Charities Are Threatened By Massive Fraud

July 6, 2011 - PRLog -- Billions of dollars of donor’s contributions to charities are taken from those to whom it was intended. Fraud is omnipresent in the nonprofit sector and no one cares says watchdog Gary Snyder in his recent book, Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector. One out of every $8 is embezzled; a rate almost twice that of the business sector.

Snyder asserts that the direction and future of the charitable sector has been hijacked by greed. “I am disturbed that fraud is sabotaging the underpinnings of giving,” he writes. “Donors believe that government, sector leaders, boards and other watchdogs will control this overt pillaging…all have let them down. With no well-defined owners or overseers and few outside constraints, there is little interest is stopping this nonprofit contagion.

The problems are endemic; it is having a corrosive effect. Scandals have forced prominent institutions like the Smithsonian Institution, American Red Cross, many universities, United Way affiliates and hundreds more to undergo changes in operations and leadership and engage in years’ long campaigns to renew public confidence. Moreover, even the most prominent rebuilding campaigns have achieved at best cosmetic changes. The fundamental rot continues.

This book is a powerful depiction of deception of tens of billions of dollars a year. Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector is the result of mining vast amounts of data from the largest repository of charity fraud anywhere, reviewing thousands of fraud cases. It also suggests ways to convert bad habits into best practices, averting a huge calamity.

Silence: The Impending Threat to the Charitable Sector is a deep, honest look into philanthropy and its practices and is seeking a broad and demonstrable change in beliefs and thinking. Silence attempts to produce a new commitment to honesty—both intellectually and behaviorally on which a foundation of trust and sustainability can be built.

Silence may be purchased at Amazon (amazon.com), Barnes and Noble (bn.com), Barnes and Noble stores, or Xlibris.com.

About the Author
Gary Snyder is the managing director and CEO of Nonprofit Imperative, a national forum for nonprofit information.  NI’s central mission is the strengthening of the charitable world. Gary brings a unique perspective to the voluntary sector. He has spent more than four decades toiling in nonprofits as a staff and board member, regulator, lecturer, author, and consultant. Gary comes to the nonprofit advocacy world with in-depth knowledge. He was the CEO of a hospital/healthcare system and served in other top positions.

# # #

Nonprofit Imperative is a national forum for nonprofit information. NI’s central mission is the strengthening of the charitable world.