Donation Request Forms: Fill & Download for Free

People primarily donate to a cause that they feel a personal connection to. The personal connection might come from a variety of sources:- Were they asked for help? While some people do seek out a specific charity to donate to, the vast majority of people donate because someone asked them to. (In person, via the phone, via mail, via email... etc.)- Who is asking for the donation? People are likely to donate when asked to by a friend/family member/neighbor. (Especially if the donation request is linked to a Memorial request or holiday request). Alternately, people are slightly more likely to donate when they feel a friendly connection to a stranger who is asking (which is why phone banking and man-on-the-street appeals have such success).- What is the individual's connection to the cause? If the individual or a close family member has directly experienced the condition that funds are being raised for (a disease, poverty, etc.), s/he is much more likely to donate. Alternately, the individual may be slightly more motivated s/he has first-hand witnessed the impact of the condition (e.g., on a trip, through an acquaintance).- What is the individual's connection to the impact? If a person can see a direct connection between their dollar donated and a tangible impact, they are much, much more likely to donate. For example, if a charity can demonstrate that $7 provides a meal; $10 digs a well; $1 provides a book; $20 goes directly to Jane Q Needy-person; the donor is much more likely to understand, relate to and be proud of their donation. This is why people feel more connected with donations of material items (such as shoes, boxes of toys, food) than donations of cash.

Everything you ever want to know about a charitable organization or nonprofit like Wounded Warrior Project is contained in their IRS Form 990 filing, required annually to preserve their 501(c)# tax-exempt status. The best aggregators for these filings are https://www.guidestar.org (which has wound down a bit since 2019), and Google searches: Searching “IRS Form 990 Wounded Warrior Project 2018” returns several investigations from ProPublica that suggest Wounded Warrior Project intentionally provided false information in their 990s to hide widespread, long-running “financial and accounting irregularities”.You probably don’t want to pay for the full GuideStar service, but there’s two pieces of information you get for free at https://www.guidestar.org/profile/20-2370934 on Wounded Warrior Project:The info in the RED box is the CEO’s name and affiliation. The box in yellow is the nonprofit EIN (Employer Identification Number), which is basically a charity’s Social Security number. You can do deeper searches with the EIN (civil lawsuit filings, IRS/regulatory investigations, state regulatory actions) and learn a lot about the CEO and the 10 highest-paid employees, highest-paid vendors (which are often tied to the CEO or their family), and how their charitable giving ranks against other similar-sized, similar mission 501(c)# org.Here’s the link to the actual IRS Form 990 for Wounded Warrior Project’s most recent filing, from a document collection from ProPublica:Wounded Warrior Project Inc, Form 990 - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublicaThe form has a bunch of red flags:Part V, Line 4a disclosure of accounts held in a foreign country (Described in 4b as ‘GM’)Part VI, Line 2 disclosure of family members in board, executive and key roles735 employees is huge for a nonprofitOther opaque elements that I won’t bore you with.The information you want is always top-lined in Part VII of the form (see screenshot below, CEO since 2016 Michael S. Linnington in red box) on page 7: Compensation of Officers, Directors, Trustees, Key Employees, Highest Compensated Employees, and Independent ContractorsThe first column is number of hours worked in average week at WWP (50 hours/week).The ‘X’ indicates he is an officer of the org.The $120,441 is the annual reportable compensation he gets. This is not a real number: the key word is “reportable”.The $0 is reportable comp from ‘related organizations’ filing W-2 or 1099-MISC to the CEO.The $13,805 is “estimated” additional compensation from the org and related orgs. This is also misleading (or used to mislead) quite often.What’s interesting is the Chief Financial Officer (line 13, Eric S. Miller) earns $220k… while at the same time, the ex-CFO (Line 16, Ronald W. Burgess) earned $302k for being ex-CFO. It’s also a red flag that all the officers show 50 hours/week of work: how does the ex-CFO earning $302,000 work 50 hours as an officer when the actual CFO earning $220,000 is also spending 50 hours a week?The same setup is in place for the ex-COO, ex-CEO, former Chief Strategy Officer, former Chief Program Officer, former National Services Director… all earning 6 figures, working 50 hour weeks to do… what?It’s also extremely heavy with VPs and front-loaded officer-level positions earning $200k-$300k a year as…VP of Economic Empowerment?VP of Engagement and Physical Health?Which is different from VP of Independence and Mental Health?Check out Section B. Independent Contractors (page 8). They paid three outside ‘direct response’ firms soliciting donation requests… paying fees to the three of more than $31 million in 2017.Key takeaway: Very interesting is that they have $347 million in investments and holdings. They collected $226 million in donations in 2017, but they spent $231 million on operating expenses.BOTTOM LINE: Read the ProPublica investigation, but please check out the Military Money Matters investigation:Wounded Warrior Project Tax Returns Analyzed — an accountant takes apart their finances and makes a strong argument that the A+ ratings given to it are completely unearned.

Prof. Sandeep Desai is a well known face for Mumbaikars, specially the ones who travel in the first class compartment of local trains. Read more to find out why!​A 54 year old man, Prof. Sandeep Desai is a picture of simplicity. Professionally, he is a marine engineer (DMET), and an MBA. He has sailed the world with leading shipping company and has had extensive experience in Marketing in MNCs. He later shifted to academics and social causes. He was an ex-Professor at S P Jain Institute of Management & Research and a visiting faculty at several B-Schools all over India.What he does now truly remarkable! Since 1997, He quit his job and started serving the society and took up other assignments to fund Shloka, a free English-medium school for children from the Goregaon slums."After Shloka, which we started in 2005, we began our second school at Ratnagiri for poor rural children, but the construction got delayed due to a shortage of funds," he says. That's when he decided to collect money directly from the common man. "The response has been great. In just five months, I have collected over Rs 4 lakhs."His foundation currently runs 4 English Medium schools which provide free education to the poor.How did he collect funds from the common man?​He requests small donations in Mumbai locals. Yes, he really does that. I bet a few of you might have seen him too. He carries laminated newspaper clippings which contain his photos and articles about his mission. And asks people to donate for the cause. He will go around shouting "Vidyadaan Shreshth Daan!" (Donation for education is the best donation). And narrates how his organization has been striving hard to provide free education to the poor. And whenever someone donates anything to him, he thanks them and bows earnestly.​I have been fortunate to have met him a lot of times and observed that he sometimes has a hoarse voice at the end of the day. He also carries a heavy bag on his back. A couple of times he seemed really ill, when asked he said the frequent change in Mumbai climate sometimes causes him respiratory problems. But still, When he enters the coach for his drive he executes it with full energy.This man is one of those faces of the society who break the general belief that one must have their pockets full to do something for the society.EDIT:For those who are interested in donating to the cause can get details from this page.Page on shlokamissionaries.orgAlso,I found out that he is not married.He has accumulated more than 1.2 crores and put it to good use.