Here in the U.S. we’re headed into a long weekend that culminating in Memorial Day on Monday.  Although the day is intended to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice in performance of their military duties, many folks will pay tribute by donating to charities that address a variety of issues facing veterans.

Carefully folded United States on green grass

Sadly, it seems as though legitimate veterans’ charities may be few and far between. Invoking the term “veteran” opens the hearts –and wallets—of millions of Americans. Tragically, an army of predatory scammers views these generous donors as easy prey.

I was reminded of this yesterday when the always-vigilant BBB Wise Giving Alliance posted guidance on Donating to Honor Memorial Day.  In six succinct bullet points the Wise Giving folks pretty well summarize the tactics and excesses of the scammers.

A few years back I pondered in a post whether sooner or later one of these scammers would come up with an appeal seeking contributions to The Fund for the Widow of The Unknown Soldier.  Frankly, they’ve turned out to be  a lot more clever.  I saw this eight years ago when the Agitator reported on a series of multi-million-dollar charity scams.  Particularly when we dug into dicey and illegal practices involving veterans’ groups that ultimately resulted in $24 million in penalties imposed on a veteran’s charity and its fundraising company by the New York Attorney General.

Clearly, the penalty imposed by New York and the settlement agreements from the charity and its fundraiser didn’t stick.  Mother Jones Magazine, in an article titled  A Charity for Disabled Veterans Raised Nearly $300 Million.  Why Did Most of the Money Barely Reach Them claims that neither the veterans’ group—The Disabled Veterans National Foundation—nor the consultant – formerly Quadriga Arts, now renamed Innovaire—have changed their practices.

Among the Wise Giving guidance is the warning to “Watch Out for Name Confusion “with the admonition, “Some veterans charities include the same words in different order or slightly different form.  So, be alert and make sure the organization you ae considering is the one you want to support.”

Deception is key to the scammers who use the term ‘veteran’ to confuse donors and camouflage bad practices. Take a look at the graphic below from the Federal Trade Commission. Point made.

Click to enlarge

In fact, if you want a quick primer on scummy tactics and strategies in the abuse of both donors and veterans look no further than the examples given by the Federal Trade Commission on a site it’s created called Operation Donate With Honor

The FTC, 54 Attorneys General from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, and Puerto Rico, and 16 additional state agencies that oversee charities have joined together in a coordinated effort to target fraudulent and deceptive fundraising for military and veterans causes. As part of the initiative, the FTC has published tips for businesses and new resources to help ensure that corporate and individual contributions truly benefit service members and vet

Don’t get me wrong.  Although there’s a ton of rotten behavior in this sector, there are also dozens of high performing, effective and legit organizations serving veterans. You can find a list of organizations that meet all 20 of the BBB Standards for Charity Accountability here) and they deserve our support.

We also need to be quite careful about how and why organizations are singled out and the dangers of false accusation of poor practices.  The tragedy that befell the Wounded Warriors Project because of false new, ignorance about fundraising costs and an incompetent board almost wrecked a great organization.  See Agitator’s To Sin by Silence

What does deserve the attention and condemnation of all ethical fundraisers are the practices and tools of the scammers.  I’m not talking about just condemning them with words.  They and their consultants and other co-conspirators (list brokers, mail houses, social media platforms) need to be cut off from the shared use and access to lists…denied membership in associations….and publicly exposed to regulators and the press every chance we get.

Most of all  on this Memorial Day let’s remember, in the words of Maya Angelou, “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes.”

Roger