Read the facts not the opinions from the shake down artist writing here.
Nonprofit defends methods, donations
By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon • [email protected] • December 29
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A Florida-based charity is defending itself against local critics who are questioning the group's fundraising techniques and its donations to veterans' programs.
The Veterans Support Organization on Monday provided dozens of letters it says were written by grateful recipients of contributions as high as $20,000.
The VSO also provided about $3,000 and 100 winter coats for veterans in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens since September, said Yvette Cintron, who runs volunteer services for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in the boroughs.
"I think that just makes a lot of the older organizations a little nervous, " Cintron said. "Sometimes it's like a defense mechanism, like it's on their turf."
"But they're trying to get jobs for veterans, " she said of the VSO. "All of this is commendable."
Cintron and VSO officials were responding to an article in The Journal News on Sunday in which local veterans groups and residents raised questions about the group and its fundraising.
Founded in the VSO enlists homeless residents — not all of them veterans — to dress in military-like fatigues and solicit contributions at shopping malls and shopping centers, including in the Lower Hudson Valley.
The collectors receive 25 percent to 30 percent of the money they raise, a practice that VSO founder Richard Van Houten says provides them with income and services and raises money for veterans.
It's part of what the group identifies as its "work program, " which purportedly provides sales, marketing and entrepreneurial skills.
But that doesn't sit well with some more established veterans groups, who said last week that VSO was nothing short of a scam.
The local groups say nearly all of the money they raise goes directly to area veterans services.
John Nacowicz, a Rhode Island accountant who serves as VSO's national treasurer, said that friction with existing groups is not uncommon — at first.
But he said VSO, which has branches in Rhode Island, Georgia and Florida, hoped it could work in conjunction with them.
"If the local groups want to work with us, we're willing to bend over backward to work with them, " he said.
Nacowicz said VSO puts nearly 70 percent of the more than $1 million it raised annually in recent years back into services.
Based on records provided by the group and on file with the state attorney general and the IRS, much of that includes money that is put back into the work program and into expanding the organization. According to the documents, about 31 percent of the money is donated directly.
A portion of the money goes toward expenses and compensation for the group's executives.
VSO says it's now working on a veterans services center in Mount Vernon.
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