State announces Angel, Scrooge charities

ROBERT KITTLE
Published: November 20, 2008

South Carolina Secretary of State Mark Hammond announced Wednesday this year’s “Angels and Scrooges”, the lists of charities that do the best and worst jobs of utilizing the money you donate to them. Angels are charities that use at least 80 percent of the money donated for their intended cause. Scrooges, on the other hand, use 40 percent or less, with most of the money going to fundraising and administration.

A good example of an “Angel” charity is Country Santa of Pickens, Hammond says, “Which is donating 99% of their donations to their charitable purpose. We feel like it’s a wonderful organization. They have distributed 3,000 toys to elementary kids in five counties.”

All of the “Scrooges” are based in other states but do solicit donations in South Carolina. Hammond urges anyone considering making a donation to a charity to check it out first at his office’s website. You can reach that here. Just click on “Charity Search”.

This year’s angels are:
Animal Protection League of SC, Inc., Hopkins, SC 93.5%
Careteam, Inc., Myrtle Beach, SC 95.8%
Carson Scholars Fund, Inc., Baltimore, MD 88.1%
Country Santa, Pickens, SC 99.3%
Experience Works, Inc., Arlington, VA 92.5%
Fatherhood & Families Engagement, Florence, SC 93.3%
Golden Harvest Food Bank, Inc., Augusta, GA 95.0%
Historic Charleston Foundation, Charleston, SC 85.6%
NAMI of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 87.2%
Outreach Farm, Inc., Pawleys Island, SC 98.8%

The designation of Scrooge is based upon the charitable organization’s failure to spend a high percentage of their collections on the stated program activities and/or the high use of paid (professional) solicitors.

Scrooges are:
American Police & Sheriff’s Association, Chepachet, RI 12.7%
Cancer Assistance Network, Gig Harbor, WA 24.0%
Children’s Cancer Fund of America, Inc., Powell, TN 14.4%
Committee for Missing Children, Inc., Lawrenceville, GA 10.2%
Dakota Indian Foundation, Inc., Chamberlain, SD 17.8%
Disabled Police Officers of American, Inc., Niceville, FL 11.4%
Dogs Against Drugs/Dogs Against Crime, Anderson, IN 10.3%
Firefighters Charitable Foundation, Farmingdale. NY 11.1%
Foundation for American Veterans, Inc., West Bloomfield, MI 7.6%
National Vietnam Veterans Foundation, Inc., Alexandria, VA 11.3%