Evaluating Veteran Service Organizations, and Military Associations – Providing efficiency and effectiveness metrics for Veterans and Donors
Billions of of dollars flow annually to largely-unaccountable Veteran Organizations and Associations with the expectation that needy Veterans will benefit from membership. To encourage the development of these organizations, they can obtain non-profit status under the U.S. Tax Code and some are Chartered by Congress and/or recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs for Claim Representation.
Veterans' Associations are more than twice as likely as other charities to use professional solicitors, which typically keep 70 to 90 cents of every dollar they raise. As a result, veterans' charities overall spend a vastly greater percentage of their budgets on fundraising, with association employees devoted to sustaining the organization as opposed to actually protecting members benefits.
Many association are losing membership, and in-turn the ability to enhance grass roots influence on Capitol Hill. Vetspac's research these association's membership remained stagnant, while their boards of Directors were selected to be "association cheerleaders" with the employees depended on misleading and costly direct mail fundraising to meet salaries. More often than not, these Service organizations become more focused on their employees than support of membership.
Hewever, some Associations like NMFA and Navy Marine Corps Relief society , and Armed Forces Services Corporation are lead by selfless and credentialed leaders like Steve Abbott and Brad Snyder. However, many associations are of little benefit to Veterans because most of their funds are spent inefficiently to supplement retired General Officers salaries and for professional fundraisers leaving few dollars to address actual Veterans assistance. This unfortunate state of affairs has been well-documented and been the subject of Congressional inquiry.
Vetspac has found that disengaged Boards of Directors, inefficient practices, high over-head, and out-sized salaries of often-ineffective leaders are some of the reasons few funds flow through to actual Veterans assistance. To add insult to injury, IRS non-profit status of these organizations shields them from state and federal taxes which means taxpayers across the 50 states pay higher taxes to offset those foregone from these ‘non-profits,’ thereby subsidizing their existence.
Reform of this self-serving sector is long overdue and Vetspac analyzes Veterans Associations and rates them according to a Six Dimension Metric.
Vetspac puts each association through a six-dimensional filter and rates them as follows:
· Financial Management
· Fund Raising
· Use of Funds
· Accountability & Transparency
· Strength of Management
· Mapping Goals to Outcomes
This evaluation system allows Veterans and Donors to make informed decisions as to which, if any, Veteran organization to join and support
· Provides a mechanism for Veteran Service Organizations to compare themselves to others and form a basis for internal reform
· Provides data to outside agencies to evaluate how well this non-profit sector is performing, as individuals and as a group
References
American
Institute of Philanthropy Report
Association
Spending Article