Diabetes 'Charity' Appears on Newspaper's Worst Charities List

The Tampa Bay Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting have published their list of America's 50 worst charities, and there's a diabetes charity among them.

Their criteria for inclusion is rather simple: the more money a charity spends on soliciting donations, the worse it is. Not only does it mean that less money goes towards actually helping the people the charity is supposed to be helping, it also means that the charity is a de facto business generator for solicitors, for companies who operate fundraisers for these charities.

The overwhelming majority of charities on the list have names that are designed to be misleading. For example, we all know of the Make-a-Wish Foundation. But how many have heard of these charities, which claim to do the same thing but appear on the Times' list this year at number one and number three:

- Kids Wish Network
- Children's Wish Foundation International

This is a common theme on the list, with cancer charities, veteran's organizations and associations representing police and firefighters being the ones most often aped by these unscrupulous organizations.

Defeat Diabetes Foundation

At number 31 on this year's list is the Defeat Diabetes Foundation, located in Madeira Beach, Florida. If you donate to this organization, you might want to do some deeper research.

According to the Times, over the last decade this foundation has raised $13.8 million in cash donations. $8.3 million of that money has been paid to for-profit fundraising companies. Meanwhile, they have spent about $10,000 over the last ten years towards direct aid to people with diabetes.

A good chunk of the money they take in goes towards paying the costs of charity founder Andy Mandell's speaking engagements, where he calls himself "Mr. Diabetes."

See the Times' full list here.