These calls come at all hours ---early morn to late nite --- never leave a message. I have started answering & immediately hang up --- maybe they will get tired of it & quit calling --- we can hope!
Long message. I finally blocked their number after many calls I did not answer. Someone at another site advised this charity goes by the name, "Associated Community Services" "AC Services." When I entered Associated Community Services into CharityNavigator, I got the name "Associated Community Services" "AC Services." When I entered Associated Community Services into CharityNavigator, I got the name "Disabled Veterans Services."
I am a veteran and check out charities before I give. My few dollars need to go as far toward helping people as they can. Therefore, I give monthly to Special Operations Warrior Foundation (FL) with a 98.96% rating, 4 stars CharityNavigator.com had this to say about Associated Community Services:
Charity Navigator has become aware of the following information in connection with this charity:
On August 24, 2013, News 21 reported that Disabled Veterans Services (DVS) "reported raising more than $8 million in cash and nearly $4 million in donated goods that it claimed would help disabled and homeless veterans. But barely a nickel of each dollar the charity raised in cash went directly to help veterans." The article goes on to say that "although it claimed to have sent about $2.5 million in donated drugs and medical supplies to a Boston homeless shelter, the shelter said it received just one shipment worth about $210,000." For more information, please see the News 21 report.
The August 24, 2013, News 21 investigative story, also reported that between 2008 and 2011 the charity spent "86 cents of every dollar on private fundraising companies and telemarketers (see the charity’s Statement of Functional Expenses and its Schedule G from the Form 990) and tasked with drumming up more money… [and that] another 9 cents of every dollar was paid to private management consultants." The article says that most of the management consultant fees went "to a company named FUM Management, which lists as its business address a mailbox in a UPS Store about six miles from the DVS office. For managing the charity, it was paid $340,000 in 2011 (see the charity’s Schedule L from the Form 990). Since 2008, DVS paid a total of about $740,000 in ’management fees,’ though it does not specify to whom, other than that paid to FUM in 2011. The full extent of FUM’s connection to the charities is an intricate one; Jamie O’Bryan is named president of FUM Management and was listed in records as DVS’ president working 10 hours a week, according to the charity’s 2008 tax records. She lives with Doug Sailors, a convicted money launderer who calls himself a management consultant for FUM. Both were evicted from a luxury townhome in Pompano Beach and now live together in a million-dollar home in Lighthouse Point, Fla." For more information, please see the News 21 report.
Charity Navigator, as an impartial evaluator of publicly reported financial information, takes no position on allegations made or issues raised by third parties, nor does Charity Navigator seek to confirm or verify the accuracy of allegations made or the merits of issues raised by third parties that may be referred to in the Donor Advisory. However, Charity Navigator has determined that the nature of this/these issue(s) warrants making this information available so that donors may determine for themselves whether such information is relevant to their decision whether to contribute to this organization. (See How we decide to post a Donor Advisory).