Opinion: Military Charities Among Poorest-Performing

Military charities with missions to assist wounded and troubled war veterans are among the poorest-performing nonprofit groups, write the editors of The New York Times.

A new study by the American Institute of Philanthropy, a nonprofit watchdog group, reports that only nine of 29 military charities investigated by the group performed their duties acceptably, far worse than the average for more than 500 other kinds of charities also studied. While a few organizations received high ratings, eight groups passed on less than a third of the donations to veterans in need, and one spent 99 percent of its donations on overhead expenses.

The editors suggest that Congress act to better enforce accountability. They write, “Congress had better act quickly to come up with an effective remedy before the trust of a generous public becomes buried in cynicism.”

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