Wounded Warrior Project

Last night I read on The Minuteman Blog about The Wounded Warrior Project not wanting to publicly be associated with people or companies that are connected to guns. Then this morning I read this at An Ordinary Texan.

I am torn on this. Let me first say I have never been that big a supporter of WWP in the first place. I raised some $700 for them a year or so ago and have supported others who were raising money for them, but I am kind of anti big charity groups. I never give to the Red Cross or Salvation Army. I do give to Toys For Tots, but anyway, the point is personally this issue doesn’t impact my giving.

I am also not a huge fan of boycotts. I think companies have a right to not like me or want my business and generally I just chose not to spend my money where I feel it conflicts with my values. However, sometime there are things bigger than my point of view.

Sometime ago I gave money to a person I didn’t particularly like. I actually like this person very much today, but at that time I felt he/she was rude, but the issue he/she needed money for was something I felt was way more important than my hurt feelings.

I assume most of these wounded warriors have done many things they disagreed with or even found wrong(ie serve under the current administration), but they took the bullet, literally, for me, for my freedoms and so I dislike taking something from them. True, there are many others way to give to these heroes and as I said before that is generally what I do anyway. I just don’t know that I am good with giving up on The Wounded Warrior Project on a wide scale boycott.

I am torn.

I do think it is good for them to be outed though. People need to be made aware of what and who they are giving their money to.

21 thoughts on “Wounded Warrior Project

  1. There are other charities that help wounded veterans. It’s not like it’s a choice between helping them through WWP, or not helping them at all. It’s more like a choice between helping them via a big charity that doesn’t like us, or a smaller charity that welcomes our help.

  2. I’m torn too. I read the article this morning and I thought their stance was crazy. But I’m thinking that heads of WWP didn’t ask the Vets their opinion when they came up with it. I don’t agree with it, but It would be hard not to give money if I knew it would help a wounded Vet

  3. Concur with Kathy, and I’ve looked at Soldier’s Angels, I think that is where “my” $$ are going. The hypocrisy is what got me… I just won’t accept that.

  4. Irony, indeed. These guys were wounded in battle, most likely by guns or IED’s, to ensure the freedom of the charity to make whatever decisions that they want to make. On the flipside of the coin, though, they also ensured our freedom to contribute to these soldiers from another direction. I guess they’re trying to wheedle donations out of the anti-gun crowd….who knows.

  5. AGirl, look at what the gun blogging community has done on it’s own – KTKC and the ongoing Tam-athon fundraiser. The community is a lot stronger that some charity group that is hypocrisy incarnate.

    Heck, I firmly believe that if we (as a group) wanted to, we could form a charity that would put WWP to shame when you look at what has already been accomplished with no budget, no salaries, and no advertising beyond us shouting on the internet.

    • I know, I know!! I am all for it. That is exactly where my money goes…my giveaways, other bloggers that I k ow or know of doing good things to raise money or other friends etc. it’s why I pretty much stopped giving to big groups.

  6. Folks have already found other groups that do the same thing as WWP, so as others have pointed out, it’s not an issue of them or nothing.

    But whether or not people continue to give, they should let the organization know their opinion.

  7. My view is on the final recipient and not the administrator. I’ll continue to give but I’ll certainly take every opportunity I can to criticize them for their unreasonable stance. They are taking money away from the folks who have both earned our support and need it so badly. Shame on the WWP staff.

  8. With .82ยข of every donated dollar going to salaries and overhead costs, some of which are paying those directly responsible for the ultimate in hypocrisy (“We’ll gladly take your money, but please enter and leave through the back door and if we see you on the street, we’re going to pretend we don’t know each other.”), our donations to WWP are finished.

    Last year, donations to WWP were the ONLY gifts we gave out for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, birthdays, Mother’s Day/Father’s Day and Memorial and Veterans’ Day. Our friends and employees would get cards that read, “A generous donation has been made to the Wounded Warrior Project in your name.”

    No more. Plenty of other charities out there who do every bit as much good for wounded/disabled/troubled veterans as WWP but who do not have the 80% overhead costs or the staggering hypocrisy of WWP.

    As a veteran myself, I know firsthand that our service STOOD for something, and hypocrisy was not in our creed.

    –JD

    • JD, you know how much I value and appreciate your open honest point of view. Thank you for adding additional info.

      As an aside, I sent your link to Jonn at This Ain’t Hell blog. As a guy who knows wounded servicemen, I was curious what he thought. I won’t share what he said because I didn’t ask if he minded, but he did say he thought your post and blog were good. He especially liked your “Police Women Of The World”:)

  9. As I said in my post. I have absolutely NO problem with their mission. But it is definitely hypocritical and evidently WWP has changed it’s stance quite recently.

    I haven’t dug into the details but if JD’s numbers are right on how much actually finds it’s way to Wounded Warriors, there are much better and more efficient organization.

    The mission should come first and evidently that isn’t the case for WWP. I met Patti’s youngest son at Gun Blogger Rendezvous this year and he was ecstatic to be there and be able to speak. Not only that, but personally thank us for raising the funds we did at the raffle. They didn’t care that Ruger and Hi-Point both donated firearms, they were happy because they were accomplishing the mission. That is something I can seriously get behind.

  10. What kind of charity doesn’t except help you wouldn’t even be a charity if it weren’t for us (as a nation) making it so. Do they not understand they are helping soldiers who are all gun owners?

    This nation just gets more weird by the day!

    • Well no. I wouldn’t accept money from an anti gun group regardless of how much. Not accepting isn’t the problem if they truly disagree with guns and gun owners. It’s not wise though because gun owners are generous and vocal. As I have said before, they are one of the few groups of people who both stand behind what they believe and put(or don’t put) their money where their mouth is.

  11. Changing my sidebar to Soldier’s Angels. Post explaining to follow, tomorrow.
    Everyone has a free choice in this country, thus far!

    thx,
    gfa

  12. I’ll just second the idea of supporting Soldier’s Angels. I interacted with the SA Germany bunch while stationed over there and came to respect and regard them (especially MaryAnn) highly. Can’t think of anyone better…

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