Autism charity revealed as the 'worst' charity in America

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An autism charity has spent spending millions raising money for education programs an only a fraction of their funds being directed towards the cause, a new investigation revealed.

The Autism Spectrum Disorder Foundation raised more than $7.6million over the course of two years, but more than 90 per cent of those funds were used to pay donation-solicitation companies.

The Tampa Bay Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting has revealed that charity- which says it intends to educate the public about autism and provide financial assistance for those with the disease- is now the worst charity in terms of putting their funds towards their stated goal.

Autism Spectrum did not initially make the list of the top five worst charities in America when the investigative group released earlier this year.

The Center for Investigative Reporting now explained that the reason for the oversight was because the charity understated their fundraising totals on IRS forms.

The charity- which also goes by the Autism Awareness Program and Autistic Children of America- explains on their website that the 'funds donated to ASDF will be used to address any and all kinds of issues in assisting children with autism and their families'.

The new totals provide a shameful look into the Schererville, Indiana-based charity's operations.
According to their 2009 to 2011 IRS 990 filings, the charity raised a total of $7.8million.
The group farmed out much of the fundraising to solicitation companies, which collected $7.6million of that total.

That work came at a cost, however, and the Autism Spectrum Disorder Foundation paid the solicitation companies $7million over to course of those three years.
All told, the Center for Investigative Journalism reports that they spent $2.3million on their stated charitable programs.

The discrepancy between the amount they pay groups to raise for donations and the amount they actually put towards promoting autism awareness earns them the troubling title of the worst charity in the country.

In their previous list, the investigative team reported that the Breast Cancer Relief Foundation spent 84 per cent of their donations on professional solicitation services, while the Cancer Fund of America followed with 83 per cent and the American Breast Cancer Foundation with 82 per cent.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... erica.html

This is getting ridiculous. I hate these charities, that claim to want to help, but then take all the money for themselves. Still, I disagree with it being the worst charity. For me, that has to be Autism Speaks. They spend an even lower percentage of their funds on helping families with autistic people in them. Not to mention the fact their aim is to eradicate autism, and 'cure' all those with it. They see it as a disease, to be treated as such, that takes your children and destroys your life. It sickens me. Sorry for the rant, but I had to say it on any mention of worst charities.

Man a lot of charities suck. My professor gave a lecture talking about how a lot of cancer charities are BS.

I hear Ayn Rand laughing right now.

Im with Raz0rscythe. Autism Speaks is actually doing a negative job, and harming peoples opinions of us.

I generally do nopt donate to charity because a lot of charities just make lots of money for their directors to go on foreign holidays and buy expensive cars and generally do not do anything for. Even in autism issues some so called charities are really extreme right wing political parties devoted to eliminating autistic people in principle but just make the leaders of these political organisations very rich and endorsed by so many so called celebrities is an absolute disgrace. It's all about the massaging of the allistic ego in my opinion not being a selfish git at all. If any work is actually done is mainly seminars which have a price to attend in which people are invited to speak but in the end nothing gets done except is that there is a lot of coffee drinking and cake eating going on and nothing is learned.

I've also like to say that I agree about Autism Speaks being the worst charity in America and the world. They want to eradicate autism from the world by developing a genetic screening test for it. As a Christian Right to Lifer, that worries me more than anything in the world. Autism is not a life sentence and neither is incontinence for that matter. All that Autism Speaks has ever done is make young, typical crave perfection more than ever. Autism Speaks does not speak for me. From now on, if people tell me that they support Autism Speaks I'll tell them, "I'm sorry you feel that way."

they shoud allow autistic people to vote for the worst one seeing as we are the people these charities exist on,autism speaks woud be fcuked.

It'd never happen, but I'd die to be able to do a hostile takeover of Autism Speaks. Clean up the place a little, can some people screwing up the place.

^ UGH. Indeed.

I don't seem to be getting any charity money from any organization. They all suck!

This only goes to show to one thing- do your homework before you donate. There are many worthwhile charities out there and I hope people don't forget that because of the 'bad apples'.

Autism speaks is up there to. It wants to find a way to prevent Autism through eugenics by aborting any potential Autistic.