Wounded Warrior Project Fires CEO After Spending Questions

Wounded Warrior Project Fires CEO After Spending Questions

Top executives at the Wounded Warrior Project, one of the largest charities for helping rehabilitate injured military veterans, were fired Thursday after media reports raised questions about extravagant spending.

CEO Steven Nardizzi and COO Al Giordano were terminated at a meeting of the charity's board of directors.
The ousters follow a CBS report that raised questions about how the organization uses donor dollars. The report said the charity spent large sums on staff retreats and extravagant parties instead of on the veterans it was founded to help.

According to a New York Times investigation earlier this year, Wounded Warrier Project spent $124 million in 2014 -- accounting for 40 percent of its total donations -- on overhead. Other charities that help veterans spend far less on overhead. The Semper Fi Fund, for example, spent around 8 percent of its donations on management costs.

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Reports of this have been ongoing for years.
Suddenly they wake up?

JANFU said:

Wounded Warrior Project Fires CEO After Spending Questions


Reports of this have been ongoing for years.
Suddenly they wake up?

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Those bastards should be taken to court.

Can't trust anyone these days.

Risky Thicket said:

Those bastards should be taken to court.

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I agree, those that steal from Vets, the poor, mentally ill, disabled, makes me angry as hell.
The issue of misuse of funds have been known for quite some time.
They did not cut not dig far enough down.
The top levels and those that enabled this, gone, all of them.

About time. i've been hearing about their bull**** for a while now. Hopefully this prompts the organization to actually start helping as much as they should be.

Glad to see them canned. This organization is too important for our wounded military personnel. It cannot be allowed to die because of some greedy and untrustworthy bastards.

I generally don't contribute to any organization that sends me something in return for a contribution anyway. The contribution is given without any expectation of anything in return - I don't want anything and I don't want them spending money on something to send me that was intended for the stated purpose of the organization. Wounded Warriors is one such organization. Spend the money on the vets. That's what it's for - not some blanket I don't need or want. So yeah, they're wasting money even without looking at their efficiency numbers. OTOH, if the VA was doing it's job...

Risky Thicket said:

Those bastards should be taken to court.

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The problem is that they didn’t necessarily do anything illegal. It’s difficult to legislate against this kind of thing without imposing further costly restrictions and red-tape on legitimate charities.

HonestJoe said:

The problem is that they didn’t necessarily do anything illegal. It’s difficult to legislate against this kind of thing without imposing further costly restrictions and red-tape on legitimate charities.

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That's a good point. But to be honest, from what I've seen they need to be toughened, considerably. We've had a fraudulent charity operating just a few miles from me for many years. Most locals knew it was a sham, it's been investigated for decades, and only recently shut down. They're disbanding it, sued the officers, etc. but no one's going to jail, at least that I've seen. Read the story if you want to be sick, and disgusted that the entire family tree isn't behind bars:

Lawsuit: Cancer charities built multimillion-dollar fraud empire

Instead, a pittance of the $187 million raised by the Cancer Fund of America and its affiliated nonprofits over five years went to patient care packages made up of sample-size soaps, Little Debbie snack cakes, Carnation Instant Breakfast drinks, plastic cutlery, women’s makeup, iPod Nano covers, blank seasonal greeting cards and batteries.

The rest of the money raised — more than 87 cents of every dollar — went to pay the telemarketing companies that solicited the donations and to fund salaries, lavish trips and personal loans for founder James T. Reynolds Sr., his family and his employees.

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The other thing I wish was easier is to have a clearing house for information about fundraising at least, so you could identify some of the fraudsters. The charity above lied in their 990s but even their false statements would have been enough to warn me away. A few weeks ago I tried to find info on several charities to advise someone and it was out there but time consuming as heck to get to and these were fairly major. It ought to be easier in the modern era when these groups' 990s can be scanned, or filed electronically - don't see a reason why we can't have charities fund instant and free access in return for 501(c)(3) status.

Every year I reasses the charities I give to. The overhead percentages are out there for anyone to find. Always research your charities, folks.

BrewerBob said:

Every year I reasses the charities I give to. The overhead percentages are out there for anyone to find. Always research your charities, folks.

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Yes, good advice. We give almost all our money to local charities, where we know what they do, and how they're run.

Risky Thicket said:

Those bastards should be taken to court.

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My brother has donated a LOT of money to this organization. I bet he won't anymore and that sucks. I think maybe him and I need to talk about another organization.

JasperL said:

Yes, good advice. We give almost all our money to local charities, where we know what they do, and how they're run.

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We donate to homeless shelters and local organizations. If they screw up I know where they work.