what percentage of donations to wounded warrior project go to the warrior
Wounded Warrior Project Spends Lavishly on Itself, Insiders Say
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — In 2014, after 10 years of rapid growth, the Wounded Warrior Project flew its roughly 500 employees to Colorado Springs for an "all hands" coming together at the v-star Broadmoor hotel.
They were celebrating their biggest yr yet: $225 million raised and a work force that had nearly doubled. On the opening night, before three days of strategy sessions and team-building field trips, the staff gathered in the hotel courtyard. Suddenly, a spotlight focused on a ten-story bell tower where the master executive, Steven Nardizzi, stepped off the edge and rappelled toward the auspicious crowd.
That evening is allegorical of the polished and well-financed epitome cultivated past the Wounded Warrior Project, the country's largest and fastest-growing veterans charity.
Since its inception in 2003 every bit a basement functioning handing out backpacks to wounded veterans, the clemency has evolved into a fund-raising behemothic, taking in more than $372 million in 2015 — largely through small donations from people over 65.
Today, the clemency has 22 locations offering programs to help veterans readjust to club, attend school, find piece of work and participate in athletics. It contributes millions to smaller veterans groups. And it has become a brand name, its logo emblazoned on sneakers, paper towel packs and tv commercials that run dozens of times.
Simply in its swift ascent, information technology has also embraced ambitious styles of fund-raising, marketing and personnel direction that have many current and former employees questioning whether it has drifted from its mission.
Information technology has spent millions a yr on travel, dinners, hotels and conferences that often seemed more lavish than appropriate, more than 4 dozen current and quondam employees said in interviews. Former workers recounted ownership business-class seats and regularly jetting effectually the country for minor meetings, or staying in $500-per-night hotel rooms.
The arrangement has also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years on public relations and lobbying campaigns to deflect criticism of its spending and to fight legislative efforts to restrict how much nonprofits spend on overhead.
Near 40 percent of the organization'south donations in 2014 were spent on its overhead, or near $124 million, according to the clemency-rating group Charity Navigator. While that pct, which includes administrative expenses and marketing costs, is not every bit much as for some groups, information technology is far more than for many veterans charities, including the Semper Fi Fund, a wounded-veterans group that spent most 8 percent of donations on overhead. Every bit a consequence, some philanthropic watchdog groups have criticized the Wounded Warrior Project for spending too heavily on itself.
Some of its own employees have criticized it, too. William Chick, a former supervisor, spent five years with the Wounded Warrior Project. "It slowly had less focus on veterans and more on raising money and protecting the organization," he said.
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Mr. Chick, who was fired in 2012 after a dispute with his supervisor, said he saw the Wounded Warrior Projection help hundreds of veterans. But similar other old employees, he said the grouping swiftly fired anyone leaders considered a "bad cultural fit."
Eighteen former employees — many of them wounded veterans themselves — said they had been fired for seemingly minor missteps or perceived insubordination. At least half a dozen old employees said they were let get after raising questions about ineffective programs or spending.
A spokeswoman for the charity said it fired those people because of poor performance or ethical breaches, and that each of them was given the opportunity to address their work problems.
The spokeswoman, Ayla Tezel, said that more than a 3rd of the clemency's employees are veterans, and that the system is rated 1 of the top nonprofits to work for by The NonProfit Times.
"Sometimes employees make poor choices that tin can't be disregarded," Ms. Tezel said. "And sometimes those employees are veterans."
A For-Profit Model
Veterans organizations in the Usa oft reflect the era in which they were created: After World War I, they resembled congenial orders. Subsequently Vietnam, many focused on advocacy in Washington.
The Wounded Warrior Project cuts a unlike profile. Nether Mr. Nardizzi's management, it has modeled itself on for-profit corporations, with a focus on data, scalable products, quarterly numbers and branding.
In an interview at the organization'south four-story headquarters in a palm-lined office park in Jacksonville, Fla., Mr. Nardizzi, 45, said spending on fund-raising and other expenses not directly related to veterans programs has enabled the Wounded Warrior Projection to grow faster and serve more than people. It estimates that fourscore,000 veterans have used its services.
"I look at companies similar Starbucks — that's the model," Mr. Nardizzi said. "You're looking at companies that are getting it right, treating their employees right, delivering swell services and nifty products, then are growing the brand to support all of that."
The clemency recently pledged to raise $500 million for a trust to fund lifetime supplemental health care for severely wounded veterans. And on Tuesday, it started a plan to provide care for veterans with mail-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries, two of the almost mutual injuries for veterans of contempo wars.
Epitome
Such ambitious programs would be impossible without meaning spending on fund-raising and staff, said Mr. Nardizzi, who has become a vocal advocate of the idea that charities should exist able to spend what they want on travel, fund-raising and executive salaries.
"How many others are not scaling up to cure cancer, to help the environment, because at that place is a belief we shouldn't invest in those things?" said Mr. Nardizzi, who was given $473,000 in compensation in 2014.
The Wounded Warrior Project'south roots are more humble. Its founder, John Melia, was a Marine veteran who had been injured in a helicopter crash off the coast of Somalia in 1992. When wounded troops began returning from Iraq in 2003, Mr. Melia remembered how he had arrived in a stateside hospital with just his thin hospital gown, and began visiting military hospitals to distribute backpacks stuffed with socks, CD players, toothpaste and other items.
As the haversack projection grew, Mr. Melia hired a few employees, including Mr. Nardizzi, a lawyer who had never served in the armed services simply was an executive for a minor nonprofit, the United Spinal Association, which served disabled veterans.
They began raising millions of dollars and broadening their services to include adaptive sports for disabled veterans, employment and benefits help, and retreats to teach veterans to cope with mail-traumatic stress disorder.
By 2009, the group had grown to about fifty employees and $21 1000000 in revenue. But by and then, Mr. Melia and Mr. Nardizzi were fighting over the charity's future, with Mr. Nardizzi pushing for more ambitious expansion than Mr. Melia, old employees said.
In January 2009, Mr. Melia resigned.
Mr. Nardizzi said in an interview that Mr. Melia left to pursue business ventures. But Mr. Melia'southward ex-married woman, Julie Melia, who worked at the charity at the time, said in an interview that her one-time husband felt similar the organization was "stolen from him."
"He didn't want to leave, but it was obvious something was going to happen," Ms. Melia said.
The organization paid Mr. Melia at least $230,000 after he stepped down, according to revenue enhancement forms. He has never spoken publicly about his disagreements with Mr. Nardizzi, and declined to exist interviewed.
Today, on a listing of 27 founders that was created past the charity's current leadership and handed out to all new employees, Mr. Melia'south name appears well below the proper name of the charity's for-profit fund-raising consultant.
Rise in a Downturn
When Mr. Nardizzi took over, in the depths of the 2009 economic downturn, most charities had dialed back their fund-raising efforts, figuring that the nation was in no position to give.
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Mr. Nardizzi doubled his spending on fund-raising and has increased it an average of 66 pct every twelvemonth since. The Wounded Warrior Projection spent more than $34 one thousand thousand on fund-raising in 2014, according to tax records.
The organization began producing inspirational ads featuring wounded veterans fighting to recover.
"The clandestine sauce was the brand, and the mission," said Dave Ward, a vice president who left in 2015. "We put warriors on a pedestal and the nation wrapped its arms effectually that concept."
But as donations poured in, many former employees say the group became wasteful.
"People could spend money on the most ridiculous affair and no one batted an eye," said Connie Chapman, who was in charge of the charity's Seattle function for 2 years. "I would fly to New York for less than a day to report to my supervisor."
All staff members flying to the charity'south office at a military hospital in Frg traveled in business organization grade, employees said. One electric current employee said her final-minute ticket price $7,000.
Mr. Nardizzi fired Ms. Chapman, an Republic of iraq veteran with PTSD, in 2012 as part of a "direction restructuring," she said.
By 2014, the grouping was spending $seven.5 one thousand thousand per year on travel, according to tax forms.
The Wounded Warrior Project asserts that information technology spends 80 percent of donations on programs, but former employees and clemency watchdogs say the charity inflates its number by using practices such as counting some marketing materials equally educational.
The spending began to concenter attention. Charity Watch, an contained monitoring group, gave Wounded Warrior Projection a "D" rating in 2011 and has not given it a form college than C since.
Mr. Nardizzi fought back. In 2013, co-ordinate to revenue enhancement forms, the Wounded Warrior Project gave $150,000 to a nonprofit chosen the Charity Defense Council and Mr. Nardizzi joined its advisory lath. The council's mission includes defending charity spending on overhead and executive salaries, its website says.
In 2014, the Wounded Warrior Project lobbied in California and Florida to fight proposals that would have required nonprofits to increment financial transparency. Both bills passed in amended forms that did not significantly affect the clemency, Mr. Nardizzi said.
As well around that time, the group hired the global public relations business firm Edelman, which has represented Starbucks, Walmart, Shell and Philip Morris, to meliorate public perception of the charity and its overhead spending.
Paradigm
Former employees said they questioned the charity's focus on coin and marketing techniques. Erick Millette, an Iraq veteran, said he quit after growing disillusioned about his work with a program called Warrior Speak, which involved veterans' telling their stories of healing to audiences. The veterans collected donations at those events.
"I wasn't speaking anywhere unless I was collecting a check," said Mr. Millette, who worked for the program for almost ii years, until he left in 2014.
Mr. Millette said the clemency encouraged him to highlight its office in helping him recover from PTSD and traumatic encephalon injury. "They wanted me to say Due west.W.P. saved my life," he said. "Well, they didn't. They just took me to a Red Sox game and on a weekend retreat."
A Focus on Metrics
As donations increased, Wounded Warrior Project executives began using data to measure staff productivity. The metrics were intended to amend efficiency and aid fund-raising. Just some employees assert that the productivity goals were set and then high that they eroded program quality.
The Warriors to Work program, for case, was intended to provide one-on-i counseling to develop résumés and interview skills, and then identify veterans in suitable jobs.
Simply executives quadrupled the number of job placements the programme was expected to make each year, reducing the amount of fourth dimension specialists had to discover good ones, said Dan Lessard, who ran the plan for near two years. He was fired in 2014 for what executives told him was insubordination.
"They would just come up with numbers based on cypher," Mr. Lessard said. "I would push button dorsum and they would get very frustrated and yell. Past the time I left, nosotros were just throwing guys in jobs to bank check off a box and hit the numbers."
The same button for numbers hit a plan that brings wounded veterans together for social events. Former staff members said they had less time to develop therapeutic programs and so relied on giving veterans tickets to concerts and sporting events. To fill seats, they often invited the same veterans.
"If the same warrior attends six different events, you lot could record that as six warriors served," said Renee Humphrey, who oversaw alumni outreach in Southern California for nigh four years. "You had the aforementioned few guys who loved going to free events."
Ms. Humphrey, an Republic of iraq veteran with PTSD, was fired in 2013. Her termination was so sharp that her piece of work phone and credit card were shut off while she was leading an event.
Epitome
Mr. Nardizzi said his staff was constantly monitoring metrics to endeavour to get the most out of every dollar donated. "It's a hard balance, only I think we strike the correct balance," he said.
He said that the organisation regularly followed up with veterans who receive Wounded Warrior Projection services and that the vast bulk reported having good experiences.
Multiple Terminations
Function of the organization's drive for growth has been a tough stance toward workers considered unproductive or disloyal.
Afterwards Jesse Longoria recovered from a roadside bomb blast that nearly killed him in Iraq, he got a job with the organization training veterans to help other veterans.
"I loved it," the onetime Marine sniper said. "By giving back, I was helping myself and helping other vets."
In 2012, afterwards he had been working for the charity about a year, he had to have his right arm amputated because of lingering damage from Iraq.
Soon after the amputation, he said, he was racked by haunting emotions from Republic of iraq and checked himself into suicide lookout man at a psychiatric ward.
A week after, he was dorsum at work when a fistfight bankrupt out between veteran mentors who had been drinking after 1 of his preparation sessions. He was not in the room at the time only was held responsible for the fight, his dominate at the time, Mr. Chick, said in an interview.
Mr. Chick's own supervisor told him to burn Mr. Longoria. Mr. Chick said he refused, but was ordered past his dominate to write an email recommending the firing. "He said y'all amend do this or you are going to expect disloyal to the organization," Mr. Chick said. "It was a very coercive chat."
The Wounded Warrior Project said Mr. Longoria was terminated at Mr. Chick'south recommendation. The organisation fired Mr. Chick after the same 24-hour interval for insubordination.
Mr. Longoria said he was offered money in exchange for signing a nondisclosure understanding, only refused. Other erstwhile employees said they had signed such forms, and could not speak.
Mr. Longoria said after he was fired, he roughshod into depression but was likewise relieved. He said he felt guilty about what he saw as widespread waste.
One time a child came by the office to donate a piggy depository financial institution. Another fourth dimension a woman called to donate office of her son's life insurance afterwards he was killed in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan, he said.
"It got under my skin, started eating at me," he said. "I knew where the money was going to. It seemed to me similar it was a large prevarication."
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/28/us/wounded-warrior-project-spends-lavishly-on-itself-ex-employees-say.html
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