Skip to main contentIt may be Grinch-like to kick a group for needy veterans while it's down, but the folks at Amvets are angling for a major lump of coal.
Amvets Department of Oregon is an affiliate of the nationwide Amvets group, a nonprofit chartered by Congress in 1947. Its purpose: to help American veterans. The problem is that, in Oregon, it hasn't been doing so--at least not to any reasonable extent.
A recent report by Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers noted that the Oregon outpost is one of 20 nonprofits whose fund-raising efforts have generated the most inquiries from members of the public. While telephone calls don't always correspond to trouble, in this case they do. The AG's audit of the nonprofit's books found that Amvets spent only 12.5 percent of its overall revenue on helping veterans. By comparison, Disabled American Veterans, an Ohio group, devotes 46.4 percent of its donations to vets.
Amvets' woeful figure is a far cry from its past sales pitch, which said 90 percent of all funds raised would go to vets. Amvets blames its poor numbers on "financial improprieties" committed by an employee who has since left the organization. Because of a pending criminal case, financial officer Gary Carver declined to comment.
In July, Amvets settled an enforcement action by Myers' shop by signing an agreement to pay the AG $67,500, most of which will go to veterans programs. The nonprofit also promised to change its fund-raising pitches and telemarketing scripts to state that 20 percent of funds raised would go to veterans. This figure was negotiated between Myers and the group.
That doesn't mean the state is convinced that everything is kosher. The new fund-raising script instructs telemarketers to disclose the 20 percent figure only "if asked." Victoria Cox, a spokesperson for the AG's charities division, declined to say whether she thought things were back under control, but she did note that her office's action was based on a "continuing pattern" of problems.
"They're back in business," she says, "but we're watching."
So are we.
WWeek 2015