mean most of what's left over after the senior staff and executives have finished blowing through half or more of the donations on lavish parties and "conferences"?

[wmenorr67]

You know not jump on the bash WWP bandwagon but I will say I have known of this issue with them for quite some time, why I don't donate to them.

But the sad thing about this is that charities such as WWP have to exist.  Tells you how much that the DOD and .gov really takes care of those of us who served that you have to have charities out there to do the work.

[MechAg94]

The problem is that charity is big money in this country and the only incentive to keep a charity honest is bad press. 

[Scout26]

WWP started out with a great idea.  And the amount of money shows how much more this country loves the military and its veterans.

However, they lost track of their mission and have failed the Wounded Warrior community by simply using them as a fundraising mechanism.

It makes me seethe with anger that all that money could have been used to simply provide adaptive homes to practically every wounded veteran with tons of money let over.  I've read the stories of families of wounded warriors who reached out and begged WWP for assistance, only to be turned away.

Also they could have easily gifted substantial sums to those warriors and their families to assist them as they transitioned to civilian life, along with investing and providing each family with an endowment fund.

Reading about how they wasted money that was given willingly by the most generous of people with the desire to help those who served to protect them, makes my blood boil.  Several years ago my club hosted a shoot to benefit WWP, we raised over $14,000.  Then the next year was when the WWP/Guntalk kerfuffle started, and we decided to donate to Fisher House instead. 

Steve Narduzzi and the entire E level of WWP can all die screaming in a fire.

[wmenorr67]

Another good Veterans' charity is Folds of Honor.

https://www.foldsofhonor.org/

They provide scholarships to spouses and/or children of Service members killed or disabled in service to this great country.