• Crowdfunding raises $2 million for Boston victims; critics urge caution

    From GoFundMe

    Patrick and Jessica Downes of Boston each lost a leg in the marathon bombings. Now, friends are trying to raise funds to help pay for medical care through two top crowdsourcing websites.

    By JoNel Aleccia, Senior Writer, NBC News

    Nearly a week after the Boston bombings, crowdfunding websites that raise money for medical tragedies from car crashes to cancer say they’ve received more than 23,000 pledges promising more than $2 million for the victims and families of the marathon attack.

    That includes nearly $500,000 for Celeste and Sydney Corcoran of Lowell, Mass., a mother-daughter duo who were both severely injured as they stood at the finish line. And it includes more than $560,000 directed to Boston newlyweds Jessica Kensky Downes and Patrick Downes, who each lost a leg in the blasts.

    “All of us were like, ‘How can we help?’” said Leslie Kelly, 56, of Pebble Beach, Calif., whose two daughters grew up with Jessica Downes, 32. “We felt so helpless. I thought, we can’t all send flowers. I couldn’t sleep all night. I got up the next morning and started a Wells Fargo account and then got the word: You need to do something online.”

    Kelly started an account at GoFundMe, while other friends of the pair turned to GiveForward, two of the top three sites that say they provide a quick, easy way to get money directly to specific victims at a time of need.

    “Crowdfunding is actually very empowering to the donors and supporters,” said Brad Damphousse, chief executive of GoFundMe, which has raised nearly $1.3 million through its “Believe in Boston” campaigns. “It’s a way of being part of the solution instead of smoldering about the problem.”

    But experts in charitable fraud warn that the fundraising efforts based on the Kickstarter.com model may be a risky way to offer help. That site helps painters, filmmakers and musicians raise funds for creative projects, and was the first online crowdfunding website to make the practice widespread. 

    “You want to make sure that the money you donate goes to the intended party,” said Allan Bachman, education manager for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

    The top crowdfunding sites -- GoFundMe, GiveForward and YouCaring -- all say they vet the people who set up fundraising accounts for medical victims, and they all say they’re quick to pull the plug at the first sign of anything suspicious.

    “We’ll suspend and investigate the fundraiser after one flag,” said Ethan Austin, co-founder and president of GiveForward, which has raised more than $41 million since it started in 2008.

    The nature of the Internet and the personal ties to the accounts mean that the environment is self-policing, said Damphousse, whose site has raised about $54 million for medical, educational and other causes since 2010.

    “The thing about crowdfunding is, it’s all based on social proof,” Damphousse said. “There’s so many more eyeballs on these campaigns ... If you’re a bad steward on the Internet, word travels fast.”

    The way the sites work is this: Friends, family or sometimes the victims themselves set up an account. The organizers review the requests before allowing them to go live. If approved, the funds go directly to the recipients, usually within three to five days, Damphousse said. 

    GoFundMe takes a 5 percent fee from all money raised and another 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction goes to billing fees charged through WePay or PayPal, a total of about 8 percent. GiveForward charges a 7 percent fee, including billing charges, but offers donors the option of covering those so that all money goes to the recipients. About 63 percent do, Austin said.

    YouCaring doesn’t charge fees at all and instead gives donors the option of giving extra money to run the site, said Michael Blasco, a spokesman for the company that has raised about $20 million in two years.

    “You look at some of these fundraisers and they’re raising $300,000. That’s $20,000 to $30,000,” he said. “We’re completely free.”

    But fees aren’t the only worry, said Ken Berger, president and chief executive of Charity Navigator, an independent, nonprofit group that evaluates charities.

    A system that approves accounts within hours and promises to move money within days is ripe for problems. “It’s better than nothing at all, but self-policing has its limits,” he said.

    Leslie Kelly said she felt good about the vetting that GoFundMe performed before she was allowed to open an account for Kensky, a Massachusetts General Hospital nurse, and Downes, 29, who just received a graduate degree from Boston College. They were married last August.

    "There's so many more good people out there than evil," Kelly said, adding that the funds will go to pay for medical care not covered by the couple's insurance. 

    More than 70 percent of those who seek funds on GiveFoward have coverage, but it doesn’t cover lost work, transportation and some procedures,  Austin said.

    “Cancer is really our No. 1 fundraiser,” he said. “The costs are so enormous. There’s a huge gap between what insurance pays and the out-of-pocket costs.”

    While critics understand the impulse to donate to one particular victim, they’re wary of any effort that promises to do that. Bachman suggests that people donate to established charities. If they must give to individuals, they should ask for an address to send a check instead of divulging financial information online, he advises.

    Berger urges people who want to help marathon victims to send money to The One Fund Boston Inc., the charity just formed by Boston Gov. Deval Patrick and Mayor Tom Menino. Even though it’s new, it will be administered by Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw the Sept. 11th Victim Compensation Fund and the BP oil spill fund.

    It’s a sound way to direct the flood of compassion -- and money -- that inevitably follows a U.S. tragedy.

    “That’s part of the reason that scoundrels and thieves are prosperous in a disaster, "Berger said, "because the generosity of the American people is phenomenal.”

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  • Odd invitation from Nebraska jail: Spend the night for $30

    Sergeant Casey Mitchell / Lancaster County Corrections

    For $30 a night, law-abiding Nebraska citizens can rest their heads here to help out corrections officers and benefit children's charities.

    By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A couple square meals, brand new bedding on a four-inch-thick mattress, and the chance to benefit children's charities are attracting some law-abiding Nebraskans to spend a night in the unlikeliest of places: behind bars.


    Starting Thursday night at 6 p.m., the 90-square-foot cells at the new Lancaster County Adult Detention Facility in Lincoln, Neb., will be filled with voluntary inmates -- 200 people from the community who signed up for a night in the pen. The cost for participants is $30.

    The event also will function as a dry run for the facility.

    "We want to use 'compliant' inmates," Lancaster County Corrections Director Michael Thurber said. "We'll use the intercoms, we'll see how the camera angles are, how the views from our control center are. We'll use the lights, we'll run the water, we'll see how everything drains." 

    Participants will arrive at 6 p.m. and leave at 7 a.m. the following morning, starting Thursday night of this week and running through Saturday night. Their fee goes to The Child Advocacy Center, a nonprofit that helps victims of child abuse, and Operation Santa Claus, which gives toys to needy children.

    The schedule for the overnight stay includes a tour of the jail at 8:30 p.m., lockdown at 10 p.m., lights out at 11 p.m., and a light breakfast at 6 a.m. the following morning. Participants will be fingerprinted and have their mugshot taken upon arrival. They will be invited to wear jail jumpsuits, but can wear street clothing if they want.

    The deadline for signing up to stay the night in jail has passed, but Thurber said free tours of the jail -- which is scheduled to open in the summer -- will continue through April. Among the 200 people who are spending the night: criminal justice college students, book clubs, a local TV host, and a state senator.

    Corrections staff will do a dry run of everything exactly as they would with real inmates.

    "I want to see the cell doors working. I want to know they shut," Thurber said. "We want them to tell us what they're hearing in the cells. How's the sound echoing in here? We're just trying to break it in. That's the best way to see how our systems work." 

    Dinner, however, might be a tad classier.

    "There might be a chicken-fried steak," he said. "There's a vegetable, some bread, some type of a pudding or a dessert. There might be a chicken entree as well. I haven't seen the exact entree yet. But I know mashed potatoes, green beans, maybe a little salad. We're probably jazzing the meal up just a little bit."

    The nearly 300,000-square-foot facility has 779 beds and will replace an overcrowded detention center in downtown Lincoln. Participants in the overnight stays must be 18 or older, but anyone can take a free tour of the jail. 

    The event has raised $600 for charity so far; others have pledged to donate checks during their tours later in the month, which are free, Thurber said.

    Lynn Ayers, the executive director of the Lincoln-based Children Advocacy Center, said Thurber contacted her four or five years ago, when the jail was still being built, about the idea of teaming up for the charity. 

    "I was excited about it then and glad it came to happen. It's kind of a cool idea," she said, adding that as a nonprofit, her organization does special events all the time -- though this was one of the more unusual partnerships.

    Unlike actual inmates, participants in the overnight stays are allowed to leave before their stay ends in the morning. 

     

  • For Salvation Army, there's gold in them thar kettles

    Courtesy Salvation Army

    An anonymous donor left this gold coin worth almost $2,000 in a Red Kettle in Houston on Tuesday.

    By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

    Modern coins go "plink" when they drop into a Salvation Army kettle. But gold is a softer metal; it goes "plonk." And in a Christmas tradition that's 30 years old this year, the gold coins are once again starting to plonk into the iconic red kettles. 

    M. Alex Johnson M. Alex Johnson is a reporter for NBC News. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

    It happened Nov. 9 in Bettendorf, Iowa, when a 1/4-ounce gold coin worth about $500 was dropped in a volunteer's pot outside Schnuck's Market. It was nestled in a cardboard setting with cellophane wrapped around it, so it stood out when the kettle was opened, said Holly Nomura, development director for the Salvation Army's Quad Cities Corps.

    Then on Tuesday, outside a Sam's Club in southwest Houston, someone — no one but the donor knows who — left a 1-ounce gold coin worth almost $2,000 in the pot, wrapped inside a $1 bill. Attached was this note: "A child is born, Jesus! Merry Christmas!"

    It's at least the 15th straight year that's happened in the Quad Cities and the fifth year in a row in Houston. And it's always "a wonderful start to our holiday fundraising efforts," said Lt. Josh McKain of the Salvation Army's Irvington, Texas, corps.

    So far this season, gold coins worth many times their face values also have been left in Salvation Army kettles at a Sam's Club in Mishawaka, Ind.; at a Jewel-Osco store in Kankakee, Ill.; and in a kettle somewhere in Johnson County, Tenn. (It wasn't discovered until the bank started counting donations, so the precise location isn't known.)


    The Red Kettle donation campaign began in San Francisco in 1891, and presumably gold coins — which were legal tender until 1933 — were part of the haul from the beginning. 

    But the specific tradition of anonymously leaving a single gold coin in the pot is more recent. Most accounts say it began 30 years ago, in Quincy, Ill., but there's a friendly dispute over that — the Quad Cities unit in Iowa says it believes that the tradition began there, though it acknowledges it can't prove it.

    For years, someone would anonymously leave a single 1-ounce gold coin in a kettle in the Quad Cities (besides Bettendorf, the three other cities are Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Ill.). That anonymous donor is believed to have died about four years ago, but not the tradition, as smaller gold coins have continued to pop up.

    "Every year we have one," Nomura told NBC News.

    U.S. Mint

    U.S. Gold Eagles come in four denominations: $5, $10, $25 and $50. But their real value is tied to the market price of gold. A $10 piece like this one fetches about $500.

    'Huge motivation'
    The national Salvation Army says it's gotten more than 400 gold coins from anonymous donors over the last three decades. They come from several countries. Someone has left a South African Krugerrand in a pot in Mason City, Iowa, since 1997, for instance.

    But they're often Gold Eagles, which are U.S. coins minted in four denominations: $5, $10, $25 and $50. They're 92 percent gold (and 3 percent silver), so their real worth fluctuates with the market price of gold. They're intended for collectors and for transactions involving precious metals, not for general circulation. 

    The condition and age of a coin can lower (or raise) its final value, but the U.S. Mint said that at Thursday's gold price, a 2012 1-ounce $50 piece in uncirculated condition would cost $1,978. A 1/4-ounce $10 piece (like the one donated in Bettendorf) would command $515.50, the Mint said. 

    Hoping to boost donations, Salvation Army bell ringers dance in the streets. NBC's Thomas Roberts reports.

    Obviously, you can't just throw one of those into a coin roll and drop it off at the bank. Eventually, the coin left in Bettendorf will be taken to a dealer to be appraised and then sold, with the proceeds going toward the chapter's $725,000 fundraising goal for 2012.

    Until then, it's in a safe, "except when the media wants to film it," Nomura told NBC News. 

    And that's not uncommon — the tradition has turned into a terrific publicity tool for the Salvation Army. If a gold coin shows up in a kettle somewhere, a press release is sure to follow.

    But it also serves a larger purpose, said McKain, of the Texas chapter that got Tuesday's Gold Eagle.

    "It's not only a significant boost for us this year as a monetary donation, but also a huge motivation for all of our kettle workers," he told NBC station KPRC of Houston. "Really, for all of us who are involved in the Red Kettle campaign."

    NBC station KPRC of Houston contributed to this report.

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  • Red Cross pushes back on Sandy response, calls it 'near flawless'

    John Moore / Getty Images

    Robert Munoz collects supplies from a mobile Red Cross unit on Nov. 7, in the Staten Island Borough of New York City.

    By Miranda Leitsinger, NBC News

    The American Red Cross, which bills itself as “the world's largest humanitarian network,” is pushing back against critics of its response to superstorm Sandy, with the head of the organization saying its relief effort has been “near flawless” despite criticism from stranded storm victims and elected officials.

    Two weeks after the storm slammed the East Coast, leaving millions of residents without power and in need of food, warmth and shelter, the venerable nonprofit has taken a public battering over what many victims and some officials saw as a lackluster and unfocused response. 

    Thomas Donovan, a 43-year-old software salesman who was helping an elderly couple toss out heavy furniture and appliances from their flooded home last week in the hard-hit New York City community of Breezy Point, is among the disillusioned.

    “Red Cross sucks," he said last week. "… I’m never giving them another dime.”

    Red Cross officials have been trying to walk the fine line between diplomacy and defense in explaining why their Sandy relief efforts have not always been appreciated.

    Two weeks after Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast, New Yorkers question whether help from the Red Cross will arrive. But CEO President Gail McGovern defends what she calls a massive relief effort. NBC's Lisa Myers reports.

    Laura Howe, a spokeswoman for the organization, said that responding in a badly damaged, densely populated urban area, and the unique cold-weather hurricane, both posed significant challenges to getting needed supplies to the hardest-hit areas.

    But she also noted that the Red Cross has mounted its largest domestic disaster response in five years, deploying its entire fleet of more than 320 feeding trucks and sending nearly 6,000 relief workers to the devastated areas, mainly in New Jersey and New York.

    We are “putting our resources where the need is greatest,” Howe said.

    And Gail McGovern, chief executive officer and president of the Red Cross, told NBC News’ Lisa Myers late last week that the response has been timely and well-organized: “I think that we are near flawless so far in this operation.”

    “I know that there are people who have absolutely lost everything, that are cold, that are frightened, that are saying, ‘Where is the American Red Cross?’ and I am totally supportive of that. I understand their cry for help, but we are out there,” she said.

    When asked about the storm victims who are complaining that they haven't seen the Red Cross in their neighborhoods, McGovern said that the organization is using social media to help guide them to areas that they haven't yet reached. "We are looking at every single one of those cries for help, and we are moving people and supplies as quickly as we can," she said.

    Slideshow: Recovering after Sandy

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    A snowstorm hits the Northeast as residents are still struggling to pick up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy.

    Launch slideshow

    The role of public punching bag is not new for the Red Cross, which has endured similar criticism after disasters like Hurricane Katrina, which hammered the Gulf Coast in 2005. The organization and its response are often held under a microscope, though federal and state government, the military and many other relief groups, also assist in recovery efforts.

    'People are frustrated'
    Howe, the Red Cross spokeswoman, said the anger felt by victims is not surprising, given what they are going through.

    “We understand that people are frustrated,” she said Friday. “Anybody who has been without power, who has had to deal with this level of damage in their homes for this period of time, is bound to be frustrated and we completely understand that. I would also say that this disaster is bigger than any one organization.”

    As of Sunday, the Red Cross was sheltering some 3,700 people and had delivered more than 4.8 million meals or snacks, and more than 477,000 relief items, she said.

    “We are doing everything that we possibly can to be in as many places as quickly as possible but this is a big operation and we’re up against a large geography and a large number of people that need to be served,” she added.

    Such arguments don’t seem to carry much weight in communities severely affected by the storm. 

    James Molinari, president of the hard-hit Staten Island borough of New York City, on Nov. 1 labeled the organization’s response there “an absolute disgrace” and went so far as to urge its residents not to donate to the largely volunteer agency.

    Donovan, the Red Cross critic helping in Breezy Point, said he and his friends have been helping clean up there for about a week and had worked on some 30 homes. The Brooklyn resident, whose family has had a house in Breezy Point since he was a kid, said he had seen only one of the group’s trucks there in that time.

    “You don’t see them. They’re not here ... they’re just not here,” he said Thursday, a day after a nor’easter blew ashore, pushing another storm surge into water-logged areas and dumping about four inches of snow. 

    Other residents are more understanding.

    John Makely / NBC News

    Medeleine Dobriner, 66, of New Dorp, is at her third Red Cross shelter since Hurricane Sandy left her homeless.

    At a nearby center being used to collect and hand out free food and cleaning supplies, 25-year-old Lauren Willis of nearby Roxbury said that she saw no sign of the Red Cross in the first days after Sandy hit on Oct. 29, flooding both her and her parents’ homes. Since then, however, it has been a regular, helpful presence in her community.

    “We were down here for four days and we had nothing, I mean nothing. … We didn’t have any hot food” or water, said Willis, an emergency medical technician whose mother is a Red Cross volunteer. “Now they’ve come in, they’re doing great work.”

    Getting the word out about a Red Cross presence in areas where communications are still in disarray after the storm also may feed the perception that the organization is absent. The organization said it was listing on its website the specific streets and communities where workers will be, but of course many storm victims still lack power, let alone Internet access.

    A reporter saw a Red Cross mental health specialist in Breezy Point in the immediate aftermath of Sandy, and a few days later a Red Cross minitrailer was parked in the community. The organization’s website listed several visits to the community through Sunday.  

    But, like Donovan, many residents interviewed over the last two weeks said they have not seen the Red Cross since the storm. 

    On Thursday, Red Cross volunteers Mary Gagnon and her husband, Dean, drove down Breezy Point’s main road, stopping to offer ham-and-cheese or roast beef sandwiches. The couple, both 65 and retired, are unpaid volunteers who drove a Red Cross minitrailer from Madison, Wis., to help out.

    How you can help in Sandy's aftermath

    “We’re out here. We’re all around. We’re everywhere,” said Mary Gagnon, noting that she and her husband rotate between communities at the direction of a central dispatch.

    The Red Cross has raised some $117 million in the aftermath of the disaster, though officials say they can’t yet say how much has been spent on the relief effort. Calculating spending is complicated, because bills are still coming in and some services are covered by ongoing contracts, but Howe promised there would be a full accounting at the end of the response effort.

    Charity Navigator, a nonprofit charity rating agency that aims to be a guide to intelligent giving, said the Red Cross received three out of four stars this year -- meaning it met most industry standards -- down from four the year before. Their ratings cover financial accountability and overall transparency.

    Sandy effort a 'key indicator'
    Its president and CEO, Ken Berger, said his analysts have seen a slight decline in the Red Cross’ finances, such as fundraising efficiency. He also noted its working capital, equivalent to a “rainy day” fund, is not as large as they would like it to be.

    “For an organization of this size and scale that’s somewhat unique in its expertise and reach, that they may not always be as fast as we’d like, they may not always be as responsive as we’d like, but … we think they’re overall performance at this point is OK,” Berger said.

    “There’s still this lingering sense since Katrina that Red Cross still has some work to do to redeem its reputation,” he added, noting the Sandy response may prove to be a “key indicator” of whether it has improved sufficiently.

    Howe said the Red Cross was proud of their latest work but “would like it to be more perfect.”

    To that end, it is making an intensive push into some of the most hard-hit areas in New York and elsewhere through Monday. Volunteers will climb the stairs of apartment blocks to hand out relief items, like a heated “shower in a bag,” hand warmers, garbage bags and work gloves, she said.

    “While some people still need the blankets and the hand warmers, we’ve got others who are very much in the process of mucking out homes and they need the work gloves and the (dust) masks,” Howe said. “We’re really trying to make sure that we address that wide range of need that’s out there.”

    But, Fran Menchini, 79, who plans to engage a private contractor to clean her flooded home in Breezy Point, said she doesn’t think the Red Cross had anything to offer her.

    “I saw them up at FEMA (a claim center outside Breezy Point),” she said. “What would they do? Were they offering anything? No. I need services, I don’t need them to give me coffee.”

    NBC News' Senior Investigative Correspondent Lisa Myers and Producer Talesha Reynolds contributed to this report.

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  • Handmade lingerie meant for charity burns in Texas house fire

    View more videos at: http://nbcdfw.com.

    By NBC News staff

    A Texas woman escaped injury Wednesday after a fire gutted her home and destroyed thousands of dollars’ worth of handmade lingerie she'd just brought back from West Africa to sell for charity.


    "It's one of those moments I have to kind of put my hands up and thank God I'm still alive," Tara Smith told NBCDFW.com.

    The sound of the smoke alarm startled Smith from sleep about 2 a.m. Flames were shooting through a vent in the living room of her home in Irving, northwest of Dallas. She tried to put out the fire, but it spread quickly, she said. Smith managed to escape from the home, suffering minor burns.

    “I’m not sure where I will go from here,” Smith told NBCDFW.com. “Everything is like burned.”

    See the story on NBCDFW.com

    Fire officials have not determined the fire's cause.

    Just four hours earlier, Smith had returned home from a month-long mission trip to Africa. She returned home with thousands of dollars’ worth of lingerie handmade by villagers in West Africa. Smith planned to sell the clothing through a nonprofit and fair trade business. Money raised would have helped fund development projects and employ seamstresses in Cameroon. Smith said her goal is to help women worldwide to start businesses to sustain their families.

    "We are still in shock,” Smith’s mother, Lynette Nadeau, told NBCDFW.com.

    Smith stayed hopeful, fighting back tears as she spoke with NBCDFW.com. 

    “I'm just holding on to my faith right now,” Smith said.

    NBCDFW.com's Kendra Lyn and NBC News' Sevil Omer contributed to this report.

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  • Lemonade stand vs. cancer: Boy raises $80,000 to aid research

    View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.

    By Gordon Tokumatsu and Julie Brayton, NBCLosAngeles.com

    LA HABRA, Calif. -- When Max Igoe was 5 years old, breast cancer claimed the life of his mother's best friend, 37-year-old Beth Rorman. The little boy found himself expressing his pain with the kind of idea only a kindergartner might conceive: a lemonade stand.


    "It's just the first thing that popped into my head," said Max, now 14.

    Nicki Igoe, Max's mother, said her son was aware her friend was sick.

    "He knew that she had something called cancer," she recalled. Rorman battled the illness for some 10 years.

    Max told his mom he would set up a lemonade stand near their La Habra home, and raise money for breast cancer research. Maybe even help them discover a cure.

    "I explained to him that it wasn't the olden days. That people don't buy lemonade from peoples' driveways like they used to," Nicki said.

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    But she didn't want to hurt his feelings, either, not while he was mourning "Auntie Beth's" loss. So she helped him mix some juice, prop up a table and hand-print some signs.

    This weekend, they will set up Max's stand for the ninth year in a row after years full of hundreds of gallons of pink sweet liquid, numerous raffles, "casino-night" fundraisers and days of labor.

    Max has exceeded his wildest dreams: "We've raised over $80,000."

    His goal? "A million dollars." And a cure.

    Nicki said after every sale, they ask him if he wants to continue, and his answer for the last nine years has been the same: Yes.

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  • 2 killed, 1 wounded in biker shooting at VFW lodge in Florida

    By NBC News

    Updated at 8:10 p.m. ET: Two people were fatally shot and one was wounded Sunday morning at a Veterans of Foreign Wars lodge where motorcyclists had gathered for a charity ride to raise money for injured bikers, WESH.com reported.


    The shooting occurred around 10:40 a.m. at the VFW Post 5405 in Winter Springs, Fla., about 15 miles northeast of Orlando. Police say the investigation remains in the early stages and that they believe they have the shooter in custody.

    Police also believe that the three victims are members of the motorcycle club coordinating the charity ride and that a confrontation took place in the parking lot before it moved inside.

    Riders were finishing breakfast, about to embark on the charity ride, when armed men came in and started shooting, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

    According to the Sentinel, police evacuated those in the building to a nearby senior center. They also detained several people and confiscated many weapons.

    Lt. Doug Seely, a Winter Springs police spokesman, told the newspaper all three victims appeared to be motorcycle-club members. 

    "We have a lot of crime scene…" Seely said, according to the Sentinel. "We have a lot of people detained and a lot of weapons detained, and we're ascertaining what matches what."

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  • Navy SEAL charity turns down proceeds from bin Laden book

    Jewel Samad / AFP - Getty Images

    Copies of a book by a former Navy SEAL, titled "No Easy Day," are displayed at a bookstore in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

    By Vignesh Ramachandran

    At least one nonprofit organization is saying they won't accept any donations from the proceeds generated by the new book about the deadly raid on Osama bin Laden.


    A controversy erupted when a former Navy SEAL, going by the pen name "Mark Owen," co-authored "No Easy Day," a book about the infamous event that killed the al-Qaida leader. Pentagon officials allege the book, which was released on Tuesday, contains sensitive and classified information.

    On its website, The Navy SEAL Foundation said it "will not be accepting any donations that are generated from the book or any related activities.

    "The Navy SEAL Foundation is committed to providing immediate and ongoing support and assistance to the Naval Special Warfare community and their families," the statement said.

    Owen asserts "No Easy Day" is about 9/11, not politics.

    Related: Navy SEALs reveal too many secrets, commander says
    Related: Former SEAL sought advice before publishing book, lawyer says

    It's still not clear whether the Justice Department will pursue criminal charges again Owen, according to Pentagon officials. However, it is possible the U.S. government could seize all money paid to the former SEAL and the publisher under a non-disclosure agreement.

    The book remains No. 1 in book sales on Amazon.com.

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  • You deserve it -- that $500 tip is no mistake

    By Isolde Raftery, NBC News

     

    This has been a summer of oppressive weather, political infighting and tragic violence, but it's also been a summer -- perhaps surprisingly, given the heated news -- for generous tips.

    In July, Aaron Collins, a 30-year-old from Kentucky left a dying wish to his family: He wanted them to leave a waitress a $500 tip. Before he died on July 7, he told relatives that he had wanted to eat pizza and leave a big tip but didn’t have the money, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

    The family left that generous tip and has started giving $500 tips once a week in honor of Aaron. Money for the tips come from donations to an online nonprofit set up by the family.

    Now, unrelated to the Collins’ tip mission, is the story of Kristen Ruggiero, a waitress from Cranston, R.I. who received $458 on a $42 check. Ruggiero has been a waitress at Uncle Tony’s Pizza and Pasta restaurant for 15 years.

    "I thought it was a mistake," Ruggiero told the Providence Journal. These were new customers, she told the Journal, who had ordered one large pizza, a Marc Anthony hot sub sandwich, a large salad and a pitcher of beer.

    A month later, the couple returned to the restaurant – and Ruggiero approached, ready to return the money in case they had left the five $100 bills by mistake.

    But the man at the table assured her that it wasn’t a mistake and that she deserved the money.

    Video of Seth Collins, Aaron Collins’ brother, giving $500 to a server in New York: 

     

     

  • Scholarship for Aurora theater shooting victim raises $45K

    By NBC News

    The San Antonio Area Foundation has partnered with a scholarship from Metropolitan State University of Denver to honor Jessica Redfield Ghawi, who was killed in the deadly theater shootings in Aurora last month.

    The scholarship has raised $45,000 so far and will benefit aspiring sports journalists. The San Antonio Area Foundation said in a statement that it would manage the scholarship, which it would award to students across the U.S.  

    Ghawi was from San Antonio but had moved to Colorado to save money and attend school to become a sports broadcaster.

    "Jessica chased her dreams," said Jordan Ghawi, Jessica’s brother and scholarship co-founder. Her mother, Sandy Phillips, is the other founder. "Our hope is that this will inspire others to do the same."

  • Calif. sues major veterans charity for millions, alleges fraud and self-dealing

    By NBC News wire services

    California's attorney general sued a major veterans charity on Thursday, accusing the officers and directors of engaging in self-dealing and fraudulent fundraising, and paying excessive compensation.

    The suit seeks to remove the officers and recover $4.3 million that it claims was improperly diverted from Help Hospitalized Veterans. The charity in Winchester, Calif., was founded in 1971 to provide therapeutic arts and craft activities for patients receiving care in Veterans Affairs hospitals, military hospitals and state veterans homes, according to its website.

    "What makes this case so egregious is our military servicemen and women are willing to sacrifice their lives for our country and for us as Americans, and when they are in need of help and support we should give it to them and not manipulate charitable people and then personally profit from them," state Attorney General Kamala D. Harris told The Associated Press.

    The charity raised more than $108 million in contributions over the last three years, it said in tax filings and on its website, with 33.8 percent going toward its programs. The suit alleges that it filed "false and misleading" tax returns that inflated program expenses and reduced its actual fundraising costs to "less than 30 percent."

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    Based on its reported fundraising, Help Hospitalized Veterans ranks among the top 1 percent of charities in the United States. The group once was endorsed by retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who later distanced himself from the charity.

    At the same time, it has ranked for more than a decade at the bottom of lists by watchdog groups that rate nonprofit organizations based on their financial management and abilities to use most of their donations toward their causes. CharityWatch says about 35 percent of Help Hospitalized Veterans' funds go toward programs to aid veterans. The recommended standard is about 65 percent.

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    The California lawsuit said the charity's president, Michael Lynch, received excessive compensation of $900,000.

    The complaint said that former president Roger Chapin, who during a 2008 U.S. congressional hearing about his management of the charity called himself the "the most honest person in this room," retired the following year with a nearly $2 million pension plan. The suit alleges that the group's board members retroactively spiked Chapin's earnings to justify the inflated amount for his retirement.

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    Chapin is also accused of diverting the charity's funds through a separate charity called Conquer Cancer and Alzheimer's Now.

    Chapin was accused of paying himself more than $493,000 from the cancer charity. That charity received the money from American Target Advertising, a fund-raising firm run by conservative political fundraiser Richard Viguerie, who is not named in the suit.

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    'It's surprising it's taken this long'
    Viguerie, who is identified in the suit as Chapin's long-time friend, is said to have deposited funds into the account of Conquer Cancer and Alzheimer's Now from $800,000 that Help Hospitalized Veterans had lent ATA and was not repaid.

    "It's surprising it's taken this long for something to happen with all the serious problems that were brought up in the (2008 congressional) hearing," said Daniel Borochoff of CharityWatch, which monitors the financial records of nonprofit groups. "What's more, this information did not filter down to donors."

    But he added: "Mr. Chapin spun a complex web to confuse well-intentioned donors and make it difficult for regulators to untangle."

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    Calls to Help Hospitalized Veterans and Lynch's office were not returned. Viguerie did not immediately respond to phone and email messages seeking comment. Reuters was unable to contact Chapin on Thursday evening.

    Borochoff said the complaint sends a strong message to unscrupulous charities.

    "It's about $2 billion that is raised on behalf of veterans charity, and unfortunately a lot of that's being wasted and not being used to help our veterans," Borochoff said. "It's really ludicrous what's going on. It's out of control, there's such great waste. It's a national disgrace that people are allowed to exploit veterans for their own personal financial benefit, or benefit of their company."

    More Southern California coverage from NBCLosAngeles.com

    According to Charity Navigator, a third of the 50 military veterans charities it evaluates rate poorly and 20 percent either got a zero for their financial management or a "donor advisory" tag, which indicates the organizations are being investigated by authorities.

    That compares to 2 percent for other kinds of charities, said Ken Berger, the president of the Washington-based group that evaluates 5,500 charities.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

     

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