On September 1st the annual Combined Federal Campaign will begin.  Most troops will know this because a unit rep will come and ask them if they want to donate.  Contributions can be made automatically from a servicemember’s paycheck.

As has been noted before, the CFC hosts a wide variety of “charities,” including groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Focus on the Family.  This year, Michael Weinstein likely hopes to make up his year’s losses, as his MRFF appears within the CFC as a “charity” for the first time.

Ironically, his MRFF is listed in the same federation as a group saying it is a “specialized missionary agency designed to win and train the military for Jesus Christ.”  He must be biting his tongue.

A special CFC website allows you to look up virtually any charity within the CFC, and it gives you a snapshot as well as link to the organization’s website.  You can also contribute now, if you so desire.

It also tells you the amount of money, in percentage, used by the group in “administrative and fundraising,” or overhead.  For example,

• FFRF: 9.3%
• Family Research Council: 15.5%
• Focus on the Family: 16.9%
• OCF: 18.4%
• ACLU: 13.7%
• Americans United for Separation of Church and State: 24.4%

and

• MRFF: 36.6%

Ouch.  And that’s probably mostly Weinstein’s paycheck. Weinstein paid himself just over 36% of the donations to his “charity” in 2011, the last year for which data is available.

To be fair, Weinstein’s group wasn’t the highest.  (The Air Force Memorial Foundation lists 43.2%, for example.)  But finances have never been Weinstein’s strong point, and his favorite refrain is how he’s just a little David bravely fighting “well funded” Goliaths out to take over the world.  Turns out, he’s pretty “well funded” himself, though the “charity” he runs that’s paying his salary might be suffering.

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