I no longer support the wounded warrior project.
 

It's with great sadness, that I must personally withdraw my support for the Wounded Warrior Project. It's become very obvious that they have chosen as an organization to get away from the roots of what made them great.

some of the many reasons impacting my decision are as follows.

1) Their president was compensated over 400k in 2011
2) he is reported to have "earned" over 900k in 2012 from the wwp
3) much less than .30 cents of every donation is going to benefit vets / and or veterans programs. They have a solid consistent D rating (from charitable watch organizations) for spending far to much on "adminstrative" costs for every dollar they take in.
4) they have taken a position of not assisting vietnam era vets , and not including them in there activites.
5) recently they have also taken a position to not allow re-branding of their logo by any pro gun ownership organizations. http://www.examiner.com/article/woun...nti-gun-stance It's those same organizations that originally spread the word about how great it was to support them.

I fondly remember taking wounded vets out on the potomac and james rivers, and catching some monster catfish with some great vets.. WWP was then an organization based on giving these vets some great times to live for, because as people they had been through hell. I'm sad that the WWP's commercialization has come to this.

If anyone knows of an up and coming organization that is modeled after the WWP in its early years... please let me know.

Also please be aware that there are many organizations with "wounded warrior" in there name (there is an offical army program, there is also an official marine program. many of them do great work) In this post i am referring to the "Wounded Warrior Project"

I'm sure some will agree with this and others will disagree, Just want to spread the word so that everyone can form their own opinion.

1) Their president was compensated over 400k in 2011
2) he is reported to have "earned" over 900k in 2012 from the wwp


Complete crap.

I'm sorry to hear this. It was my favorite charity until now. It looks like they went the way of the Red Cross and the United Way, both "charity" organizations with CEO's earning seven fugure salaries. The only charity out there right now that steers all their donations to the needy is the Salvation Army.
I also would be interested in any trusted charity organizations directed towards wounded veterans.

I Agree, Salvation Army gets my vote. Good Folks on a mission.

I do absolutely intend to still find a way to help vets, regardless of it being thru the WWP or other programs. I am hoping someone here knows of a program that's doing it right.

Do you have any proof to back up your statements? I'd like to verify this myself before I think badly of the organization.

WWP did stop letting any gun related organizations use their logo, but they still want gun related organizations to take troops out of shooting and hunting trips for free. There are emails and transcripts from interviews late last year floating round on the web. I heard one of them live, and the chick was clearly anti gun, saying the WWP did not want to be affiliated with guns. ***? Anyway, a lot of groups are cutting out the middle man and just taking troops out and finding them in a grassroots manner.

As stated, I have almost completely stopped supporting all organizations from DU, CCA, United Way, and the list goes on and on due to the greed of so many. I now spend more time and money helping local things - fundraisers, clay shoots, benefits- and leave all the big time stuff alone just for my inner peace and sanity.

This is sad but not surprising.

I stopped supporting DU a long time ago.

I can agree with this. I much rather help out someone who I know needs help, whether it be cooking hamburgers at my kids school, or helping out a fella with flat tire, dropping a couple bucks off to a kids sports team at wal mart etc

yes you are right....

I do still support CCA because it is all we have left to help with the coast

X2

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This sucks.

I agree with your sentiment bmac, and when i found out about this stuff i wanted some fact checking myself.

There is a link in my first post taking you to an article in the examiner discussing the wounded warrior projects aversion to officially working with any organizations that supports gun rights.

here is a link to charity navigator's rating on WWP http://www.charitynavigator.org/inde...ry&orgid=12842
they discuss the ROI of .30 on the dollar and what admin expenses were for WWP.

I will be the first to tell you that I will sorely miss what the WWP did in it's early years. Hell they still did good things even now (by funding hunting / fishing trips etc even now) I just want to commit my money and time to a group that will do those things with a higher percentage of $$ where it belongs, and without pushing its political agenda.

I'm sure there are good one's out there. Just need to find them.

Do you know any of these groups cutting out the middle men? would like to get in touch with them and see if i can help.

most of my charitable giving goes directly to those in my church I see on Sunday's struggling..........

I am NOT in total agreement with the CEO's salary thing.
If you are a person running a multi-billion dollar orginization then indeed 400K to a million is not out the question.

I see this as really pretty serious. If you want to continue to have "community organizers" running multi billion dollar (or trillion as in the USA) then keep on complaining about the pay.

Want to know why we have millionares running for office? Because as in many cases, they person cannot build any amount of wealth by what the office pays.
So you come in as a bazillioaire or steal a bazillion.

there is no way in hell I would take on being president of WWF or Red Cross or anything similar for less than a million a year.

If you want to support all troops and vets. Donate to the USO. They are there for the troops 100%. I have been there and will stand behind them. The don't really do that much for vets but the vets use the resources when looking for jobs and returning to civilian life.

If you guys find a good charity for these soldiers we can donate the saltycajun tournament proceeds to it next year, we are locked in this year with the Lake Charles Autism group (great organization) but next year we will rotate again on a two year rotation. We (salty Cajun) will not take one dollar from the event, we never do.
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Attachment 49386

Here is the audited financials for 2012. It's all hidden in the Statement of Functional Expense on pages 6 and 7. They make it appear that 80% of expenses is for project services, but that is done by "fudging" the numbers. They can send out a newsletter that is mainly for fundraising purposes, but because of the newsletter it is allocated between project services and fundraising. Look close at the total column on page 7. There is $140,728,895 in expenses and roughly $103,440,520 accounted for is REALLY for fundraising and administrative costs. That is 73.5% :eek:, which means only 26.5% is being spent for the organizations true purpose. A far cry from the 82.8% they claim. Not very efficient in my book.

I like this idea. That said, with no disrespect to any group, I'd like to see another tourney go back to St. Jude. For whatever reason, I have a very soft spot in my heart for their organization.;)

As far as having a mult-million dollar per year non-profit such as WWP, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone step in there as CEO as a pro-bono. Do I know what they deserve?...No. I've never had to deal with that much paperwork or money. I do know what it takes to keep my little business in operation and, I'm underpaid! LOL! There's a tough decision to make when it is who I can or cannot help. Like others have stated above, I look to the individuals I meet. I know that everything goes to them that way.

I stopped giving to the United Way back in the early '90's when the Times Picayune did a story about the New Orleans area lead having a chaufer driven limo to bring her everywhere she wanted and how much she was making every year.
I don't mind giving to the Red Cross after I see what they did after Rita. They came to Cameron, Creole and Grand Chenier and provided food and water, for free, until someone opened places to eat. But I only send money to them for certain disasters, not for general fund.
I give to my church and to family and friends before I give to national charities.

I hear what your saying, The reason's that i included the salary's in my decision is because they represent such a LARGE portion of that organizations administrative expenses. Many of the organizations listed with similar missions to the WWP return between .75 and .90 of every dollar donated to the vets (as compared to their ROI of .30) I do understand what your saying about if they do a great job then they earn that pay.

I'm sure there are plenty of retired highly successful CEO's who have one or two golden parachutes, and who would love to Lead an organization like the WWP and do good work with it.

Good find Matt....

Crap... that depresses me even more.

Wow!

Way to step up Salty Cajun! :) You done made me sign up for premium now! :)

I am going to be keeping my eye open for any vet associations around the FT polk area that we can try and help out. Will keep all in the loop.

Ohmergaud

Oh yea, I'm with you there.
I am not sure about retired guys wanting to "help" any more.
The current climate at a CEO level is so damn stressful, I see many wanting to move to the Islands, smoke pot all day and fish other than get back in the beauracratic rat race.

Today businesss world is chewing the big boys up and spitting them out ant that is when you ARE successful

There are wounded warriors all around us. When we wanted to do a wounded warrior hunt we just got the word out. Somebody knew somebody and our guy lived just right down the road. You don't need to donate a bunch a money and get with an organization to make the day of a soldier. Just a little time and some shells and you can give that guy a lifetime memory.

Yep. The bottom line is, sadly, if you want an organized, energized organization you have to pay close to the going rate for talent that will deliver the goods. Those kind of people are competitive, driven and will not tolerate having workers around them who are not similarly talented and focussed.

And if you do a good job, especially the young talented underlings, the headhunters will beat you over the head with offers that are hard to refuse.

Yep..........

acearcher...when were you fishing the james river for big cats? I was in Hampton roads from 03-07..used to love to catch them monster cats!

What about HOW Heroes On the Water. I'm not sure if it has an actual non profit organization but I have helped with Pack n Paddle to bring wounded soldiers out fishing. Not sure if this helps but it was the first thing that popped in my mind.

I checked them out quickly, I am not seeing anything negative about them.... but they have not been around very long either.

Are they open to taking vets out fishing with gear other than kayaks? (not that i am against kayaks... you just won't catch my 275lb butt in one.. :))

This is a CHARITY. A 7 figure salary is unacceptable. That's no different than a crooked preacher makin $750k a year off of the tithe. Don't think so!

Just moved the family back home to Louisiana about a year ago. Before that I lived in Maryland for the last 20 years or so, Have been chasing the big blues on the Potomac for about 10 years. My best on the Potomac went 56. The pic in my avatar is a small one of about 25lbs.

Went down to the James a few times for Tournaments, used to put in at Hopewell. Best i caught down there were some around 40 lbs..

If you could cast net up some fresh shad to bait up with it was on!!!! Had loads of fun catching those big fat pigs on the potomac. There were plenty of times that you were hard pressed to keep more than 1 rod out in the water because the action was so fast!.

as a matter of fact, now that i think of it... two of the times i went down to the James river was to participate in WWP fishing events to let the wounded vets have a go at the big blue cats.

Have sent a message to the Heroes on the Water organization via their facebook page. It looks like its an up and coming not for profit will share additional information here as i receive it from their LA chapter. It appears as though that chapter is located in the New Orleans area, So not sure what they will be able to do with Big lake............ but......


Stay tuned.

I would contact John at PnP, but I don't see why they wouldn't be able to set something up out of a power boat. PnP did bring a group of vets out to Choupique bayou so big lake wouldn't be a problem at all.

Good stuff, have shot off a couple emails, will post em up when they respond and everyone can decide if they are the real deal.

As well as future hunters and fisherman. Bring kids hunting and fishing. At the sane time teach them the reason behind the hunting and fishing. It's our only real way to conserve our marsh, fish, ducks etc. how we see fit. Our future and theirs in the outdoors is what we make of it now. Jmo

Wounded war heroes puts on an awesome fishing rodeo in empire.

I 100% agree and do the same.. There are many local family charity events to be able to help.. then sending money to a big charity that has forgotten what they stand for... Instead filling there on pockets up


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Wounded War Heroes is looking pretty interesting, They are still a pretty small organization but they do clearly state in their bylaws that all there member positions (board & advisory members) are 100% voluntary positions (no pay) and it looks like they put on a some good stuff. Will email them and will post up reply's here as well.

copy of email sent to WWH (which is basically same as the one i sent to Heroes on the Water)

Hello Wounded War Heroes organization,

I and a few other like minded individuals have been supporting the WWP for quite a while. Due to various reasons we are all agreeing that we cannot keep supporting that organization.

We are searching for a new charitable organization to give both our time and money to. We would mainly be interested in making events happen in the Southwest LA area (mainly Big Lake).

We can potentially do veterans tourneys and have wounded vets fishing them (while being guided by area guides / knowledgeable anglers) And/Or we can hold regular tourneys to help raise funds for an organization (we would potentially probably like to do a mix of both)

Would your organization be interested in our support in the SW Louisiana area?

If you are interested are you willing to be very transparent in what you use donations for? Our distrust of the WWP is in main part due to its commercialization, and the rather disgusting fact that less than .30 cents of every dollar donated to it ends up benefiting a vet.

Please let me know.

Thanks in advance,

Alex

Nice letter AA:)


As simplepeddler touched upon, don't lump all charitable or nonprofit organizations into the same category. Nonprofits such as DU, Delta Waterfowl, CCA, etc. have a much higher percentage of projects vs 'overhead'. In order to raise money, you have to spend money to fundraise, you have to have some secretaries, got to pay the light bills, gas bills, benefits, and yes salaries:eek:. These organizations have to compete with the private sector for employees, so they have to offer competetive salaries. If you want the best or at least a good staff, you have to pay them or else they will just leave and go into the private sector and make more money. When an organization can say that 60% or even 75% of funds raised goes to on the ground conservation, they are doing very well with what they have.

not defending Wounded Warriors as I have no idea about them, just conservation nonprofits

Thanks for the kind words DB.

If WWP was able to honestly say that 60-75% of their funds went back to vets.... well i would have never written this post. Everyone's best guess (due to number's being fudged) is that they Return somewhere around 25-30%. Between that, and them making the decision to not allow any pro-gun organization to use their logo (even if those organizations donate time money etc) well i decided it was time for me to look for something else.

I find no fault in anyone that chooses to continue supporting WWP, because facts are that they still do quite a bit of good. You can look at any Hunting / Fishing related board and find lots of recent posts about local WWP events where people are taking vets out and showing them a good time! I want more of that, and less of low % of $$ getting to benefit vets (as well as less political bs)

Hell to be honest, i might be living in a fantasy world looking for a perfect charity... but i do feel there has got to be something better out there.

Had a chance to speak with one of the Board Members of the Wounded War Heroes group.

Based on my discussion with them, they currently put on two bigger rodeo's each year (One in Empire, and the other is occurring in a couple weekends on Toledo Bend)(I am going to try to stop in to that one and at least say hello)

They give 100% of donations to directly benefit the vets by taking them fishing/hunting and paying the associated expenses related to that (transportation,gas,etc etc etc)

They have been looking to make something happen in the Southwest area of louisiana.

Many of the vet's that they currently work with come from the Ft. Polk area, The rest are spread out in various area's.

They are willing to ensure than all funds generated through a potential Salty Cajun Fundraising tourney, are used to put on a Salty Cajun Veterans Fishing spree / Tourney.


All in all they were quite impressive, There board member Mr. Watson will be jumping on here later tonight and contributing as well.


On a side note they are looking for a couple more captains to be in there Toledo Bend event here in a couple weekends, It's going to be a Thursday afternoon - Midday saturday type thing.

Dates for the toledo event and a contact name/number please

Jchief, I believe he stated that it would be two weekends from now so that would make it the evening of the 9th, the 10th, and then the morning of the 11th. I remember him saying it would be held at pirates cove.

I didn't get a contact number from him, but as i said he advised me that he would be on here tonight, responding to this post, and i'm sure he will be happy to provide all that info then.

we use operation homefront for our tournament. All money goes to service men family to help with exspense, while on tour or after getting home.

I'm not sure what the holdup is on the guy posting up information here from the Wounded War Heroes group. Hopefully we will here form him soon if he still needs help with the toledo bend tourney.

When i spoke with him he seemed very keen to work with Salty Cajun to make something happen on Big Lake.

Here is what i have received back from Heroes on the Water.

Y’all are fisherman and patriots. We like that sort of group!

We would love to hook up with y’all. Most of our supporters are outdoorsmen (obviously) and military vets. The need is pretty obvious. We are a kayak only organization for outings because the therapy of being on the water as captain of your own ship and being successful without anyone helping. We want to keep the mission pure.

Holding tournaments for support and providing a venue for outings is needed. Getting a group of wounded vets out over a weekend is amazing. They don’t get a chance to hang out with each other very often. Setting those sorts of outings up would be awesome. They can also get out on weekdays.

Here’s an org that can vet us - http://www2.guidestar.org/organizati...oes-water.aspx

Please let us know what other info you need. I attached a few pics and a story below from one of our wives that tells the story. Please feel free to forward.

All the best,

Jim

Jim Dolan | President | Heroes on the Water
101-C N. Greenville Ave. #55, Allen, TX 75002 | 214-295-4541
www.HeroesOnTheWater.org



Donate Here | EIN 13-4367788 | Heroes on the Water is a 501(c)(3)






From: Megan
Sent: Sunday
To: Jim Dolan
Subject: Here ya go

It's like a painting in my memory—a single, significant moment of this journey. A few street lamps cast a surreal glow in the dark, early morning fog. He barely even looked at me as I dropped him off and helped with his gear. He didn't tell me goodbye; he didn't kiss me. As I drove away, I looked back up at him, planted in the middle seat of the white passenger van. The van's interior lights highlighted his hunched form. His jaw was set and I could feel his scowl even though it was hidden by his ball cap. No one else was in the van yet, but he was ready. He was a man on a mission. He was a man going fishing.

Heroes on the Water runs a 10 week program for wounded warriors recovering at BAMC. As an avid kayak fisherman, it was a perfect first post-injury outing for him.

After he returned from his first Afghanistan deployment in 2009, he bought a fishing kayak. Many of the guys coming home were buying motorcycles and sports cars, so I was quite supportive of the kayak expenditure. On Saturday mornings he loaded up the yak on our little Toyota Corolla and headed off to the lake by himself. He was always more relaxed and easier to get along with when he returned from those early morning fishing trips. When he deployed the second time, he daydreamed about fishing just to keep himself sane. On his care packages I drew lakes and kayaks, reminding him of what he had to look forward to when he came home.

The night they called to tell me he was injured, I paced our back patio as I made phone calls and arrangements. His kayak was there in the back yard, its outline visible in the porch light. Each time it caught my eye I wondered, “Will he ever be able to go out on the water again?”

The days following my notification were filled with chaos. I left my home in the middle of the night a few days after he was injured. I just ran out the door with a suitcase and never lived in that house again. We were reunited at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC—the old hospital before it moved over to Bethesda. When I got too far away from him, my knees went weak and I had to hold the wall for support. It was an interminable cycle of surgeries and recovering from anesthesia and pain crises. I wasn't sure that things were ever going to be okay, that we would ever live outside those walls again.

I was waiting for an elevator one afternoon with my friends who were there to support me. When the door opened we stood in stunned silence. Unloading from the elevator was a double amputee. Thrown over his shoulder was a kayak. A man. Two prosthetic legs. Carrying a kayak. In an elevator. In a hospital. In that moment, my friends and I knew that things were eventually going to be okay. My question was answered: “He will be able to go out on the water again.” We tried to convey the significance of the elevator kayak amputee, but Ollie didn't quite believe us yet. In those days, I'm not sure he believed in the existence of anything outside of that hospital room.

It was several more months before I dropped him off that foggy morning. There was a lot more pain, more surgeries, a cross-country move, a reunion with our children and several changes in living arrangements. He did not cope well with his necessary dependence on me and others—not only was he mostly unable to walk, he couldn't drive, and even needed assistance in the shower. He was taking a multitude of drugs in order to tolerate the pain of having pins in each of his toes. Some of those medications made him insufferably belligerent. It was a dark, unhappy time for us both. On fishing morning, he woke up with his alarm for the first time since the injury. He got himself up and dressed, then went to gather his fishing gear that he'd prepped the night before. Chad Hoover and his kayak fishing buddies hooked Ollie up with some rods, lures, a PFD and other goodies. He meticulously organized it all and sat waiting for me at the front door, his milk crate on his lap and his PFD thrown across the back of the chair. Resentment flowed out of him—at the time I thought he resented me. Looking back, I think he resented needing me.

I dropped him off and as I looked up at him sitting there insolently in the van, my heart broke. My fun loving, independent clown of a husband was now completely dependent on other people to do...everything. He was emasculated, broken, and diminished. I wondered (not for the first or last time) if this is how our lives would always be. At the time I failed to see the hope, though, in his belligerence—sitting there with his set jaw and his eyes forward. He was angry; he was robbed of his independence. But he was going fishing, come hell or high water.

When I picked him up after lunch, the change in him was astonishing. He was no longer balled up in pain and anger. His body was visibly relaxed, his face broke into an easy smile. The cocky banter that I love (even though I pretend it annoys me) was flowing freely. While he was in the kayak he was able to move freely and gracefully again. When he came back that afternoon, he was confident. He felt like a man again. Just one morning on the water eased months of pain and anguish. That morning was the first time I saw my husband really return from the war—Heroes on the Water brought him back to our family, back to himself.

Heroes on the Water brought him home.