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$3T flows through U.S. nonprofits every year

charitysense.com

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Re: $3T flows through U.S. nonprofits every year

#31

Post by ahaucnx »

Is it only me or are you guys also being disappointed when a very interesting article is heavily AI written?

I feel like not wanting to read it in depth, even though the topic is unique and something I like to learn more.

It’s a shame because there was probably quite some work that went into it: coming up with the topic, doing the research, polish it up etc.

I have also been using AI a lot for article writing but the last two posts I wrote I went back into handwriting. They are much less “perfect”, but they are me and 100% what I want to say and convey.

Even the imperfections matter.

Maybe like a piece of handmade furniture vs something from IKEA.

Re: $3T flows through U.S. nonprofits every year

#32

Post by post-it »

efitz wrote: post #4

I believe that many (most?) non-profits are a combination of grift and money laundering. I would love to see requirements that 75%+ of all non-profit revenue has to pass through to the community, that non-profits may not transfer funds to other non-profits, and that directors and officers cannot be compensated and have very modest limits on expenses.

This article is mostly about universities and hospitals. Not really clear how either of those could possibly pass 75% of funding through to the community.

Re: $3T flows through U.S. nonprofits every year

#34

Post by bilbo0s »

infinitewars wrote: post #21

Very misleading analysis, the 8% direct grant comes from adding universities, hospitals and non-charities that make up 85% of the denominator. If you account for this using their own numbers, you get about 50% overhead, not 92%

Well, ok.

But this just goes to show that we need watching and monitoring infrastructure even for the organizations who claim to be watching and monitoring on our behalf. We have to know who's full of it, and who is acting in a more trustworthy fashion.

What you point out is a huge miss. There is little chance that it wasn't intentional. There should, at minimum, be an explanation presented as to why they did that?

Re: $3T flows through U.S. nonprofits every year

#37

Post by Retric »

yuliyp wrote: post #28

"only 8 cents of every dollar shows up as direct aid and grants" That's an extremely misleading statement. For instance, a food bank giving away food to a pantry does not count as "direct aid and grants" (at least, if they're defining that as "Grants and other assistance to domestic individuals." from the I-990" ). The salary for the warehouse worker operating the food bank is also not counted in that 92%. Other cher…

The problem is there is no guarantee the warehouse worker at a food bank is doing anything of value. So we can’t assume such things are productive without direct evidence.

Re: $3T flows through U.S. nonprofits every year

#38

Post by cowsandmilk »

yuliyp wrote: post #28

"only 8 cents of every dollar shows up as direct aid and grants" That's an extremely misleading statement. For instance, a food bank giving away food to a pantry does not count as "direct aid and grants" (at least, if they're defining that as "Grants and other assistance to domestic individuals." from the I-990" ). The salary for the warehouse worker operating the food bank is also not counted in that 92%. Other cher…

I don’t even get the point of this site. They say:

> Most of this spending isn’t waste. Hospitals need staff. Universities need facilities. Even small charities need people to run programs. The problem isn’t intent. It’s that the reporting system was designed to satisfy the IRS, not to show donors where their money went.

The complaint seems to be that the form filed with the IRS has the information the IRS is interested in, not the information whoever made the site wants.

The reality is that I know how the places I donate my money and time to use their money because I’m not relying on their IRS filings to get that information. I would suggest others do the same and donate to places where they understand what the org is doing and where the money is going.

Re: $3T flows through U.S. nonprofits every year

#39

Post by lysace »

SkipperCat wrote: post #15

It looks like a lot of the monies in that chart are for wages and admin. That's not the worst thing. Many charities spend their money on doing things for the betterment of society and those people need to be paid a salary for their work. If there's a charity that cleans up parks, I would assume their wage expenses would be high to pay for the people doing the cleanup work. Not saying that there's not grift in the non…

Would be interesting to see some kind of grift estimate as a heat map where the X axis = revenue and the Y axis = age.

Re: $3T flows through U.S. nonprofits every year

#40

Post by renewiltord »

pan69 wrote: post #24

Isn't charity just a business model these days? The first time I came across was about 10 or so years ago where, I think it was a 60 minutes did a report on Movember, how they have some scheme/scam where the guys who started/own the "charity" also have another company that owns the Movember brand and the charity then has to licence the brand from that company. Meaning that for every dollar donated a good portion (can…

This was the trick with the Aboriginal Flag in Australia but that guy beat the odds by getting it into government. I have some suspicion that the various derivative rainbow flags are a similar structure.
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