Campbell 1 Troy Campbell Professor Antinarella ENG 111 O12C 30 July 2016 Charities: Where’s Our Money Going? Standing in the checkout line of the local Harris Teeter, I notice the negligible tear of scrap paper attached to a soda bottle waiting to be claimed. The notice reads “Please take this soft drink for free if the cashier fails to ask for your donation to the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP).” I’ve heard of this organization before. The silhouette of a military member carrying his buddy over his shoulder draws on not only the memory of my military training, but the emotional discord I, along with countless others, have experienced upon receiving the news of a friend or loved one being injured or killed in the line of duty. The emotional sympathizer within urges that I throw every cent at the charitable cause I am facing. The logical demon overrules and dictates that I assume a more practical reaction. Then, as I wait in line, I actually become irked by the blatant marketing ploy by this supermarket giant. Do I give freely to what I believe to be a noble cause or do I wait to see if the teenage cashier’s negligence will afford me a free soft drink? We should all give to a charity that helps those who have sacrificed for us as Americans; it’s the least we can do. This shouldn’t be a game in which I can win a free drink. After scanning the final item in my cart, the listless cashier attending the register with a drone-like voice asks me the same question he has been instructed to ask for the duration of his shift: “Would you like to give to the Wounded Warrior Project?” My dilemma has now reached a crossroads, and I am forced to make a decision. Not wanting to be a heartless person, I chalk up another five dollars to my already exorbitant grocery bill for a charity I assume will help the people I feel are most worthy of my cash. Ultimately, how am I supposed to know where that money goes? Unfortunately, too many of the current generation of charities tug on the heart strings of our humanity, causing us to blindly relinquish our hard earned money to some not-so-worthy causes. In 2013, The Tampa Bay Times and Center for Investigative Reporting, in conjunction with CNN, revealed in an article, Above the Law: America’s Worst Charities, the “fifty worst charities” in America based on earnings to charitable spending ratio. This year long collaborative investigation audited “nearly 6,000 charities that have chosen to pay for-profit companies to raise their donations.” Within a decade of fundraising, the total earnings reached “$1.4 billion”, of which “970.6 million” went to solicitors or “fundraisers” to further their monetary revenue. That is a calculated average of approximately sixty nine percent, based on the figures presented in the Tampa Bay Times online database. The same database and figures expose a shocking truth: “less than four percent” was distributed as aid towards the mission statement of these fifty charities according ...

1. Campbell 1
Troy Campbell
Professor Antinarella
ENG 111 O12C
30 July 2016
Charities: Where’s Our Money Going?
Standing in the checkout line of the local Harris Teeter, I
notice the negligible tear of scrap paper attached to a soda
bottle waiting to be claimed. The notice reads “Please take this
soft drink for free if the cashier fails to ask for your donation to
the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP).” I’ve heard of this
organization before. The silhouette of a military member
carrying his buddy over his shoulder draws on not only the
memory of my military training, but the emotional discord I,
along with countless others, have experienced upon receiving
the news of a friend or loved one being injured or killed in the
line of duty. The emotional sympathizer within urges that I
throw every cent at the charitable cause I am facing. The
logical demon overrules and dictates that I assume a more
practical reaction. Then, as I wait in line, I actually become
irked by the blatant marketing ploy by this supermarket giant.
Do I give freely to what I believe to be a noble cause or do I
wait to see if the teenage cashier’s negligence will afford me a
free soft drink? We should all give to a charity that helps those
who have sacrificed for us as Americans; it’s the least we can
do. This shouldn’t be a game in which I can win a free drink.
After scanning the final item in my cart, the listless cashier
attending the register with a drone-like voice asks me the same
question he has been instructed to ask for the duration of his
shift: “Would you like to give to the Wounded Warrior
Project?” My dilemma has now reached a crossroads, and I am
forced to make a decision. Not wanting to be a heartless person,
I chalk up another five dollars to my already exorbitant grocery

2. bill for a charity I assume will help the people I feel are most
worthy of my cash. Ultimately, how am I supposed to know
where that money goes? Unfortunately, too many of the current
generation of charities tug on the heart strings of our humanity,
causing us to blindly relinquish our hard earned money to some
not-so-worthy causes.
In 2013, The Tampa Bay Times and Center for
Investigative Reporting, in conjunction with CNN, revealed in
an article, Above the Law: America’s Worst Charities, the “fifty
worst charities” in America based on earnings to charitable
spending ratio. This year long collaborative investigation
audited “nearly 6,000 charities that have chosen to pay for-
profit companies to raise their donations.” Within a decade of
fundraising, the total earnings reached “$1.4 billion”, of which
“970.6 million” went to solicitors or “fundraisers” to further
their monetary revenue. That is a calculated average of
approximately sixty nine percent, based on the figures presented
in the Tampa Bay Times online database. The same database
and figures expose a shocking truth: “less than four percent”
was distributed as aid towards the mission statement of these
fifty charities according to the same article.
Millions of dollars continue to funnel in to the shameless
organizations each year largely due in part to our complacency
as a society and the desire to feel that we have made a
difference. Watchdog groups have been established to assist in
the much needed effort of “intelligent giving,” as illustrated in
the mission statement of Charity Navigator, one of the leading
charity resource organizations:
Charity Navigator works to guide intelligent giving. By guiding
intelligent giving, we aim to advance a more efficient and
responsive philanthropic marketplace, in which givers and the
charities they support work in tandem to overcome our nation’s
and the world’s most persistent challenges.
Organizations like Charity Navigator and the Better Business
Bureau Wise Giving Alliance (BBBWGA) have completed the
difficult research task of vetting a majority of America’s known

3. charitable foundations. The only step left is to type in a name
and connect the dots. Why then do we spend hours comparing
cents on the dollar when purchasing groceries, yet can ill afford
five minutes to check the credibility, profile and reviews of a
foundation we readily throw our money at? In a CNBC News
report Beware: Online Charity Scams on the Rise staff reporter
Kelley Holland cites a Guidestar.org research poll that reveals
that “9 out of 10 donors say that nonprofit performance is
important.” The very same poll asserts that “only 33 percent of
individual donors, on the other hand, research their giving.”
One hundred percent would be dumbfounded and outraged if
they were to discover either most or all of their charitable
donations were, instead, pocketed by a for-profit CEO.
The disreputable fund raising methods and indiscriminant
spending by fraudulent or shady organizations does not preclude
us from giving to our favorite worth-while cause. It simply
implies that we as a society need to become and remain more
vigilant to whom we give and how we donate. While a year-long
research study and audit of ten years of tax documents may not
be feasible in helping us to make our decisions to freely
relinquish five measly bucks, asking a few simple questions and
researching the organizations we donate to will provide the
peace of mind in knowing that we have made a difference for
the less fortunate. No better words can summarize such a
critical point than the Russian proverb made famous by Ronald
Reagan: “Trust but verify.”
Works Cited
"America's Worst Charities." America's Worst Charities. Tampa
Bay Times, 15 Nov. 2013.
http://www.tampabay.com/topics/specials/worst-charities.page.
Accessed 16 July 2016.
Holland, Kelley. "Beware: Online Charity Scams on the Rise -
NBC News." NBC News. CNBC News, 01 Dec. 2013.
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/beware-online-charity-
scams-rise-2d11674410. Accessed 18 July 2014.

4. Hundley, Kris. "Above the Law: America's Worst Charities."
CNN. Cable News Network, June 2013.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/worst-charities/. Accessed
20 July 2016.
Hundley, Kris, and Kendall Taggart. "America's Worst
Charities." Tampa Bay Times. Tampa Bay Times, 06 June 2013.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/worst-charities/. Accessed
18 July 2016.
Money for Good II. Rep. Hope Consulting, 2011. Web
PDF/Money for Good II. Hope Consulting, Nov. 2011.
http://www.multivu.com/players/English/52621-guidestar-and-
hope-consulting-money-for-good-II/. Accessed Web. 15 July
2016.
Porzucki, Nina. "Suzanne Massie Taught President Ronald
Reagan This Important Russian Phrase: 'Trust, but Verify'"
Public Radio International. Public Radio International, 7 Mar.
2014. http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-03-07/suzanne-massie-
taught-president-ronald-reagan-important-russian-phrase-trust .
Accessed 16 July 2016.
Suggested Current Issues in Public Policy and Administration
Research Paper Topics
· Agenda Setting and Policy Making
· Privatization
· Public Choice Theory
· Intergovernmental Relations
· An American Fear/Loathing of Bureaucracy
· Organizational Studies and the Worker
· Civil Service Reform
· Inclusion and Exclusion

5. · Budgets as Policy Documents
· Formal and Informal Organizations
· The impact of reinventing government on public organizations
· Factors affecting employee satisfaction
· Decision-Making Theories
· Effective Communication
· Citizen Participation in Public Organizations
· Organizational culture
· Street-Level Bureaucracy
· Mentoring
· Discretion in Public Sector Organizations
· Alternative management styles within organizations
· Participative management
· Leadership within organizations
· Public service motivation
· Group conflict within organizations
· E-Government
· Technology within organizations
· Alternative organizational structures
· Motivation and performance
· Centralization and decentralization of authority
· Effective organizational communication

6. · Managing Conflict within organizations
· Relationship between organizational culture and merging
organizations
· The impact of alternative employment relationships (i.e. use of
temporary workers) on organizational behavior
· Administrative reform in China, Nigeria, Mexico, or another
nation
· Administrative reform of the United Nations
· Aging population and the pension/medical care time bomb (in
the US, Western Europe, or Japan)
· Anti-corruption strategies (foreign government/international
non-governmental organizations would work best here)
· Civil service reform in developing nations
· New public management
· New public governance
Paper Organization Guidelines
Good writing is clear thinking made evident, but too often we
find writing without enough of the underlying thinking. It’s
seductive to worry about the external appearance of writing,
finding just the right font style and formatting, putting off the
harder work of reasoning out the underlying message. Any
good long-form research essay writing requires an
understanding of the key moving parts: including study
justification, concept explication, and a narrowing down of the
research questions. Organizing a paper clearly, with a clear
logical structure, is a difficult task, given that most of us have
been trained to write using simple word processor programs like
MSWord with its inherent linear, stream-of-writing bias. That’s
why I recommend writing with an outline as a tool to help
visualize and easily manipulate your paper’s structure. That, in
turn, helps establish a logical flow as you set out an issue and
elaborate on key topics, and it supports inductive sorting and
grouping of related points as they are developed.

7. Some suggested formats for the paper:
1. Polemic in Defense of Public Administration/Management
Your polemic is “an argument, especially one that is a
refutation or an attack upon a specified opinion, doctrine, or the
like.” For example, MPA students in Texas have written on
“The Trial Court System in Texas: A Case for Bureaucracy in
the Third Branch.” Your polemic should not be a blind defense
of bureaucracy out of loyalty to your agency, individuals, or a
doctrine. Rather, it requires you to confront the myths and
stereotypes surrounding public administration and bureaucracy
and to explore the utility and effectiveness of bureaucracy with
evidence and eloquence. One can use Charles Goodsell’s book,
The Case for Bureaucracy, 4th edition, as a reference.
2. Policy Analysis
This paper analyzes a significant public policy from a series of
perspectives, including, but not limited to the following: 1)
administrative, 2) efficiency, 3) social equity or justice, 4) legal
& political; and 5) economic. Policy analysis originates in
politics, channeling political conflict while building
community. He also points out that policy analysis serves
opposing sides. While cases and public policies may differ, but
the following questions help you to structure a paper. 1. What
is the policy problem? Define it specifically and present your
problem statement. Make sure you are clear as to the policy
goals. 2. What are the value conflicts? 3. What is the context of
the policy (administrative, political, legal, etc.)? 4. What are the
relevant facts? Describe what happened and the influential
actors and their institutional contexts. Who supports the policy
and who does not? Why or why not? 5. What public
administration theories and analytical approaches are relevant
for understanding and evaluating this policy problem? 6.
Analysis: What are the central issues raised by the policy case?
7. Analysis: What are the major factors in the development of
the policy, the implementation of the policy, or the evaluation

8. of the policy? 8. What are the costs/benefits of the policy and
which groups are affected? 9. What alternatives are appropriate
for addressing this policy problem? Why are these approaches
appropriate? 10. What recommendations emerge from this
analysis? Justify them. 11. What are the conclusion and the
political implications?
3. A Position Paper
A position paper is similar to a policy analysis. This assignment
marshals the arguments in support of or against a specific
policy, program, or issue. Normally, the best form for a position
paper is to present the opposing arguments in their best light,
and then expose their weaknesses. After that, the writer is
obliged to offer a suitable substitute and argue why it is better.
The conclusion should also point out why this issue is important
to public administration and the role of government (or
governments).
ENG 111 Documented Essay / What’s Next: A
Look Ahead
“Research is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is
research is made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house,
and a collection of facts is not necessarily research.”
Henri Poincare
This essay provides an introduction to research and using
documented outside sources in your writing. Document means
that you include reference information for sources in your essay
and then list these citations at the end of the essay according to
MLA style format.
For this essay you should write an essay presenting a “new”
idea for readers that is supported by credible expert sources.

9. You should not write report on an idea that readers know a lot
about or are fairly familiar with.
Note this: Your essay should offer readers something valuable
about a chosen topic and your perspective on it—the guiding
theme for this semester is this: What’s Next: A Look Ahead
(your essay must consider what the future holds related to your
issue or topic)
The primary characteristic of this essay requires that you take
an active role in selecting a topic that genuinely interests you
and that you need or desire to know more about. This is
important. This essay is not a report or telling of facts about a
topic that readers will not care about.
To receive full credit, this essay should be written in four
integrated sections:
1. Create Context indicating a reason to write about this
particular topic
2. Reveal a significant point that readers will benefit knowing
about
3. Present common assumptions, beliefs, ideas then focus on a
new perspective or point
4. Support your ideas/claims with information and relevant
examples from credible cited sources
You should use 3 reputableanddiverse sources (print or non-
print current articles, books and reliable Internet websites).
The authors of these sources should be credentialed (tell who
they are and why we should believe them) in your essay and
have credible reputations. You should use a Figure an
image/photo/graph as part of your essay and one block passage

10. (5 line or more passage from a source).
You must integrate and credential quoted phrases and limit the
citing of full sentences from these sources in your essay.
You must prepare and include a short properly MLA formatted
Works Cited section for your essay.