Ethical Concerns Build for ACVOW
Concerns have come to light regarding a San Diego non-profit association referred to as the American Combat Veterans of War or ACVOW. The organization possesses an a workspace at the Va clinic in La Jolla, CA and is managed almost exclusively by volunteers. They claim to help vets obtain their benefits and boast about their programs to help warriors with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The problem? No accountability. The group has existed for more than 10 years, though runs below the radar. A check on Charity Navigator as well as the Better Business Bureau’s Charity Index make absolutely no reference to ACVOW. Nor does ACVOW possess any substantive record of the results they’ve obtained serving veterans and active duty personnel. Moreover, ACVOW just lost a small claims court battle for neglecting to pay one of its contractors. A Utah News report from June of last year implies that one of ACVOW’s officers used contributions from the group to bail out an anti-immigration activist from jail, an evident abuse of the terms for many 501(c)(3) non-profit establishments. This post is not necessarily indicating that ACVOW is undertaking in unlawful activity. There are certainly serious ethical concerns and possible donors need to be careful whenever giving to associations devoid of budgetary accountability.