Is someones charity funding someones pension fund?

Perhaps you’ve seen the advertisements put out by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), which show mostly dogs and cats. Our analysis of HSUS fundraising ads that ran between January 2009 and September 2011, using data provided by the Campaign Media Analysis Group, showed that the lovable, furry critters made up 85 percent of the animals shown. However, HSUS gives less than one percent of its massive budget to local pet shelters—though its deceptive multimillion-dollar ad campaigns are surely a major reason that 71 percent of Americans believe that HSUS is a pet shelter umbrella group, according to national polling.

That got our video department wondering what an "honest" HSUS ad might look like. Given that HSUS has dozens of lawyers on staff and spends millions of dollars each year lobbying, we felt that people should know what their $19 per month actually funds. (Hint: PETA-like activism) Watch:



We’ve also published a primer on HSUS entitled "9 Things You Didn't Know About HSUS" that reminds readers of how HSUS gets poor marks from charity watchdogs, puts more money in its pension fund than it gives to local pet shelters, and has on staff a person who is a former "spokesman" for the FBI-designated “terrorist” group the Animal Liberation Front.

For more in-depth coverage on America’s richest animal-rights group, visit our sister site, HumaneWatch.org

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/2012/04/save-the-lawyers-only-19-dollars-a-month/

I always just give directly to my local humane society.

Do you check who they may be making donations to?

That's what people should do is donate to their local charities.

During hurricane katrina HSUS went to New Orleans where the media camera crews were and passed out free HSUS t-shirts. That's the only donations they made! No donations to actually rescue any animals.

It is not associated with the HSUS. I suppose they could have been donating money but they were always desperate for food, old blankets, etc that I highly doubt they were redistributing money.

I'm not suggesting the one you donated to was. Just pointing out that not everything is as it might seem sometimes.

What this suggests is that people need to perform just a little bit of due diligence before giving away their hard earned dollars rather than automatically falling for some slickly produced piece designed to tug at the heart strings.

Organizations like this that prey on peoples good spirits and giving nature make it more difficult for truly deserving organizations.

The world is full of scam artists.....but its relatively easy to check out any organization these days, if you'll take a few minutes to do so.

7 Things You Didn’t Know About HSUS

1) The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is a “humane society” in name only. It isn’t affiliated with any hands-on “humane society” organizations, and it doesn’t operate a single pet shelter or pet adoption facility anywhere. During 2008, HSUS contributed barely $450,000— less than one-half of one percent of its budget—in grants to dog and cat shelters. By comparison, that same year it gave $2.25 million to a political campaign committee behind an anti-meat ballot initiative in California, and put $2.5 million into HSUS’s executive pension plan. HSUS is the wealthiest animal-rights lobbying organization on earth. It agitates for the same goals as PETA and other radical groups, but uses fewer naked interns.

2) Beginning on the day of NFL quarterback Michael Vick’s 2007 dogfighting indictment, HSUS raised money online with the false promise that it would “care for the dogs seized in the Michael Vick case.” The New York Times later reported that HSUS wasn’t caring for Vick’s dogs at all. And HSUS President Wayne Pacelle told the Times that his group urged government officials to “put down” (that is, kill) the dogs rather than adopt them out to suitable homes. HSUS later quietly altered its Internet fundraising pitch. Vick now gives HSUS “sponsored” speeches. And most of his dogs have been rehabilitated—without any help from HSUS.

3) HSUS’s senior management includes a former spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a criminal group designated as “terrorists” by the FBI. HSUS president Wayne Pacelle hired John “J.P.” Goodwin in 1997, the same year Goodwin described himself as “spokesperson for the ALF” while he fielded media calls in the wake of an ALF arson attack at a California veal processing plant. In 1997, when asked by reporters for a reaction to an ALF arson fire at a farmer’s feed co-op in Utah (which nearly killed a family sleeping on the premises), Goodwin replied, “We’re ecstatic.” That same year, Goodwin was arrested at a UC Davis protest celebrating the 10-year anniversary of an ALF arson at the university that caused $5 million in damage.

4) A 2008 Los Angeles Times investigation found that HSUS receives less than 12 percent of the money raised on its behalf by California telemarketers. Professional fundraisers keep the rest. If you exclude two campaigns run for HSUS by the “Builda-Bear Workshop” retail chain—which consisted of the sale of surplus stuffed animals (not really “fundraising”)—HSUS’s yield shrinks to just three percent. This is typical. In 2004, HSUS ran a telemarketing campaign in Connecticut with fundraisers who promised a return of “zero percent” of the proceeds. The campaign raised over $1.4 million. Not only did none of that money go to HSUS, but the group paid $175,000 for the telemarketing work. Similar filings exist in Massachusetts, New York, and other states. In 2008 HSUS collected more than $86 million in contributions, but spent more than $24 million on fundraising.

5) HSUS’s heavily promoted U.S. “boycott” of Canadian seafood—announced in 2005 as a protest against Canada’s annual seal hunt—is a phony exercise in media manipulation. A 2006 investigation found that 78 percent of the restaurants and seafood distributors described by HSUS as “boycotters” weren’t participating at all. Nearly two-thirds of them told surveyors they were completely unaware HSUS was using their names in connection with an international boycott campaign. Canada’s federal government is on record about this deception, saying: “Some animal rights groups have been misleading the public for years … it’s no surprise at all that the richest of them would mislead the public with a phony seafood boycott.” A documentary director also caught an HSUS film crew abusing a dying seal while they shot a 2007 fundraising video on the ice floes of Atlantic Canada.

6) HSUS raised $34 million in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, supposedly to help reunite lost pets with their owners. But comparatively little of that money was spent for its intended purpose. Louisiana’s Attorney General shuttered his 18-month-long investigation into where most of these millions went, shortly after HSUS announced its plan to contribute $600,000 toward the construction of an animal shelter on the grounds of a state prison. In 2009, Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV reported that public disclosures of the disposition of the $34 million in Katrina-related donations added up to less than $7 million.

7) After gathering undercover video footage of improper animal handling at a Chino, CA slaughterhouse during November of 2007, HSUS sat on its video evidence for three months, even refusing to share it with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. HSUS’s Dr. Michael Greger may have perjured himself before Congress, testifying that the San Bernardino County (CA) District Attorney’s office asked the group “to hold on to the information while they completed their investigation.” The District Attorney’s office quickly denied that account, declaring that HSUS refused to make its undercover spy available to investigators if the USDA were present. Ultimately, HSUS chose to release its video footage at a politically opportune time, as it prepared to launch a livestock-related ballot campaign in California. Meanwhile, meat from the slaughterhouse continued to flow into the U.S. food supply for months.

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/2010/04/184-7-things-you-didnt-know-about-hsus/

another issue I have with some charitable organizations is their hiring of outside fundraising organizations who then end up taking the lion's share of the funds that were raised.

If you hear/see a lot about any specific organization......means they are probably spending money on advertising/promotion and their dollars are not going towards the intended purpose.

What really is troubling is when the dollars are used to hurt someone else.

This seems like an excellent case for volunteering/donating your time and effort to others instead of just your checkbook. You have zero control over where your dollars go after they leave your bank account.