News Article: Pro sports charities hoarding cash, overspending on fundraising, watchdog says

[Pangu]

Something may also surprise people is that foundations (such as hospitals) usually have high admin costs to pay for huge fancy marketing campaigns and events. In many cases, only a fraction of that money to foundations goes to the actual cause, because they have looser regulations from CRA. Meanwhile charities like United Way (not a foundation) put a lot of effort into local programs getting 80-85% of your donation. That means the remainder covers admin (salaries, marketing, research, etc.).

Huh? If I am not mistaken, the difference between a foundation and a charity is that a foundation spends its money as grants to other organizations, while a charity actually does work to benefit the community. So United Way's chapters are effectively foundations.

Plenty of foundations do good work and some have basically no advertising costs. In medical research, we mostly get money from foundations. Plenty of wealthy people setup foundations that then give out money using NIH//CIHR-style peer-review grants. Obviously, there isn't any advertising cost there. Also, if you want to support medical research - like cancer research - you can't give to any charities, since there aren't any charity researchers. The gold standard in medical research is peer-reviewed grants. So, I don't think that foundations vs charities is the key here.

I think the big questions are (1) is the charity managed and governed competently and (2) is it focused on doing good. The second question is particularly pertinent to charitable organizations tied to for-profit enterprises.

 

[bert]

Link

Man, Sens Foundation

Consistent with everything else that happens when Eugene Melnyk is involved. Absolute scum of the earth.

 

[jbeck5]

For some reason you'd think the team would cover the overhead and show off their well doing.

You see so many other organizations say "we'll match your donation"...instead of "matching" my donation, why don't you cover all the overhead so 100% of donations go to the cause.

It's publicity. People support the companies that are charitable just like people support companies that go green.

Strange you don't see this more.

 

[BankStreetParade]

Consistent with everything else that happens when Eugene Melnyk is involved. Absolute scum of the earth.

Eugene Melnyk hasn't been a part of the Foundation team for years now...

 

[Nac Mac Feegle]

Something may also surprise people is that foundations (such as hospitals) usually have high admin costs to pay for huge fancy marketing campaigns and events. In many cases, only a fraction of that money to foundations goes to the actual cause, because they have looser regulations from CRA. Meanwhile charities like United Way (not a foundation) put a lot of effort into local programs getting 80-85% of your donation. That means the remainder covers admin (salaries, marketing, research, etc.).

It's not necessarily charity vs foundations, but you are correct. A lot of these organizations that have a lot of "events"...things charity balls, parties, the stuff you see on the high society pages where none of us 'commoners' will ever attend....those are pretty much for the elites of society to have a fun time and claim they're donating to charity while realistically only having a few pennies going to any cause. It's the whole "hollywood charity" gig where it's mostly about getting your name/business out there and rubbing elbows with other elites and networking, and not really about any good cause.

Like I say, donations directly to those in need is almost always the best bet.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

It's not necessarily charity vs foundations, but you are correct. A lot of these organizations that have a lot of "events"...things charity balls, parties, the stuff you see on the high society pages where none of us 'commoners' will ever attend....those are pretty much for the elites of society to have a fun time and claim they're donating to charity while realistically only having a few pennies going to any cause. It's the whole "hollywood charity" gig where it's mostly about getting your name/business out there and rubbing elbows with other elites and networking, and not really about any good cause.

Like I say, donations directly to those in need is almost always the best bet.

Goddamn Ted Danson.

 

[Canadian Game]

It's not necessarily charity vs foundations, but you are correct. A lot of these organizations that have a lot of "events"...things charity balls, parties, the stuff you see on the high society pages where none of us 'commoners' will ever attend....those are pretty much for the elites of society to have a fun time and claim they're donating to charity while realistically only having a few pennies going to any cause. It's the whole "hollywood charity" gig where it's mostly about getting your name/business out there and rubbing elbows with other elites and networking, and not really about any good cause.

Like I say, donations directly to those in need is almost always the best bet.

Thanks. Yeah, my terminology isn't quite right as I can't remember how charities like United Way are registered. I used to be involved over 10 years ago and forget. Even the terms "non-profit" and "not for profit" were 2 different way charities could be registered. Meanwhile, I'm sure some of the regulations and how donations and admin are handled have changed since then. Back then charities like United Way had to adhere to a maximum of 30% going to admin, while internally, we aimed for 20% so that more went to local programs. Foundations at that time could spend a max of 50% on admin.