This "Kars 4 Kids" charity has bothered me for a long time. It just seemed too generic. Like it was a front for something. Their stupid ad is all over the radio, every day. What charity can afford to constantly advertise on radio and highway billboards? And the billboards have pictures of cute little kids.... like "Awww... donate your old car, save the children!"
So today, after hearing that stupid "1-877 kars for kids" jingle for the billionth time, I decided to do a little digging. It took all of 2 minutes of Google searching to discover this charity funnels the proceeds from the scrapped autos to a group promoting orthodox Jewish education with flights to Israel and Jewish summer camp:
[[ In 2005, $2.8 million of JOY’s $3.1 million total program services expenses went to an organization called Oorah, according to JOY’s 501 (c)3 tax form for 2005.
Oorah’s goal, according to its Web site, is to awaken Jewish children and their families to their heritage, by sending them to Jewish day schools, or yeshivos, or even helping pay for their airfare to, or education in, Israel.
“While the children learn and grow, we bring adult education opportunities to the parents, as well as all the ritual objects and support they need to live a full Jewish life,” the organization reports. ]]
It's not that I have a problem with orthodox Jews. But I do have a huge problem with deceptive advertising like this. It's almost as bad as big sunglasses (almost).
Here's the full story: Charity News Stories - Scams
Youtube: WPIX Fact Finders
4 comments:
sometimes i just hate my people
that's a pretty fucked up and misleading appropriation of donation funds, but at least it's better than the "donate your car to the blind" adds i've seen on buses. seriously, what are blind people going to do with a car? that just sounds so dangerous.
I'll go with Don here. Religion even manages to ruin good things like charity and A.A.
Kars 4 Kids is a car donation program that uses the proceeds to help children. We are a genuine charity and run real programs to assist as many children as possible. Complaints about our services are extremely rare. If for some reason a car doesn’t get picked up as scheduled or a receipt is slow in coming, we take care of it. Nobody can say—and nobody does say – that Kars4Kids fails to perform the service it advertises.
Those that think that Kars4Kids hides its Jewish affiliation should simply look on our website. Many people log onto an organization’s website before they make charitable donations. If they want to know who runs the organization and what it does. Kars4Kids’ potential donors, if they follow that procedure, find out immediately that they are giving their money to JOY, a fundraising organization that donates its proceeds to Oorah, and that Oorah promotes Jewish education and values as the cornerstone of its overall service to disadvantaged Jewish children.
Kars 4 Kids helps children of all Jewish beliefs through Oorah providing plain old-fashioned charity – food baskets, food money, clothing donations and so forth. We distribute tens of thousands of dollars worth of goods and money each year to help our families properly clothe and feed their families and meet the expenses of holiday celebrations.
And we don’t just step in, do a quick fix and walk away, thinking “job done.” Oorah sticks with its families for decades. After the children complete high school, Oorah sends children to Israel where they spend their post-high school year in an atmosphere that helps them adjust their moral and religious compass as they head out into the adult world. This one year abroad has saved many kids from falling into a drugs-and-promiscuity culture when they get to college. We even give them pre-nuptial counseling when the time comes for marriage.
Overall, Kars 4 Kids provides the services promised in a timely manner. We work to ensure a smooth experience for our donors, and step in to help if there are ever any problems. We minimize our expenses and maximize on our proceeds to help as many children as possible.
Post a Comment