Caltrops - Rants





	[quote name="skip"]Child's Play is always mentioned as a terrible charity but I'm going to bitch about some others. There was a really good investigative piece by the Tampa Bay Times/CIR about <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/americas-worst-charities/">America's Worst Charities.</a> It confirms what's been common knowledge to anyone who remotely has done research into charity giving - <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/27/watchdog-gives-f-grade-to_n_911372.html">"Charities that "tug at the heartstrings" with appeals to help children with cancer, missing children, veterans and first responders tend to perform worse" and "Charities that focus on the environment, human rights, homelessness and mental health generally earn As and Bs. Also getting high marks: charitable organizations dealing with controversial issues like abortion, guns and gay rights who have a reliable base of donors they can cheaply tap."</a> I'd add that many charities that give out clothes or whatever can do more harm than good (see Tom's shoes which just puts local indigenous cobblers out of business with their free, ugly shoes) or mark up the estimated prices of the donations so it looks like they're giving more see <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampbarrett/2011/11/30/donated-pills-makes-some-charities-look-too-good-on-paper/">(World Vision and many other religious-based charities).</a> Besides those, I also don't like SPLC or GLAAD. SPLC has hundreds of millions dollars in assets and promised years ago that they'd stop soliciting when they hit a certain point. They keep pushing that dollar amount back so even if you like what they do, they definitely don't need your money (same with many hospitals/large universities). I also don't like how they use <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/03/12/the_hate_list">weaselly accounting</a> to make it seem like the KKK is taking over the world every year. GLAAD has become the de facto voice of the gay movement but they've been running a <a href="http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2012/08/irs-990-barrioss-final-pay-glaads-2.html">deficit for years</a> and <a href="http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/06/03/rapper-azealia-banks-attacks-glaad-you-dont-stand-for-anything-and-have-no-integrity/">Azealia Banks had them pegged when she called them "media whores".</a> Komen is probably the best example of a <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/06/did-backlash-prompt-komen-s-cancellations.html">charity that's rightfully taking a beating for their Planned Parenthood shit a few years ago</a> and I try not to obsess over CEO salaries of charities, especially when you're earning 6 figures but your charity is a multimillion dollar enterprise, but a 64% raise while your charity is caught up in a scandal is unacceptable.[/quote]