Not trying to start any flamewars or besmirch the Chapin name,
just FYI FWIW... I'm on their mailing list and get one
every 2-6 weeks it seems :^(
If anybody knows how he connects, I'd like to hear it.
Ron Bauerle
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bauerle/chapin/chapinan.txt
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http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/11/failing-to-serv.html
Failing to Serve America's Heroes on the Home Front
[...]
As the founder of a charity called Help Hospitalized Veterans, which
distributes craft kits to veterans' hospitals, Roger Chapin of San Diego
pays himself and his wife more than half a million dollars a year in
salary.
Charity is his business. Over the last three decades, Chapin has created
more than a dozen different charities for cancer, kids and veterans.
"He's a charity entrepreneur," Borochoff says. "He's very good at
setting up charities that don't do so much charitable but bring in
lots, lots of money."
Chapin's veterans' charity has produced slick promotional videos about
the good they do, with a number of celebrity endorsements, including one
from actor Dennis Franz, who starred in the ABC primetime drama "NYPD
Blue."
But according to their analysis, the American Institute of Philanthropy
says of the $70 million Help Hospitalized Veterans took in last year,
only 31 percent went to the actual charitable cause. The rest was
mainly overhead and fundraising costs, meaning a grade of F.
A spokesperson for Dennis Franz said he had no idea
the charity gave so little to actual charity.
Chapin had agreed to be interviewed for our report but refused
to sit down in front of the camera when he learned who would be
doing the interview, ABC News' Brian Ross.
Chapin and some of the other heads of charities that got failing grades
questioned Borochoff's analysis of their financial records. They also
insist they provide an invaluable service, and it is the high cost of
fundraising that eats up the money available for actual charity.
[...]