Best Veteran Contribution Program?

[KestrelBike]

My friend has some $$$ burnin a hole in his pocket and wants to know what the best, least-overhead, bang for the buck organization he can donate to to help veterans in need. By least overhead I mean where your $$ goes to actually helping the vets, and not feed the machine such as what I'm sure happens with all that pink ribbon stuff for breast cancer.

I did a weak search and didn't see a similar thread, and because it's an important topic please go easy on me, repost/search police.

[Logan]

I contribute through Wounded Warriors, personally, but here is a list with some charities. http://sofrep.com/special-operations-charities/

[rbeau30]

My friend has some $$$ burnin a hole in his pocket and wants to know what the best, least-overhead, bang for the buck organization he can donate to to help veterans in need. By least overhead I mean where your $$ goes to actually helping the vets, and not feed the machine such as what I'm sure happens with all that pink ribbon stuff for breast cancer.

I did a weak search and didn't see a similar thread, and because it's an important topic please go easy on me, repost/search police.

Mkay, this will give him some homework, but it is reliable info.

Have him look up the Combined Federal Campaign. Basically it is a federal charity drive that happens annually. While only federal employees can only donate through the CFC, the info on the brochure for the available charities could be useful.

The brochure http://www.peakcfc.com/files/2012_Final_Bochure.pdf I could only find 2012 but the Pikes Peak chapter of the CFC allows you to look up charities online. The info given to the government to become an "authorized charity" for donationg to during this campaign is along the lines of what you are looking for. IE: how much of my money actually goes towards helping people, etc.


For example if you look up the Wounded Warrior Project on there the Administrative and Fund Raising expenses is 25.1%... that means 25.1% of his money will go to admin and more fund raising.

[BushMasterBoy]

DAV

http://www.dav.org/

[Hoser]

Homes for our troops.

More of your $$$ gets out there and actually does something.

https://www.hfotusa.org/

[rbeau30]

DAV

http://www.dav.org/

Life Member!

[Aloha_Shooter]

Homes for our troops.

More of your $$$ gets out there and actually does something.

https://www.hfotusa.org/

+1

[jhirsh5280]

Not sure if he wants to help a younger generation or an older generation but I do volunteer work for The Greatest Generations Foundation http://www.tggf.org and will be part of the staff that is escorting 28 WWII vets back to Normandy for the 70th anniversary of DDay. All money donated to the foundation go directly to the programs to take these vets back to their battlegrounds at no cost to them so their stories can be documented and recorded to educate future generations.

[KestrelBike]

Thanks for all the info, Gents!! I will pass this all on to my friend. Thanks!

[theGinsue]

Charitywatch.org, put of the American Institute of Philanthropy, grades charities for how well they use the funds towards their stated missions. The higher percentage of their income they use towards the mission determines their grade.

Scroll down on this page (http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html) to "Veterans and Military" and this is what you'll see:
VETERANS & MILITARY/GRADE
Armed Services YMCA of the USA/A–
Fisher House Foundation/A+
Homes For Our Troops/A
Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund/A+
Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America/A
National Military Family Association/A
Operation Homefront – N.O./A
Semper Fi Fund / Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund/A+

For the record, there has been a lot of controversy over the "Wounded Warrior" Fund because there are several organizations misrepresenting themselves as original/true/legitimate org and it's very easy to donate to one of the fakes. Several even use the original groups logo illegally.