Federal workers aid suspect charities

Two charities blasted by Congress for letting down the military veterans they ostensibly serve are themselves receiving help from what might be considered an unlikely source — the federal government.

Highlighting a systematic disconnect between nonprofit watchdogs and the government’s workplace giving drive, the groups — Help Hospitalized Veterans of Winchester, Calif., and the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes of Ossining, N.Y. — are among the charities benefiting from the generosity of federal employees through the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC).

Continuing a tradition dating back to the late 1940s, the CFC aims to funnel charitable donations from federal employees to worthwhile causes. But the Office of Personnel Management, which administers the largest workplace giving campaign in the world, makes no pretense that it investigates the roughly 25,000 local, national and international groups that receive the money. That function falls to the Internal Revenue Service, which is responsible for verifying that charities fulfill their reporting requirements as 501(c)(3) corporations but doesn’t report on whether they are using their money wisely. As a result, charities have been able to join the CFC in spite of charges of mismanagement or fraud by Congress, state regulators or nonprofit watchdog groups.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37280000/ns/us_news-giving/