MSM Charity that allegedly gave just 1 cent of every $1 to cancer victims is sued for deceiving donors

[medic38572]

The Women's Cancer Fund raised $18.3 million by vowing to help patients, telling donors that their money would help pay the living expenses of women going through treatment for the disease. But a new lawsuit from the FTC and 10 states allege that the bulk of the money instead went to pay the charity's president and for-profit fundraisers.

The lawsuit, filed on March 11 in federal court, alleges that the Women's Cancer Fund raised the money from 2017 to 2022 by making deceptive and misleading claims. In reality, the bulk of the donations went to the $775,139 salary of the charity's president, Gregory Anderson, and to pay for-profit fundraisers $15.55 million, as well as overhead expenses, the lawsuit alleges.

"[O]f the $18.25 million donated to the Women's Cancer Fund only $194,809 – roughly one percent – was spent directly on helping women with cancer," the lawsuit claims.


While charities incur overhead expenses, it's generally considered good practice to spend only a fraction of their budget on overhead, with CharityWatch giving its "highly efficient" rating to nonprofits that spend less than 25% on operating costs. The lawsuit alleges that donors who opened their wallets to give to the Women's Cancer Fund were deceived by the group's marketing efforts.

The Women's Cancer Fund, also known as Cancer Recovery Foundation International, also used the donations to pay for expenses like hotels and travel, the lawsuit alleges.


"Cancer Recovery Foundation International and Anderson abused the generosity of American donors in the most egregious way" said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a statement earlier this month. "The FTC is committed to aggressively pursuing such illegal conduct, which hurts donors and deprives legitimate charities of needed funding. We are grateful to our state partners for joining in this effort to protect the public.

The states that joined the lawsuit are: California, Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The Women's Cancer Fund did not immediately respond to CBS MoneyWatch's request for comment.

Charity that allegedly gave just 1 cent of every $1 to cancer victims is sued for deceiving donors

The Women's Cancer Fund raised $18.3 million, but a new lawsuit alleges the money went to pay a lavish salary to for-profit fundraisers.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Thunderdragon]

Reminder. Goodwill. Takes all that stuff you donate. And send 1% of revenue to goodwill corporate. That is it. non profit. Yes. You can pay 10 family members 1 million Each if they work there. So…yea. Family enrichment. Not. Charity. Technically speaking.

 

[jward]

Charity that allegedly gave just 1 cent of every $1 to cancer victims is sued for deceiving donors

 

[223shootersc]

Hope the bigwigs of the charity all get leprosy and rabies!

 

[Toosh]

I've completely changed my charitable giving practices. I used to put real money in the Christmas red bucket. Thru the years I gave generously to UNICEF, United Way, Red Cross, Goodwill, Make-A-Wish, Easter Seals, Dr's without Borders and American Cancer Society. I have stopped giving to all national non-profit organizations. Sooner or later the people involved forget why you gave that money or they start meddling in other areas that I don't like. (Dr's without Borders are aiding in the southern border invasion.)

There are plenty of people in my little town who need support. We have disabled veterans here as well as families with special-needs children. I like keeping money local. I like seeing them, smiling at church and not knowing that it was I who paid their utility bill or mailed them a Kroger gift card and a thank you note. So much more satisfying.

 

[Tripod]

We donate every month using a check, food, and toys to the local animal shelter. That's it, nothing national.
Mike

 

[Thunderdragon]

Reminder. Goodwill. Takes all that stuff you donate. And send 1% of revenue to goodwill corporate. That is it. non profit. Yes. You can pay 10 family members 1 million Each if they work there. So…yea. Family enrichment. Not. Charity. Technically speaking.

goodwill. Most of the donated clothing. They sell to south and Central America by the pound.

 

[KFhunter]

I donate to the worlds largest charity every paycheck, the money goes to those who don’t work, who aren’t here legally, and I even help fund war in countries in far away places.

 

[Ravekid]

I’ve stopped giving to most charities over a decade ago. Most not-for-profits have to file IRS form 990. A few websites publish these documents for free. Simply google the entity name and 990. Some of these organizations pay the corporate team way too much money. I know in the past our local United Way CEO made over $300K. This an obscene wage for this area of the country when one is running a “charity” organization. While it is true some of these folks are managing many millions of dollars, I just can’t justify supporting that level of wage being paid to charity bigwigs. One shouldn’t become a multimillionaire running a charitable organization.

 

[custom2006]

We donate every month using a check, food, and toys to the local animal shelter. That's it, nothing national.
Mike

I stopped doing that after the Director of my local shelter embezzled over $125,000.00 over 6 years and blew most of it at the local casino!

As well, I used to give to The Wounded Warrior Project, until I found out that the top 12 people in the organization, make no less than $250,000.00 each, with the top 6 people making over $300,000.00 and the CEO making $435,000.00.

In their 2022 filing, they claim donations of just over $402 Million ..... and expenses of just over $344 Million ... with $58 Million going to Wounded troops.

I give to no one now!!!

People have been giving for years and years and not one single disease has been cured and homelessness is worse than ever, along with hungry children and homeless animals ... nothing has changed! I keep wondering when folks will wake up to this scam???

I started to figure out all this charity, awareness and donating was a scam, when I saw that nearly every Hollywood celebrity, athlete, singer, ect, had their own charity!

I remember watching one of those investigating TV shows 15+ years ago and they showed how Barry Bonds had an intercity charity for less fortunate kids.

They exposed how his mothers multimillion dollar house was the charity's headquarters and the Mercedes that she drove belonged to the charity and she was being paid $250,000.00 / year and as well, her sister, Barry's aunt, was the Secretary for the charity and she had a company car and a Mercedes too and she was paid $200,000.00 / year.

Wounded Warrior Project Inc - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica

Since 2013, the IRS has released data culled from millions of nonprofit tax filings. Use this database to find organizations and see details like their executive compensation, revenue and expenses, as well as download tax filings going back as far as 2001.

projects.propublica.org

 

[pinkelsteinsmom]

Keep it all local and personal.

 

[Dux]

Let's not forget Hillary's fundraising for Haiti.

 

[mikeabn]

I’ve stopped giving to most charities over a decade ago. Most not-for-profits have to file IRS form 990. A few websites publish these documents for free. Simply google the entity name and 990. Some of these organizations pay the corporate team way too much money. I know in the past our local United Way CEO made over $300K. This an obscene wage for this area of the country when one is running a “charity” organization. While it is true some of these folks are managing many millions of dollars, I just can’t justify supporting that level of wage being paid to charity bigwigs. One shouldn’t become a multimillionaire running a charitable organization.

I will never forget the United Way nepotism scandal in th late 80s I think. I worked for the phone company which was very big on UW. I stopped my contributions immediately.

 

[Scrapman]

Wegmans was collecting for the United way this weekend. I laughed when they asked me and asked if they could name what the money goes for or if Wegmans would match the donations. No on both . I would have educated them on the spot but there were people behind me in the checkout.

 

[nomifyle]

Different places that I worked just about forced us to donate to united way. I declined as much as I could.

Goodwill is not a charity, they are for profit. I stopped donating to them years ago. If I have something to donate I give to Teen Challenge. I do, however, shop at goodwill.

Keep it all local and personal.

This is what the baptist church I go to does, none of those international donations that most baptist church does. I only go to a baptist church because that is the closest to what I believe and we feel we need to be in church. They talk about fellow shipping with like minded people and I want to throw up. I do however agree with them about Jesus. They preach hell fire and damnation about everything but glutony. There are many extremely fat people in the baptist church. I don't believe I'm going to go to hell for uttering a curse word, nor will I go to heaven for my works.

 

[patriotgal]

I take all thrift store donations to local womens shelter store or salvation army. If you need something and our nearest salvation army has it, it is yours. I do shop Goodwill sometimes. Last time I was in there I slipped a $20 in the purse of a young mom keeping up with 2 little kids.

 

[dvo]

Shouldn’t the IRS have a particular interest in this so called charity? One cent of every dollar goes to the cancer patient? These people put the Clinton Foundation to shame.

 

[mikeabn]

A church run thrift store opened up nearby. With the tremendous amount of stuff I have, from used to NIB, I'm gonna put them on the map.

 

[Ractivist]

Shouldn’t the IRS have a particular interest in this so called charity? One cent of every dollar goes to the cancer patient? These people put the Clinton Foundation to shame.

I wonder if they transact business with children as well. Seems to be all the rage these days.