Little Accounting of $40-Million Claimed in Aid to Guatemala

Small U.S. charities, many typically having nothing to do with aid work abroad, have reported giving tens of millions of dollars worth of medical supplies to Guatemala in recent years, with little oversight or accounting of the donations, the Tampa Bay Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting write.

Fifteen nonprofits—among them a Florida veterans organization and a conservative political group in Washington, D.C.—listed a combined $40-million in gifts in kind to the Central American nation in 2010 tax filings. All contributed through Charity Services International, a for-profit firm that arranges aid shipments on behalf of nonprofit clients, with the Guatemalan arm of Catholic charity the Order of Malta the primary recipient.

Charity Services has attracted attention from media and watchdog groups, who contend nonprofits use the company as a vehicle to donate medicine and other goods that they wildly overvalue in financial reports to offset high spending on fundraising and other overhead costs. For the Guatemala shipments, customs records showed far lower values than those claimed by the charities.

Read a Chronicle of Philanthropy article on the controversy over charities’ evaluation of product donations.