Posted on Jan 27, 2016
Why is the Wounded Warrior Project so controversial as an organization?
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I am conflicted on this organization. On the one hand, they are arguably the most visible organization when it comes to promoting support of veterans. But they've also garnered controversy from veterans and news organizations for misalignment of their efforts -- high overhead, turning away veterans, and stringently protecting their brand.
I've had only a couple personal experiences, and none directly with the organization.
-I am friends with a member of the board. The organization supports a wide variety of programs, and it's spending efforts come with the territory of being a large and famous entity -- money is needed to attract a top executive, staying top of mind in the public, and maintaining branding.
-Another non-profit partnered with WWP to fund one of its own programs (a work training program for vets in the local area). It seems to me that this sort of collaboration is exactly what WWP can do on a large scale since it has the money, and smaller organizations can provide more targeted efforts to support veterans in different ways.
So I want to give WWP the benefit of the doubt. I mean, who is going to take their place and do better? But then I hear all the stories of vets getting turned away, smaller non-profits being sued, and reports of money being spent negligently.
What story do you believe? What can they do better? What can a competing organization do?
http://greatnonprofits.org/orgA/wounded-warrior-project
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wounded-warrior-project-accused-of-wasting-donation-money/
Edit:
Another article, released JAN 27, NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/us/wounded-warrior-project-spends-lavishly-on-itself-ex-employees-say.html
Edit 2 (1/28/2016):
Didn't mean for this to become a WWP bashing (judging from most of the comments), so here is what I've learned, so far. From what I gather, WWP has grown significantly because it has reinvested in doing so -- which can be a good thing. It equates to more support for veterans. It spends, slightly, more than other charities (anywhere from ~7% to ~40% of expenses don't go to program expenses, depending on your source -- please feel free to correct me if I'm off since I'm not entirely sure which numbers to go with), but that still means a significant chunk (in dollar amounts, if not percentages) goes to helping veterans. With that success draws attention. I think WWP would benefit from focusing some of it's marketing efforts on more individual support of veterans and showing veterans how WWP helps them. It would give them less flak from the veteran community.
I've had only a couple personal experiences, and none directly with the organization.
-I am friends with a member of the board. The organization supports a wide variety of programs, and it's spending efforts come with the territory of being a large and famous entity -- money is needed to attract a top executive, staying top of mind in the public, and maintaining branding.
-Another non-profit partnered with WWP to fund one of its own programs (a work training program for vets in the local area). It seems to me that this sort of collaboration is exactly what WWP can do on a large scale since it has the money, and smaller organizations can provide more targeted efforts to support veterans in different ways.
So I want to give WWP the benefit of the doubt. I mean, who is going to take their place and do better? But then I hear all the stories of vets getting turned away, smaller non-profits being sued, and reports of money being spent negligently.
What story do you believe? What can they do better? What can a competing organization do?
http://greatnonprofits.org/orgA/wounded-warrior-project
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wounded-warrior-project-accused-of-wasting-donation-money/
Edit:
Another article, released JAN 27, NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/us/wounded-warrior-project-spends-lavishly-on-itself-ex-employees-say.html
Edit 2 (1/28/2016):
Didn't mean for this to become a WWP bashing (judging from most of the comments), so here is what I've learned, so far. From what I gather, WWP has grown significantly because it has reinvested in doing so -- which can be a good thing. It equates to more support for veterans. It spends, slightly, more than other charities (anywhere from ~7% to ~40% of expenses don't go to program expenses, depending on your source -- please feel free to correct me if I'm off since I'm not entirely sure which numbers to go with), but that still means a significant chunk (in dollar amounts, if not percentages) goes to helping veterans. With that success draws attention. I think WWP would benefit from focusing some of it's marketing efforts on more individual support of veterans and showing veterans how WWP helps them. It would give them less flak from the veteran community.
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Wounded Warriors
Wounded Warrior Project
Non Profit Organizations
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 25
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According to the NCO who decided to speak up, the majority of the "programs" run by the organization were "feel good" programs rather than "repair" programs; programs that help the vet to move forward, be it physical, mental, or both.
I have not personally seen any analysis of the programs. While parties for vets are nice, the significant portion should be, to get the vets on track to rejoin society.
I have not personally seen any analysis of the programs. While parties for vets are nice, the significant portion should be, to get the vets on track to rejoin society.
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glad that they are looking into this ,I also have heard also that they have turned vet's away, and the high salary the upper executives are getting
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I think they are being looked at a lot closer due to their spending habits and high salaries for their top staff.
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Capt Byron Chen
Interesting that the WWP website has a page of frequently asked questions just to answer questions related to fraud.
http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/scam-information/fraud-faqs.aspx
Here is there response to, "I heard WWP executives earn a huge salary. Is this true?"
WWP Executive compensation is set by our unpaid, volunteer Board of Directors following IRS rules on determining reasonable compensation. Our CEO’s current salary falls in the low to median level of the range for similarly sized organizations. Compared to WWP’s revenue, his salary equals about one tenth of one percent – meaning that for every $100 raised less than $0.15 cents goes towards our CEO’s salary.
As a nonprofit, Wounded Warrior Project believes in transparency and posts all of our financial information on our website, woundedwarriorproject.org/mission/financials.aspx.
http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/scam-information/fraud-faqs.aspx
Here is there response to, "I heard WWP executives earn a huge salary. Is this true?"
WWP Executive compensation is set by our unpaid, volunteer Board of Directors following IRS rules on determining reasonable compensation. Our CEO’s current salary falls in the low to median level of the range for similarly sized organizations. Compared to WWP’s revenue, his salary equals about one tenth of one percent – meaning that for every $100 raised less than $0.15 cents goes towards our CEO’s salary.
As a nonprofit, Wounded Warrior Project believes in transparency and posts all of our financial information on our website, woundedwarriorproject.org/mission/financials.aspx.
Fraud FAQs | Wounded Warrior Project
Protect yourself against Wounded Warrior Project scams, where trademark information is illegally used, sacrificing supporter goodwill and organizational integrity.
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The Wounded Warrior Project deserves to be outed as the scam that they are for several reasons which I will detail here:
First a bit of background on me: I was deployed in 2009-2010 and was in a Warrior Transition Unit (WTU) from 2010 until my medical retirement in 2012 as an E5.
During the time that I was assigned to the WTU the Wounded Warrior Project would routinely come to our formations and reach out to us with offers to come to events on their behalf, as they would call it to show their thanks for our service and sacrifice. Routinely, they were looking for us to wear WWP apparel (which we would almost always have to buy on our own) A lot of times if you signed up to attend an event that was your appointed place of duty for the day. As a female, non amputee soldier if I was going to an event, I was routinely moved to the back of a group for photos of us in favor of the amputees (especially male amputees) being in the forefront of every image and of course preference for the best spot for photos was those who were wearing their branded items.
Once I saw that the invitations to events stopped coming to me, I went to their website and saw events they had coming up but they were looking for male and/or amputee wounded warriors for their "events" since I did not fit either category I had no opportunity to go to these events unless I coughed up money to wear their gear and crash these events, potentially giving me the ability to connect with people who may be able to help me in my employment situation. I was never going to stoop that low and was so thoroughly disgusted with their ad's on TV and in print showing only the amputees and those they felt would generate the most publicity for them that I said I was done forever with them.
Secondly, once I was in the process to get retired I was a big mess because I didn't want to get out and due to circumstances out of my control my civilian job no longer existed when I was getting out. The WWP would call me once a year on my birthday to see if I needed anything or assistance. This was less than 4 months after I was retired and had a temporary job that was not going to be extended. I asked them if there was anything they could do to help me secure meaningful full time employment and they informed me that they could not find a single job for me in any area unless I was willing to move to Florida and even then they were trying to offer me entry level jobs due to my not having a bachelor's degree.
As I started to do more research about them and saw their abysmal track record and how much money they spent on salaries and staff and giveaways I was even more disgusted and asked them to remove my name from their rolls, which of course they didn't do. They want to show consistent growth and how many people they "claim" to help but in reality it is a crock of lies.
They only want to promote those who generate the most sympathy and not those with invisible injuries like us. If they truly wanted to help they could totally get more help to most people who qualify for their services and not spend it on themselves.
Without any thanks or gratitude at all from anyone, I was able to go out and fight to get my dream job and have the ability to now speak out against phony organizations like the WWP.
First a bit of background on me: I was deployed in 2009-2010 and was in a Warrior Transition Unit (WTU) from 2010 until my medical retirement in 2012 as an E5.
During the time that I was assigned to the WTU the Wounded Warrior Project would routinely come to our formations and reach out to us with offers to come to events on their behalf, as they would call it to show their thanks for our service and sacrifice. Routinely, they were looking for us to wear WWP apparel (which we would almost always have to buy on our own) A lot of times if you signed up to attend an event that was your appointed place of duty for the day. As a female, non amputee soldier if I was going to an event, I was routinely moved to the back of a group for photos of us in favor of the amputees (especially male amputees) being in the forefront of every image and of course preference for the best spot for photos was those who were wearing their branded items.
Once I saw that the invitations to events stopped coming to me, I went to their website and saw events they had coming up but they were looking for male and/or amputee wounded warriors for their "events" since I did not fit either category I had no opportunity to go to these events unless I coughed up money to wear their gear and crash these events, potentially giving me the ability to connect with people who may be able to help me in my employment situation. I was never going to stoop that low and was so thoroughly disgusted with their ad's on TV and in print showing only the amputees and those they felt would generate the most publicity for them that I said I was done forever with them.
Secondly, once I was in the process to get retired I was a big mess because I didn't want to get out and due to circumstances out of my control my civilian job no longer existed when I was getting out. The WWP would call me once a year on my birthday to see if I needed anything or assistance. This was less than 4 months after I was retired and had a temporary job that was not going to be extended. I asked them if there was anything they could do to help me secure meaningful full time employment and they informed me that they could not find a single job for me in any area unless I was willing to move to Florida and even then they were trying to offer me entry level jobs due to my not having a bachelor's degree.
As I started to do more research about them and saw their abysmal track record and how much money they spent on salaries and staff and giveaways I was even more disgusted and asked them to remove my name from their rolls, which of course they didn't do. They want to show consistent growth and how many people they "claim" to help but in reality it is a crock of lies.
They only want to promote those who generate the most sympathy and not those with invisible injuries like us. If they truly wanted to help they could totally get more help to most people who qualify for their services and not spend it on themselves.
Without any thanks or gratitude at all from anyone, I was able to go out and fight to get my dream job and have the ability to now speak out against phony organizations like the WWP.
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For years I was getting calls from police and fire fraternal organizations only to find out they were scams. I'm a breast cancer survivor and won't give a dime to Susan G Koman because nine cents would go to the executives. People hate liars and thieves.
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http://www.news4jax.com/news/wounded-warrior-project-suing-2-injured-veterans
It's because of things like this. Suing it's vet former employees, 1.4 million spent in legal fees in a year, another veteran organization that had to pay them close to a million dollars for having wounded warrior in their name even though the other foundation was around longer.
It can be said that this is par for normal mega-corporations, but it doesn't represent us well as veterans.
It's because of things like this. Suing it's vet former employees, 1.4 million spent in legal fees in a year, another veteran organization that had to pay them close to a million dollars for having wounded warrior in their name even though the other foundation was around longer.
It can be said that this is par for normal mega-corporations, but it doesn't represent us well as veterans.
Wounded Warrior Project suing 2 injured veterans
The Wounded Warrior Project is coming under fire for questionable spending and now only News4Jax uncovers more. Two lawsuits spell out how the charity is suing two wounded veterans it’s already put out of a job. And, other smaller veteran service organizations are now saying they've been threatened, too.
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Capt Byron Chen
"... On the one hand, they are arguably the most visible organization when it comes to promoting support of veterans..."
Hmmm, I think that they are the most visible when it comes to promoting themselves. My issue is that they seem to be more interested in being WWP instead of actually helping Veterans, they spent almost more on conferences ($26 million) last year as they did on their #1 project as an organization. They have 500 employees, seems that they are more interested in becoming a for profit corporation instead of a non-profit and I certainly hear more from Veterans they don't help instead of the ones they do.
"... On the one hand, they are arguably the most visible organization when it comes to promoting support of veterans..."
Hmmm, I think that they are the most visible when it comes to promoting themselves. My issue is that they seem to be more interested in being WWP instead of actually helping Veterans, they spent almost more on conferences ($26 million) last year as they did on their #1 project as an organization. They have 500 employees, seems that they are more interested in becoming a for profit corporation instead of a non-profit and I certainly hear more from Veterans they don't help instead of the ones they do.
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In my mind I feel non profit should be just that, non profit. Getting rich on a board in the name of something so great is wrong. I am not sure if this started out or if something went wrong after it starting steaming down the road but the term non profit should be reviewed and set higher standards. In the case of Wounded Warrior where they accept money to help soldiers in need no less that 75% of that money has to go to programs directly related to helping them. not 6 figure paychecks or 7 figure buildings.
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SGT Ronald Bacon
Not seeing the records I am only going by what shady news I hear. I do very much get your point and I also think they have done some wonderful stuff but if only they would pay themselves less and put that money into helping the troops, buy old buildings and convert for half the price and take that extra money and use it helping the wounded. At the end of the day if they helped even 1 soldier I am glad they did it, but when they have the money to help millions but spending only allows for thousands then I do get upset. This is one subject I would be happy to be proven wrong as I do not have the best view for this Company.
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To me it was the select Soldiers with no combat deployments bragging in the chow line how they malingered out of their deployment and got to spend the next 18 months playing x-box in their rooms all day (Fort Gordon WTU). Reminded me of the private beating scene in the movie Patton. Sad they were in formation right next to the purple heart recipients.
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