Problems have arisen regarding a San Diego non-profit association referred to as the American Combat Veterans of War or ACVOW. The group possesses an a workspace at the Veterans Administration clinic in La Jolla, CA and is operated nearly exclusively by volunteers. They claim to help veterans receive their benefits and boast about their methods to support warriors with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The problem? No accountability. The staff has existed for more than ten years, yet functions beneath the radar. A check on Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau’s Charity Index make absolutely no mention of ACVOW. Nor does ACVOW have any extensive record of the success they’ve gotten serving veterans and active duty personnel. Likewise, ACVOW just lost a small claims court conflict for neglecting to pay one of its contractors. A Utah News article from June of last year suggests that one of ACVOW’s representatives used funding from the organization in order to bail out an anti-immigration activist from jail, a certain violation of the terms for many 501(c)(3) non-profit groups. This post is not implying that that ACVOW is undertaking in unlawful activity. There are certainly grave ethical conditions and possible donors ought to be careful when giving to organizations with no financial accountability.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 9:16 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.