What I'm worried about is, how can we be the most effective in meeting the needs of our warriors in whatever resources we have?". Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. While the most obvious shortcomings were the physical conditions of the hospital housing for the soldiers peeling paint, crumbling walls, mold and rats the more damning problem was an understaffed medical system overseen by a dysfunctional bureaucracy. Anyone can read what you share. There were charges of spending too much on expenses (e.g., fund-raising, travel, and [] Skip to content Log In But in its swift rise, it has also embraced aggressive styles of fund-raising, marketing and personnel management that have many current and former employees questioning whether it has drifted from its mission. Donations to Wounded Warrior Project Slow After Spending Scandal. Out in Los Angeles, L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva sent out a warning over the weekend. Charity Navigator, which rates thousands of charities, based on how . With Linnington at the helm, he said, WWP inspires confidence and appears to be working diligently to meet the real needs of its veterans population. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles, The Wounded Warrior Project Scandal Should Encourage More Philanthropy. Steven Nardizzi and Al Giordano were fired from their posts as chief executive and chief operating officer, respectively, for the Wounded Warrior Project on Thursday. That's thanks in part to a soul-searchingly earnest restructuring effort helmed by CEO Mike Linnington, a retired three-star Army general who arrived at the organization in 2016 with a mandate to turn things around. The charity grew to offer more services in more locations, but in the process, former employees said, it became wasteful, spending millions on travel, food, drinks and team-building trips for staff members. Charity Navigator's rating for WWP has fluctuated over the years: It dipped down to two stars in 2010 as the organization grew, then briefly rose to a full four stars in 2017, reflecting the delayed arrival of 2015 data. The secret sauce was the brand, and the mission, said Dave Ward, a vice president who left in 2015. The Wounded Warrior Project cuts a different profile. 6. Soon after the amputation, he said, he was racked by haunting emotions from Iraq and checked himself into suicide watch at a psychiatric ward. They needed to take responsibility, and they werent doing it.. In 2012, after he had been working for the charity about a year, he had to have his right arm amputated because of lingering damage from Iraq. People could spend money on the most ridiculous thing and no one batted an eye, said Connie Chapman, who was in charge of the charitys Seattle office for two years. That year, he doubled the spending on fund-raising and started running television ads imploring viewers to send in donations. In all those areas, Linnington said Wounded Warrior Project is making strides. And though critics argue that the standards used by watchdog organizations to assess nonprofits are overly subjective and sometimes unfairly punitive, staff with two accountability groups who spoke with Military.com were generally bullish about Wounded Warrior Project's practices and outlook. We knew VVA had done pioneering work on Agent Orange, so we created a collaborative grant to pair them with TAPS to start gathering data on [toxic exposure] and to help ensure trans-generational knowledge transfer from the Vietnam-era generation of veterans to today's post-9/11 generation.". All rights reserved. The organization was reportedly out of favor with some senior officials in the Pentagon, due to the public image it perpetuated of veterans as typically coming home from combat grievously wounded and with long-term needs. Our average age is 38 years old," Linnington said. I knew where the money was going to. With the support of our community of donors . Anyone can read what you share. Mr. Nardizzi fired Ms. Chapman, an Iraq veteran with PTSD, in 2012 as part of a management restructuring, she said. All rights reserved. The percentage of respondents who stated that WWP was effective at collaborating with other military and veteran nonprofits jumped from 63% to 85% from 2017 to 2018. He changes his habits and routine around Jacksonville, Florida, he said, to avoid running into former organization co-workers. But Mr. Melias ex-wife, Julie Melia, who worked at the charity at the time, said in an interview that her former husband felt like the organization was stolen from him.. The group did lose points on its fundraising score, with roughly 22 cents spent to make a dollar, per the most recent available data. WWP offers wounded warriors and their families lifesaving programs that help them manage PTSD, traumatic brain injury (TBI), combat stress, and other conditions and help them thrive in their next mission. "When the negative media event hit in January-February-March of 2016, public support dropped 50%," he said. In September 2016, Forbes published a pre-emptive obituary to the organization: "The Gutting Of Wounded Warrior: How To Kill A Charity.". The ousted Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the Wounded Warrior Project are finding relief in a new independent report on the allegations against the military charity . In other words, the Wounded Warrior Project scandal will likely reduce trust in all nonprofitsincluding effective ones. It is a nonprofit video news organization that aims to provide a thoughtful counterweight to todays 24/7 news cycle. But once they became outpatients, thousands of service members entered a system that had not kept up with the times, that was understaffed, poorly organized and generally second rate. "The report I issued on spending at the Wounded Warrior Project highlighted a number of concerns that needed to be addressed," he said in a statement. The spending began to attract attention. "We have met with DoD a couple times, when I first came on board, to talk about how we can help inspire young people to serve," he said. " In 2014, the Wounded Warrior Project lobbied in California and Florida to fight proposals that would have required nonprofits to increase financial transparency. Over the past few years, WWP staff members have treated themselves to nights at five-star hotels, booked first class cross-country flights to attend minor meetings in-person, attended lavish conferences, and spent nearly 40 percent of their donations . About 500 staff members attended the four-day conference in Colorado, which CBS News reported cost about $3 million. Dinners and alcoholjust total excess." The organization has previously been criticized for touting a wide network of veteran members, many of whom were inactive and had received few or no services from Wounded Warrior Project. saved my life, he said. The crisis this week centers on nonprofit Wounded Warrior Project and its response to news reports critical of how the organization that helps wounded U.S. veterans spends the money it gets in . Another time a woman called to donate part of her sons life insurance after he was killed in Afghanistan, he said. Millette, the former WWP staff member who publicly blew the whistle on the organization, said his decision to speak out came at great personal cost. They wanted me to say W.W.P. Hearing that there was this waste of money, donor dollars that should have been going to servicemen and women that were injured, and that it was spent on [Wounded Warrior Project staff] having a good timeits a real disappointment, Dianne Kane told CBS News. The sergeant describes roaming Walter Reeds grounds wearing only a hospital gown and robe for two hours before making it to the small room he was assigned. Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. Its a hard balance, but I think we strike the right balance, he said. "Going to a nice fancy restaurant is not team building. When Mr. Nardizzi took over, in the depths of the 2009 economic downturn, most charities had dialed back their fund-raising efforts, figuring that the nation was in no position to give. One 2013 commercial, "Sacrifices," featured footage of a veteran with severe traumatic brain injury struggling to walk assisted and to enter a car, and of another vet with body-encompassing burn injuries reaching for his prosthetic ears to put them on. A major donor to the Wounded Warrior Project veterans' charity called Thursday for the nonprofit's CEO's to resign in light of allegations of lavish spending on staff meetings, according to . Charity Watch, an independent monitoring group, gave Wounded Warrior Project a D rating in 2011 and has not given it a grade higher than C since. Kules added the charity did not spend $3 million on the Colorado conference, but he was not there and was unable to say what it did cost. To continue addressing these social needs and address the distrust caused by nonprofit scandals, we need to improve our nonprofit sector. In a 19-page decision filed today (Jan. 12), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in Nebraska knocked down six alleged key errors in the Appeals Court Upholds Judgment For Wounded Warrior Project Read More Find Wounded Warrior Project shirts, headwear and other WWP merchandise at WWPShop.org "[Now], I would tell you to look at the organization, the changes they've made and make an educated decision. Kurnyta noted the organization had a near-perfect score in transparency: 97 out of 100. But like other former employees, he said the group swiftly fired anyone leaders considered a bad cultural fit.. What we consider before using anonymous sources. About 40 percent of the organizations donations in 2014 were spent on its overhead, or about $124 million, according to the charity-rating group Charity Navigator. "Donors would be unhappy that so much of their money wasn't being used given the plight of veterans," he said. Mr. Kane said the leaders failure to take responsibility shows a total lack of regard for the mission, the alumni, the employees, proud supporter organizations and the thousands of other individual and corporate donors. He canceled his own contributions and encouraged others to do the same. Millette said he witnessed lavish spending on staff, with big catered parties. In July, along with the publication of a new financial statement for fiscal 2018 showing revenues of $246 million, WWP received an updated score from the watchdog organization Charity Navigator, up to 86.45 out of 100 from 86.02 the previous year. Wounded Warrior Project FAQs 1. Seeing them do that restores my faith in the organization.". So WW cut their spending- not to themselves, but to the people who needed their money most. Mr. Nardizzi fought back. Two top execs at the Wounded Warrior Project one of the largest war veterans support organizations in the nation were fired Thursday in a scandal over money spent on expensive corporate. I read with disgust your slanted article on the Wounded Warrior Project. A nger and dismay greeted the announcement last week that the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit that helps wounded veterans, had fired its top staff. Army Staff Sergeant Erick Millette, who returned from Iraq in 2006 with a bronze star and a purple heart, told CBS News at the time he admired the charitys work and took a job with the group in 2014 but quit after two years. As commanding general of the Military District of Washington and commander of Joint Force Headquarters-National Capital Region, a position he held from 2011 to 2013, he said he welcomed many arriving C-17 Globemasters transporting wounded veterans back to the United States from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.