➡ The video discusses how to make informed decisions about donating to nonprofit organizations. It emphasizes the importance of researching these organizations before giving money to ensure it aligns with your values and goals. The speaker provides a method to vet these organizations by searching for their Form 990 online, which shows their income, expenses, and salaries. This allows you to see where your donation is going and if it’s being used effectively.
➡ The text discusses the financial practices of various animal welfare organizations. It reveals that some organizations, like Meta and Google, spend millions on advertising and executive salaries, while others, like Big Dog Ranch Rescue, operate on a smaller budget and don’t pay their executives. The text encourages readers to research where their donations are going, as some organizations may use a significant portion of their funds on expenses other than animal care.
➡ The speaker is discussing how to choose a charity to donate to, using animal rescue organizations as examples. They suggest looking at the organization’s financial information, available in Form 990 online, to see how funds are used. They highlight two organizations, Furry Friends and START Rescue, both of which use most of their funds directly for animal care. The speaker emphasizes the importance of ensuring your values align with the charity’s spending before donating.

Healthyamerican.org this video, you know, it’s a live stream. And as we close out the week, I like to focus on things that are not really grabbing the headlines. I want to talk about things that are going to help improve your life and help you make decisions in your life that align with your goals and values and so forth. And this is a little bit of a sensitive topic, and I realize, but some friends of mine actually didn’t know how to find out about different nonprofit organizations before they donated to them. And I have a very simple way that you can literally vet the organizations before you send your money.

Now, on this channel, we do cover a lot of these unnatural disasters. We’ve seen horrible events that were inflicted upon the unsuspecting population in Lahaina, in Pacific Palisades, in Jamaica, in North Carolina. And inevitably, there are people who want to help, like you and me and others. And there are those that need our help. And then there are the huge nonprofit organizations that also seem to grab the headlines. And it seems that many people will just automatically donate to the Red Cross or something like that. So I am not going to tell you where or how or how much or why.

I’m not going to tell you anything to do about your choices with your money and your donations. What I am going to do is empower you so that you can learn about these nonprofits and then make those decisions on your own. I want to give you a quick story about what happened to me at HomeGoods, TJ Maxx, as it’s also known, and that put me in mind of doing this video for you. Also, I spoke a little bit about an animal rescue group that I support. So I thought, let’s break this down, since my friends didn’t know how to get this information.

And that’s what we’re going to do in this video. Friends, sometimes I get my blood pressure up or when I see these outrageous salaries that some of the nonprofit directors are getting. So I want to do is actually share my screen and I want to find out from you what animal rescue groups you and maybe it’s not an animal rescue group. That’s where I like to donate my money. Perhaps you give to, you know, food banks or something. So this is what put me in mind of the video today. I was buying some decaf coffee at TJ Maxx, of all places, and the fellow said, would you like to make a donation to the food bank? Now, normally I don’t like to be asked to donate money at the grocery store at TJ Maxx at the bank, wherever you go.

And they have their, like a, some kind of promotion every once in a while. And it’s embarrassing for me because I already donate to my causes that I have vetted and I’m going to share with you in just a moment. I like to know where my money’s going and I’m sure you want to know where your money is going to and that’s what I’m going to show you. So that’s the first thing is find out where your money is going and I’m going to share with you the shelter transport area rescue team that I talked about in a video yesterday or the day before.

And I know this group personally and I actually know. I’ll show you all that in a moment. But let’s go with some of the larger organizations that you, you may know of. So the first one I’m going to start with and I’m going to talk about the animals just because that’s something that I’m interested in. And there was a group that I was aware of when I went to New Orleans to do the animal rescue in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. And it was called the Humane Society of the United States. Many people thought that it’s like a government organization because it has the word the United States in it.

It’s just a name, it’s just a corporation. And remember, nonprofits are corporations that are intended to be used for the public good. And there has to be a board of directors. No one owns a non profit. Actually, you might be the director of it, you might have started it, but it has to be run by a board of directors. And ideally that board of directors is going to be determining where the money and all the donations, where that’s going to be spent. And ideally it’s going to be spent in alignment with their stated mission, which they have to do when they get their nonprofit status from the federal government.

So I thought, well, let me look into the Humane Society. Well, I was in for a surprise because they actually changed their name from the Humane Society of the United States. Are you ready? They changed it to Humane World for Animals because, you know, everything is global and everything’s about the world and we can’t just have something in the United States now can we? It has to be in the world. Now don’t get me wrong, I would love nothing more than every animal. You know, I, I don’t go any animal that needs help. I hope they’ll get the help they need.

That’s what I’m trying to say here. So I thought, wow, that’s so interesting that they change their name. You can donate. Let’s see how much money they bring in and where their money goes. What you do is you do a search online with the name of your of the nonprofit organization that you’re searching for, and then you type in the words Form 990. And that’s exactly what I did. Humane World.org Form 990. And here it is. And it comes up. This is a form that they are required, that all nonprofit organizations are required to file with the federal government.

So here it says, I’m going to show you how to read it. We’re not going to go through every single line, but I want to show you the most important things that I look for. And then you can do the research on your own as well. So here it is up in the corner. It says Form 990. I’m going to enlarge this just a little bit so we can see the numbers. And on the very first page, it’s going to tell you gross receipts over here under G. And that’s how much money they brought in in that year 2024.

Yes. That is $254,771,870 $600. So that is a quarter of a billion dollars that the Humane World for Animals is bringing in. And you know what? You’re probably saying, that’s fantastic, Peggy. I hope all this money goes to the animals. And. Well, that’s what I would hope as well. So what we do next, and you can read this on your own if you’d like, you have the description of the mission and its activity. So this says that it was formerly known as the Humane Society of the United States, and it seeks to tackle the root causes of animal of animal cruelty and suffering.

Fantastic. I would love to tackle the root causes. That sounds great. So let’s do this. Here’s how much money they got. Contributions and grants, 157,000 last year. This year they got 181. There’s investment money that comes in. I think that’s probably smart. They have some of their money in investments, program revenue, $3 million, other revenue that comes in. And what I like to do, this is what we’re going to look at next. I want to see how much money the they’re spending on fundraising and on salaries. Well, here it is right here. Salaries are. Last year, 62 million.

This year, $68 million went to salaries. All right, you may like you’re saying, well, Peggy, People can’t work for free. Oh, can’t they? Yeah, if it’s a nonprofit, people do work for free. And I’m going to show you that in just a moment. But if you want a well run organization, all right, maybe you want some top executives that know what they’re doing. But how about this? They spent seven, over $7 million raising more money. That was $7 million that didn’t go to the animals, on top of the almost $70 million that didn’t go to the animals.

So I’m not going to tell you how to spend your money, but I think you should know where your money’s going. So let’s scroll down and you can see. Just keep going, keep going, keep going. And you’ll see where it says the compensation for. And just keep going, going, going. And here it is. It says compensation of officers, directors, trustees, key employees, et cetera. So here is where you can see exactly. All right. Christabel Block is the President and CEO. 6. Okay. You have to add in the other compensation because just add them together. Okay. Almost $700,000.

Nearly three quarters of a million dollars. Man, I’m in the wrong business. I should go into running nonprofit animal organizations. I guess. The attorney gets $425,000 a year, the chief marketing officer, and on and on it goes. So this is for you to determine if you want some of your hard earned money to go to pay nearly three quarters of a million dollars to the chief executive officer and president. You may think it’s fine and that they deserve that. That’s up to you to determine. Then you can see the. Here’s what is interesting. Meta, right? That’s Facebook.

They spent seven and a half million dollars on Facebook ads. And you may say, well, Peggy, they have to advertise. Well, there’s lots of ways to advertise. You may think that’s fine. Google, they did $2 million and then they paid a fundraising consultant three and a half million dollars to tell them how to raise the money. And then here are their temporary services. I don’t know exactly, staffing services. They paid them close to $2 million. All right, so that’s that one organization. Now let’s take a look at a couple others. So, okay, aspca, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

You see their ads on TV all the time. They don’t run animal shelters. Did you know that? No, they don’t. But they did bring in nearly half a billion dollars. This is 2022. It’s the most recent one. I could find it still will give us an idea. So this probably is a higher number since we’re a few years beyond that. So here’s how much money they brought in the year before this year, the other revenue that they bring in. And then of course there’s investments. And so they got. So here’s what’s interesting to me. They brought in, as we saw right here, $456 million.

Just a few, you know, a little, little bit shy of half a billion. Oh, well, let’s see how much they gave out to the other, you know, to help the animals and everything. Well, they, they gave grants, who I’m assuming to animal shelters and so forth, of $10 million. Yeah, so about $10 million went in the grants, you know, to help the animals and so forth. You can dig down deeper to see exactly where it went. And then the salaries are over $132 million. So let’s just see where this money went, shall we, in the aspca and hang on to your hats because, well, this might be the, I think the biggest moneymaker one I could find.

There’s another one called the North Shore Animal League in New York. I think there are even more. I didn’t have time to research all of them, but you could do that as well. So I just want to show you how to read these, where to find them. As I say, you just do the search online for Form 990. Stick with me because I’m going to show you the opposite end where I sent my money. And I’ll tell you that there’s no CEO making what these CEOs are making. So let’s take a look here at the compensation.

Here we are, Part seven, compensation of the officers, blah, blah, blah. Matt. Oh, Matt. Seriously, Matt, you’re raking in a million dollar 1,113,000. How wouldn’t you like to just have that 113,000? How about the 40,000? Any of my viewers out there, could you get by on $40,000 a year? I think so. How about 21? That sounds pretty good to me. So 1 million plus additional compensation from whatever they do. Maybe it’s who knows what. But they lump it all together and you may say he’s worth it. You may say nobody would have that amount of ability or experience to run an organization unless they were paid a million dollars a year.

That’s your right, that’s your opinion. You’re welcome to it. Just know that’s where the money’s going. So your hard earned dollars and let’s See what it went to for. Okay, Donor acquisition. This is. All of these are about getting more donations. So let’s add it up. 30 million. 15 million. Another 15 million and 11. Somebody do the math for me. That’s a lot. Is that $100 million? Am I. Is my math off? 75. 75 million, something like that. Because Google is about ads. And then the donor engagement, the donor acquisition. This is all about getting more money.

There you have it. Let’s take a look at a few more, shall we? So let’s look at best friends. Best friends. Save them all is their tagline. You know what friends? Probably some of these started out really doing great work. I hope all the animals that need help get the help they need. And if some of these dollars make it to save the animals, great. Just know what you’re doing. So here we have it. Is this Best friends. Best friend. $148 million in 2023. Maybe not quite as much as the ASPCA. Maybe they don’t do run as many ads, but let’s take a look and see what their compensation is and all of that.

So this is just, you know, the filing, the paperwork. $178 million. Oh, I’m sorry. You know what? I hope that I made the right. You have to go back and watch it because the first one is revenue. How much they brought in on revenue. I might have been mistaken. The expenses are the grants and similar amounts paid out. So out of the 173, whatever they brought in 148 they paid out 17 million in the grants and so forth. Professional fundraising fees look a little less than the aspca. And let’s scroll down. I hope this is helpful for you.

And then we’re going to look at the compensation. Here we have it. Oh, Julianne is only making half a million dollars, not a million dollars like at the aspca. Maybe she should dust off her resume. And here they’re. Here’s how much they’re all making hundreds of thousands of dollars. And. It just goes on and on. And here’s where they’re spending their money for the independent contractors. Advertising and promotion, almost $2 million. Advocacy, consulting, another hunt, another million. Publicity and I guess rental or something. So I thought that was really interesting. Let’s take another little. Let’s go a little bit different way.

I told you about Big Dog Ranch Rescue in. Oh, that’s what I was talking about. That there are a lot of animal rescue groups in Florida. This is one of them. All right, 2023. They brought in $13 million. That’s a lot of money, but it’s nowhere near those others. And I. I also let you know that Big Dog Ranch Rescue is the largest. No kill cage free. Meaning they’re in these, like, little dormitory rooms or something. It’s quite nice. And they have all this outdoor land and so forth. So the largest one in the United States.

And they’re only bringing in $13 million. The ASPCA doesn’t even have animal shelters, and they’re bringing in half a billion dollars. So when you see those ads that are making you cry, just consider where your money is going. Let’s look and see how much they’re making in compensation. This is just a little bit different format. It’s still the same form 990. It just is on this other website. So the most recent year I could get was 2023. Their expenses were a little bit more than their revenue. I think this is a really clear way of looking at it.

And then here you’ve got their compensation, executive compensation, zero. Their key, the president, the director. They don’t. They’re not taking any compensation. They do have staff that work at the kennel. As you can see, they’ve got salaries at about 6 million. That’s everybody that are feeding the animals, taking care of the animals, running the program, doing the adoptions. But these key employees and officers are not making anything like you saw with the others with Best Friends. I’m not. I’m not poo pooing. That’s pretty funny to use when I’m talking about dogs. I’m not poo pooing any of the other organizations at all.

I don’t know those people. Maybe they’re doing great work. I’m just showing you how to find out where the money is going so you can make a decision as to what you want to do with your money. All right, here’s another one in Florida that I have donated to Furry Friends Humane, Inc. All right? They do a lot of great work. They brought in less money. They brought in $8 million. Their expenses were almost at bat. And let’s see, I’m just looking at this with you. And they have. Their executives do get compensated. So the executive director gets $178,000.

The medical director gets. Who is the veterinarian gets $143,000. I’m sorry, the veterinarian gets $100,000. The medical director, I guess, oversees that. And I’m not begrudging them, you know, a livable salary at all. Maybe that’s what it takes is to pay someone this amount of money to make sure that they are at the level that you need to keep these organizations running. I don’t begrudge anyone their salary. I’m just. I’m going to repeat myself over and over because sometimes people take what I’m sharing the wrong way. Let’ have another one here. All right, here’s where I want to.

Here’s what I want to talk to you about. This one is called Their Lives Matter. And here’s the organization. This is rather local to where I am. And in fact, in our community, we are doing a fundraising for this group. We’re doing like a little arts and crafts fair. And the money that the vendors collect a portion of that is going to go. And all of the enrollment in order to have your table for the arts and crafts is going to go directly to this organization. Now, somebody in my community said, you know, why don’t we do Furry Friends? And I’m like, okay, Furry Friends is great.

Let’s see how much they’re already bringing in, and let’s see how much they’re compensated, and then we can determine whether or not that’s a good place for us to put our money. And they said, how did you find that? I said, well, you just do a search online for form 990. So this group here dedicated to saving their lives. And you can see. And this woman basically started the organization. Let’s see how much money they brought in. In 2024, they brought in $57,000. That’s commendable for a small grassroots organization. But their expenses here were $60,000. So they needed more than they brought in.

And I’m like, you know, what do you think, Friends? This is probably. I was saying to my friends who are doing this, you know, fundraiser, I said, which one do you think you want to do there? Let’s do this one. She obviously needs the money, and of course, you want to see where the money’s going and what kind of programs they’ve got. So they were actually losing money, putting money out of their own pocket. How much does she make? Oh, a big fat zero. How about the secretary? A big fat zero because all the money goes to the animals.

This, for me personally, is where I would do my donations. And I do. Let’s do another one, shall we? And this is the START Rescue the Shelter Transport Animal Rescue Team. And here you can see they do great work. Let me click on here as well. They’ve got their form 990s right on the Website. Some of these organizations make you search all over. You can find it right on the website. Let’s see if we’ve got. Oh yeah, Steve. I actually know personally. My husband and I donated. This is the group that we support, I’ll just put it that way.

And we donated a vehicle to them and, and other things along the way we had. It’s all about them. I just want to say that it’s a worthy organization and I know them personally and they have, what they do is they go to the hardest hit shelters in California and they do dogs and cats and they get them out of these shelters where they’re on the euthanasia list and they get them to safe havens with groups that they know personally in Oregon and Washington and Idaho where they don’t have the issues that we have in California because California is so horrible in the way that it, it is run, especially in the county shelters.

So let’s take a look now, shall we at their Form 990. Here it is. Shelter, transport, animal rescue team. Now I’ve been following them for a few years and I would say this is the most amount of money that they’ve brought in. They used to be around $500,000. So they’re over $1 million, 1.3 as of 2023. They address the issues of overpopulation. They do transport shelters, spay, neuter and you know how I feel about that. And there are definitely times when you need that. And let’s take a look at their who, who’s making who and what and how they’re spending their money.

So let’s take a look at this, shall we? Okay, Start was named one of the top rated organizations. Guidestars Platinum seal of transparency. And let’s take a look at their compensation for the organization. And again we just scroll down and here we have it. Compensation of officers, directors, trustees and so forth. Oh well, Steve brings a whole big fat zero. Renee is the treasurer. She makes no money. Philip makes no money. The directors make no money. The only person I think that makes money see, did they have any other compensation? I’m not seeing any. There’s no independent contractors.

They are not spending any money on fundraising or Facebook ads. They do everything organically. So this is where I give my money because it’s going to be to the animals. Now there is one person, I think it’s somebody who see they have to pay for their insurance. Trying to figure out compensation not included, other salaries and wages. Somebody does earn money. It’s $36,000 and I think that might be. I gotta ask Steve about that. There’s office expenses. Oh, here they did spend $21,000 on advertising, not $200,000. So there is one person that is an employee, but none of the directors.

And that’s, you know, $36,000 is pretty moderate for an annual salary. So that’s what I wanted to share with you friends about how to find information about nonprofits. And I just chose the animals because it’s something that’s of interest to me. So if you’re going to send money to the Red Crass, as I call it, or others, do your search for the Form 990, and you’ll see if you align, if your values align with their values in terms of where they’re spending their money. If you.
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See more of The Healthy American Peggy Hall on their Public Channel and the MPN The Healthy American Peggy Hall channel.