Do your research before you donate

By Will Coggin

Outlet: Roswell Daily News

As we embrace the holiday spirit, many Americans will be looking to make a year-end donation to a worthy charity. But we should be careful of some household names in the nonprofit world that have a history of being grinches.
Many Americans saw the news reports [auth] earlier this year about the wasteful spending at Wounded Warrior Project on company retreats. Consider also that the Humane Society of the United States only gives 1 percent of donations to local pet shelters, yet last year put $50 million into offshore funds in the Caribbean. Meanwhile, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) killed nearly 1,500 animals at its headquarters’ animal shelter in 2015 and had an adoption rate of just 3 percent.
With Americans donating $265 billion to charity, there’s a lot of room for both good guys and unscrupulous players looking to make a buck. Be sure to do your research first — and for bad ones that pester you for undeserved donations, ‘tis the season to send them some coal.