Still in the news, and the CEO is no where to be found. Fire the Scumbag, and send his butt to jail! Yeah, I know I’m not being PC, but some things call for one’s true feelings. If you are still donating to this charity, shame on you!
Major donor calls for ouster of Wounded Warrior Project executive
Published March 04, 2016
Facebook3813 Twitter0 livefyre755 Email Print
A major donor to the Wounded Warrior Project veterans’ charity called Thursday for the nonprofit’s CEO to resign in light of allegations of lavish spending on staff meetings, according to a CBS News report.
Fred and Dianne Kane, the parents of two Iraq War veterans, have donated $325,000 to the Wounded Warrior Project since 2009 through their personal charity, Tee-off for a Cause.
Slightly more than half of the Kanes’ donations directly benefitted veterans, according to CBS News.
But after recent tax forms reflected questionable spending by the veterans’ charity on staff expenditures, including $26 million on conferences and meetings at luxury hotels in 2014 alone, Fred Kane called for CEO Steven Nardizzi to be fired.The expenditure on conferences and travel was up from just $1.7 million in 2010, according to reports.
“Hearing that there was this waste of money, donor dollars that should have been going to servicemen and women that were injured, and that it was spent on [Wounded Warrior Project staff] having a good time—it’s a real disappointment,” Dianne Kane told CBS News.
The Kanes also initiated an online petition calling for a public audit of the Wounded Warrior Project in addition to canceling the next golf tournament Tee-off for a Cause was to hold to benefit the Project.
In January, Charity Navigator, a group that oversees nonprofit organizations, placed Wounded Warrior Project on its watch list, Fox News reported, citing a separate CBS report.
Army Staff Sergeant Erick Millette, who returned from Iraq in 2006 with a bronze star and a purple heart, told CBS News at the time that he admired the charity’s work and took a job with the group in 2014 but quit after two years.
“Their mission is to honor and empower wounded warriors, but what the public doesn’t see is how they spend their money,” he said.
Millette said he witnessed lavish spending on staff, with big “catered” parties.
Also in the previous interview, two former employees, who were so fearful of retaliation they asked that CBS News not show their faces on camera, said spending has skyrocketed since Nardizzi took over as CEO in 2009, pointing to the 2014 annual meeting at a luxury resort in Colorado Springs.
“He rappelled down the side of a building at one of the all hands events. He’s come in on a Segway, he’s come in on a horse,” one employee told CBS News.
Fred Kaine, in the recent interview, questioned Nardizzi’s apparent public absence while his organization has been under scrutiny.
“Where is this guy? You lead from the front—good or bad—you don’t hide,” he said, “If no one is going to talk about this right now and it has to be me, then it has to be me.”
Kane said he has cut charitable ties with the Wounded Warrior Project, embarking on a new charge to effect change at the organization
Originally posted 2016-03-04 10:36:07.
I wrote in yesterday and thought all night how we still need to help our guys and gals. What I am asking if we can get our own volunteers from the city of Seminole, FL to organize and help these life savers of ours in ANY way they need. Not only in cash donations but any other way they may need our help. It would be nice to meet them, too. After all we are all neighbors to speak of when we live so close to each other. Can we give it a try???????
Louise, Thank you for your comments. Bless you dear. Look around your community, I am certain there is a VFW, American Legion, Disabled Veterans, or a Marine Corps League — all of whom do very much for our wounded Warriors. I’m sure you will be surprised to find many local Veterans organizations that do wonderful things for our warriors. Again, thank you dear and Semper Fi, Jim
Thank you Dianne and Fred Kane for all you are doing. For the last 2 months I have seen thru this organization and passed the word to everyone I talked to. My idea is to find a vet in our town and hand help him directly. I feel if you cannot help financially you can help in something else for him or his house or his family directly. We can always do something!!! This “bastard” does not have a heart for the thanks he received while these young men have protected us. By the way, is he the owner of the Nardizzi Hotel in Italy? Most shameful thing is…he is such a young man, too. I no longer give to charities at all. Not even any of the top one’s and you know who I mean I’m sure. No clothes, no house hold, no furniture, and no checks. Read up on the latest insults the big guys do to us now. When God Forbid I see one our Fireman or Police or who ever has a tragedy I send a check directly to family. Stick by your fight with this thief and his friends and put them out of business and when you get thru I can give you a list of others!!!!!! God Bless, Louise
Agreed. This guy doesn’t belong in the same room with wounded warriors. Lock him up.