12-09-2005 09:19									#1
	Corruption in non-profit organisations Support Apolyton

Spinned off from the "Promoting Red Cross Donations" thread

che mentioned the American Red Cross has a corruption problem and the Quakers are better. Jon pointed out the ARC has "only" a 20% corruption (which I took to mean that 20% of the donations is used for non-essential things internally).

Are there any studies on this? Or perhaps more generally, percentage of donations that are actually used for stated purposes.

Locally, World Vision is said to have an 80% (!) admin "overhead," so I don't bother donate to them. Of course, I also heard from another source that they are pretty good and delivering the goods.

	12-09-2005 09:28									#2
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I've seen World Vision in action in Kenya but I don't know how good they are or how much money they actually use toward the purposes they were donated for.

In my experience NPOs have more corruption than the private sector. I've seen my bosses cheat and lie all the time while my time with NPOs.

	12-09-2005 09:31									#3
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quote: Originally posted by Barinthus In my experience NPOs have more corruption than the private sector. I've seen my bosses cheat and lie all the time while my time with NPOs.

That's pretty scary.

How does Joe Average know which one(s) he can trust?

	12-09-2005 10:34									#4
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He don't.

	12-09-2005 10:40									#5
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I don't know what JM meant, but I meant actual corruption, where people go to jail and stuff.

Between NPOs and FPOs, it's really hard to say which is more corruption. Of course, one Enron trumps all tha damage ever done by any charity, or even all of them together throughout history. How many companies are like Enron? Probably most of them. They're just smarter at it, and the government lacks the personal to even hope to try and keep them honest, chosing instead to go after the very worst.

	12-09-2005 11:15									#6
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what I said was mentioned in some article I think..

not sure of its basis, or even what it was refering to

Jon Miller

	12-09-2005 11:17									#7
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That explains this thread.

	12-09-2005 11:20									#8
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I have heard (*from somethingawful) that united way spends twice as much on admin overhead as red cross..

now I don't know about how much each brings in..

JM

	12-09-2005 11:23									#9
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That would be because once you make any kind of donation to the United Way they hound you several times a year for more money relentlessly.

They're a bunch of asshats.

	12-09-2005 12:39									#10
	Re: Corruption in non-profit organisations Got spare money?

quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger Spinned off from the "Promoting Red Cross Donations" thread che mentioned the American Red Cross has a corruption problem and the Quakers are better. Jon pointed out the ARC has "only" a 20% corruption (which I took to mean that 20% of the donations is used for non-essential things internally). Are there any studies on this? Or perhaps more generally, percentage of donations that are actually used for stated purposes.

Ask, and ye shall receive:

The US Federal government sponsors an annual chartity drive, the Combined Federal Campaign. As part of that capaign, they put out this brochure, which lists thousands of charaties, gives a description of each, and then shows their administrative costs as a percentage of total revenue. For example:

quote: 0700 American Red Cross (202)303-4546 www.redcross.org EIN#53-0196605 - A humanitarian organization, led by volunteers, to provide relief to victims of disasters and help prevent, prepare and respond to emergencies. 9.9%

So according to this, the Red Cross spends just under 10% of its revenue on administration and fundraising. United Way spends slightly less -- 9.6%. World Vision clocks in considerably higher, at 14.1%.

	12-09-2005 13:49									#11
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Thanks Dave

	12-09-2005 19:12									#13
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Combined Federal Campaign is great, it makes giving charity easy and as it comes straight out of your paycheck before you even see it, it prevents all the "maybe next month" crap that most people pull.

	12-09-2005 19:12									#14
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That's really cool.

	12-09-2005 19:45									#15
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Yeh, the Red Cross is a bloated non-profit. I'm not so sure giving money to them is the best course of action, although I wonder whether the others aren't just as bad. I also have my doubts about putting stock in the CFC's numbers.

	12-09-2005 22:26									#16
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Whew, this thread isn't about me.