 |
The Disabled Veterans National Foundation (DVNF) is an American registered charity that provides service for disabled veterans. Founded in 2007, the organization is based in Lanham, Maryland.
|
The Disabled Veterans National Foundation (DVNF) is an American registered charity that provides service for disabled veterans. Founded in 2007, the organization is based in Lanham, Maryland.
DVNF was founded in the fall of 2007 by six women veterans and State Women Veterans Coordinators to expand their scope of work within the veterans' community. [1]
The foundation aims to serves the needs of veterans, including homeless veterans, women veterans, and veterans who experience posttraumatic stress disorder, brain injuries and invisible disabilities. [2] According to their website, the group aims to "change the lives of men and women who came home wounded or sick after defending our safety and our freedom." [3]
The Disabled Veterans National Foundation has provided $1 million in aid for nearly 23,000 veterans in six states. The foundation sent goods to centers in California, Houston, Knoxville, and Kansas City including spring water, men's shirts, bananas, paper towels and work gloves. [4] The organization has worked to lobby congress to pass a bill helping homeless veterans gain access to housing and homeless assistance programs. [5]
CharityWatch announced in 2010 that less than one percent of money collected by the charity went to veterans groups. [6] subsequently the organization has received an F rating for is transparency and performance.
A 2012 CNN investigation that aired on Anderson Cooper 360° alleged that after reviewing DVNF's annual tax returns the organization spent more than one dollar on fund raising expenses for each dollar raised. [7] The investigative report further highlighted that the few material products or goods given to veterans groups were items such as football pants, chef jackets and thousands of Coconuts M&M's. [7]
According to the Disabled Veterans National Foundation, in March 2010, the board of directors commissioned Professor Richard Harold Steinberg to do an analysis to determine whether their approach was working, after an initial investigation by CNN. DVNF says that Steinberg found no cause of concern regarding misrepresentation to potential donors. [8]
In May 2012, Senator Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee and Senator Richard Burr of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs stated they are investigating DVNF following the CNN report. The open letter to DVNF contained 14 questions about their tax-exempt status and fundraising activities. [9] [10]
As of 2019, the Disabled Veterans National Foundation has not responded to written Better Business Bureau requests for accountability information beyond that typically included in financial statements and government filings, in order to demonstrate transparency and strengthen public trust in the charitable sector. [11] According to the charity watchdog group, the American Institute of Philanthropy, the Disabled Veterans National Foundation is, "contractually obligated to allow another fundraising company it hired, Brickmill Marketing Services to keep 100% of what it raises from donors until the charity's debts to this company [Brickmill Marketing Services] are paid off." The institute found that the Disabled Veterans National Foundation has obscene fundraising costs, needing up to 98 cents to raise every dollar. [6]
New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman signed a settlement with DVNF and its professional fundraising consultants on June 30, 2014. The settlement included fines that the state attorney general called the "largest amount of financial relief ever obtained for deceptive charitable fundraising," and was widely covered in the news media. [12] [13] One consulting firm, Quadriga Art LLC, paid $9.7 million in damages, and another, Convergence Direct Marketing, paid $300,000. Quadriga also agreed to pay restitution to DVNF in the form of nearly $13.8 million in debt forgiveness. For its part, DVNF agreed to replace most of its fundraising consultants, to recruit new board members, and to prevent misrepresentations in future fundraising solicitations. [14]
In April 2010, Precilla Wilkewitz, a Vietnam War veteran who served from 1966 to 1969, was named president of the veterans group. She replaced DVNF co-founder Delilah Washburn who died in April 2010. Wilkewitz is also the State Quarter Master Adjutant for the Louisiana Veterans of Foreign Wars. In 2005, Wilkewitz was reappointed by Louisiana Governor Kathleen B. Blanco to serve on the Louisiana Veterans Affairs Commission for a six-year term, ending in 2011. Under the direction of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, she helped them orchestrate the first Annual Women Veterans Forum to educate women veterans about VA entitlements.
In December 2012, DVNF announced the addition of Steve Weyher and Mike McNaughton to its board of directors. Steve Weyher is a Vietnam veteran of the U.S. Army who served until 1971. Mike McNaughton, also a veteran of the U.S. Army, and served in the military until 2004. [15]
Maxwell Sieben Baucus is an American politician who served as a United States senator from Montana from 1978 to 2014. A member of the Democratic Party, he was a U.S. senator for over 35 years, making him the longest-serving U.S. senator in Montana history. President Barack Obama later appointed Baucus to replace Gary Locke as the 11th U.S. Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, a position he held from 2014 until 2017.
The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) is an American nonprofit investigative journalism organization whose stated mission is "to counter the corrosive effects of inequality by holding powerful interests accountable and equipping the public with knowledge to drive change." It won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting, and in 2023, the Edward R. Murrow Award for General Excellence.
Susan G. Komen is a breast cancer organization in the United States.
CharityWatch, known until 2012 as the American Institute of Philanthropy, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Chicago, created in the United States by Daniel Borochoff in 1992, to provide information about charities' financial efficiency, accountability, governance, and fundraising.
The Clinton Foundation is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was established by former president of the United States Bill Clinton with the stated mission to "strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence." Its offices are located in New York City and Little Rock, Arkansas.
The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) is an organization created in 1920 by World War I veterans for disabled military veterans of the United States Armed Forces that helps them and their families through various means. It was issued a federal charter by Congress in 1932. It currently has over 1 million members. As a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, it is outside the purview of – and therefore not rated by – Charity Navigator. DAV's Employer Identification Number (EIN) is 31–0263158.
Big Give is a non-profit, charitable website that enables donors to find and support charity projects in their field of interest. It was founded in October 2007 by Sir Alec Reed CBE. His son James Reed became Chair of Trustees in 2019.
Kids Wish Network is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions. It has been the subject of negative publicity throughout its history, including accusations of trademark infringement, tax avoidance and inefficient fundraising practices. It was named "the worst charity in the nation" in a 2013 review of charities with wasteful spending practices. In 2012, of the $18.6 million the Kids Wish Network raised, only $240,000 was spent on granting wishes.
Scholarship America is a Minnesota-based American philanthropic organization that assists communities, corporations, foundations and individuals with fundraising, managing and awarding scholarships to students. The organization designs, administers and manages corporate and foundation scholarship programs; it also operates Dollars for Scholars, a coalition of local scholarship organizations in communities across the United States.
Candid is an information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies. In 2016, its database provided information on 2.5 million organizations. It is the product of the February 2019 merger of GuideStar with Foundation Center.
The Military Order of the Purple Heart (MOPH) is a congressionally chartered (Title 36 USC Chapter 1405) United States war veterans organization. Headquartered just outside Washington, D.C., it has a membership of approximately 45,300 veterans. It is unique in that its members are exclusively men and women who have received the Purple Heart award while serving as a member of the U.S. Military.
Earl W. Stafford, Sr. is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the founder of The Stafford Foundation, and was inducted into the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans in 2010.
Yéle Haiti, also known as Yéle and legally known as the Wyclef Jean Foundation, was a charitable organization established in 2001 by the Haitian musician Wyclef Jean, who was born in Haiti and has kept ties there. The charity was incorporated in the U.S. state of Illinois.
The American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial is a memorial in Washington, D.C., which honors veterans of the armed forces of the United States who were permanently disabled during the course of their national service. Congress adopted legislation establishing the memorial on October 23, 2000, authorizing the Disabled Veterans for Life Memorial Foundation to design, raise funds for, and construct the memorial. The fundraising goal was reached in mid-2010 and ground for the memorial broken on November 10, 2010. The memorial was dedicated by President Barack Obama on October 5, 2014.
GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the beginning of 2020, over $9 billion has been raised on the platform, with contributions from over 120 million donors.
John Joseph Paul Studzinski, CBE is an American-British investment banker and philanthropist. Since September 2018 he has been Managing Director and Vice Chairman of the global investment-management firm PIMCO.
The Donald J. Trump Foundation was a New York-based tax-exempt private foundation formed in 1988 by Donald Trump and dissolved by court order in 2018 after various legal violations came to light.
Circle of Friends for American Veterans (COFAV), also known as "American Homeless Veterans," was a 501(c)(3) organization that supported veterans and related causes. It was founded in 1993 in Falls Church, Virginia by Brian Arthur Hampton. The charity has faced criticism for allocating only about 10% of its income to charitable causes, with the remainder being paid to fundraisers.
Got Your 6 is a national network of veteran service providers, managed by the Bob Woodruff Foundation. In 2018, the Bob Woodruff Foundation acquired veteran nonprofit Got Your 6 and relaunched the brand in 2020 as the organization’s “enduring commitment to the veteran community.” The Got Your 6 Network includes community-based collaborative initiatives encompassing thousands of veteran-serving organizations, as well as individual partner organizations and programs. Through Got Your 6, the Bob Woodruff Foundation provides funding as well as no-cost learning and networking opportunities to help partners “achieve the maximum positive impact on their local veteran and military community.” Got Your 6 also produces public awareness campaigns to show support for the military and veteran community and educate the public on ways to support veterans.
Outreach Calling Inc is a for-profit fundraiser which was incorporated in 2009. It is headquartered in New Jersey and has offices in the United States and Canada with a virtual office in Reno, Nevada. The firm's telemarketers solicit funds on behalf of not-for-profit charities.