Helping Donors Support
Good Veterans Charities
We promote good veterans charities, while calling out the bad ones and encouraging them to reform their practices. See our recommended lists of charities.
To support our work educating the donating public, please click “help us”.
A message from our teamWill you help us?
How would you feel if you learned a charity you had supported for years was deceiving donors?
You’d probably wish you had known sooner. And you’d certainly want someone to stop them. That is the goal of the Charities for Vets campaign.
The newly established RAM Foundation and its website www.charitiesforvets.com are helping potential donors understand which are the best veteran charities worthy of their support.
Donations for veterans exceed $1 billion annually with much of it wasted or spent foolishly. And it is the veterans and donors who suffer. Imagine our impact on veteran lives if at least half of that poorly spent money had gone to organizations that were committed to spending money wisely.
In our research, we have determined 30 veteran support organizations should be considered “Recommended” or “Highly Recommended”. Others that we have researched and listed are “Not Recommended”. Many of them have records previously criticized by others. With your help, we can shine an even brighter light on those records. We hope those charities will improve their practices so that we can recommend them in the future.
Our rating system is based on publicly reported tax returns. Our opinion reflects money spent on salary programs, amount of overhead, fundraising practices and amounts of donations invested vs. used for veteran benefits. Our assessments are transparent. With your help, we will educate donors and divert that wasted money to those groups that support veterans effectively.
Consider that when you support our work, your tax-deductible contribution may make a much greater financial impact as we alert and educate millions of other potential donors with more facts. And donors can rely on our free recommendations service instead of spending hours doing original research. Donors can use this website to compare options among quality organizations.
This unique mission cannot be accomplished without advertising our rating system to potential donors.
With your support and other concerned Americans, we will change lives without having to raise more money. We only need to redirect hundreds of millions of dollars presently poorly spent to worthy organizations.
If you’re passionate about putting an end to veteran charity scams and have the ability to help by contributing, please join us in this effort. It’s an easy, meaningful and high-impact method to honor the service of all veterans in need. We are privileged to execute our mission in their honor. Tax-deductible donations can be made once, or as a convenient recurring gift.
All donors to the RAM Foundation will receive an annual update on our progress, spending, and a receipt for your tax records.
The Problem
Pictures and videos of injured military warriors are often used by charities to raise money. Yet much of this donated money is stolen or wasted.
According to available tax returns ranging from 2019 through 2021, over $1 billion dollars were donated to poorly rated veteran charities.
Advisory Board
Peter T. Metzger Chairman of the Advisory Board Colonel USMC, Ret
Mike Flanagan Colonel USA, Ret.
Sali Gear Commander USN, Ret.
Bill Hellman Chief Warrant Officer (3) USN/SEAL, Ret.
Kirk S. Lippold Commander USN, Ret.
Christine J. Quedens Captain USCG, Ret.
Matthew B. Smith Lieutenant Colonel USA, Ret.
William L. Smith Colonel USMC, Ret.
John Robert Stark Lieutenant Colonel USA, Ret.
Alphonso Trimble Colonel USMC, Ret.
John “JV” Venable Colonel USAF, Ret.
Frank Wickersham III Colonel USMC, Ret.
Veterans know better than anyone else the price of freedom, for they’ve suffered the scars of war.