Lupus Foundation of America, Inc.

Some of their agents can be very rude. They are very picky. They don't deserve any donations. Save your donations or money for other charity organizations.
I donated the stuff listed on their website. They say they will accept those items. It turns out It took me an hour to put my donations on the road side. They don't want any.

Made reservations for pick up two weeks in advance. Confirmed their call back. Spent time to gather nice items to donate. 7 am, paid someone to put 7 heavy boxes out front, clearly for driver to see. 7:15 pm box still there. Called foundation. They said my property was missed and would send a truck another 5 days later. I told them forget it. I had to transfer items to the car while dealing with an injury in the dark. Told them to remove my name from their list and to never, ever call me again. Too many other foundations to choose from that will follow through. Done with them. Quite inefficient. They need to have a validation from their drivers that items were picked up.

I contact the Lupus Foundation's national office to get help for my wife. After a few years of trying to figure out what is wrong with her (painful joints and all), she was diagnosed with Lupus. We'd never heard about it before and the Doctor's office suggested we contact Lupus. We did.

We got nothing from them. They did suggest we read their website as 'all the information you need is there'. Given my wife's other complications, we were hoping for something more than 'search the internet' for help. My wife cried when she heard this advice. She's been in pain for quite a while and this struck us like a doctor saying: take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning.

Disappointed.

Sadly, the Lupus Foundation of America ranks among the worst non-profit organizations in the US. The leadership cares less about helping those with Lupus and their families and is entirely focused on their egos and appearances. They have become infatuated with metrics that are meaningless and fail to serve or help the public. Sad. And very sad for those suffering and enduring with Lupus

To the Better Business Bureau:

I am filing a formal letter of complaint with you regarding some of the employees in the Lupus Foundation of America, Pacific Northwest Division and their Headquarters.

At a time, I did want to donate money to the LFA and volunteer with their organization to help find a cure and create awareness for lupus. However, There is now no way anymore that I am donating to or helping the LFA to pay such lazy and incompetent CEOs, etc.,in the company, that don't listen to lupus patients and the public, and can't even pass on a simple message to contact me back about a lupus walk and public speaking inquiry that I placed. In addition, one of the CEO's slandered/defamed my name to other employees in the LFA.

This was the order of events:

Out of the entire 6-7 months of this year 2014, I have spoken to Celia Weismann, the CEO of the Pacific Northwest Chapter, only twice.

In winter of 2014, While we were discussing the potential fundraiser, I called and left a message for them to call me back to let them know that I would no longer do the fundraiser and provide them the valid reasons why. They never did call back, and I was still going to talk to them about walks and public speaking.

Months later, On June 19, 2014, I got around to put in another phone call to Ms. Weismann to follow up all the way from winter, since she chose never to communicate. Although I told her that I decided not to do the fundraiser with her, I did inquire to her about public speaking and participating in a lupus walk. She told me that 'they are always looking for speakers", and that she 'would have someone contact me from the Los Angeles area." As I patiently waited to hear back for those two things, the LFA had still not gotten back to me.

I followed up a week later again to Ms. Weisman, since I still didn't hear back from her. Ms. Weismann then sent an email to Jeanna Cullinan, Allie Kunzig, Kimberly Sandhu, slandering my name in the email.

Jeanne Cullinan then finally emailed me after all of the above went on, and told me that a "Laurie Gray" would be contacting me.

Still, no one contacted me.

Clearly, the attitudes of some of these individuals in the LFA need to change for the better, along with their listening skills and professionalism, at the very least.

Such undesirable attitudes and behaviors are exactly what drive people away from wanting to volunteer and help the organization and give money to the LFA. Furthermore, such bad attitudes, inefficient communication, and just plain rudeness, are also big reasons for why the LFA continues to be underfunded.
Such individuals in the LFA are halting the goal of finding a cure for lupus. This is just bad business.

They want the money and hard labor from people outside the LFA, but they don't want to do their side of the work for it.

Obviously, I have no desire anymore to help this organization. I will no longer become a member of the LFA, nor will I volunteer my time anymore with them, as I was planning on before. I will also be letting the communities know that they should not support the LFA due to their unprofessional ism, unwillingness to provide proper support for raising funds to find a cure, and laziness in not wanting to do their end in helping raise enough money for finding a cure.

These individuals in the LFA need to ask themselves why they get periodic complaints all the time. They are the ones responsible for communicating effectively to the public and truly helping find a cure. They need to be held more accountable.

My number is below if you have any further questions. I do have further evidence of the libel, slander, and defamation of character, upon request.

Best regards,



Side note: In addition to the above, the BBB might want to take this up further with the LFA's HR department as I have received
anonymous complaints and cries out for help.

It appears that the people in management positions are not letting their employees know of people who they can contact that handle complaints objectively.

DOESN'T the LFA have a human resource department???

I've heard possible racist issues, sexist issues, mild harassment cases going on, etc.

My recommendation is that HR talk to *all* and EACH of the employees of the Pacific Northwest chapter and the LFA Headquarters, not limited to those chapters, so that everyone gets heard.

I have asked this charity not to call me and take me off their phone list at least a dozen times. They don't want to do this. I will never donate to this charity.

I have received numerous calls from this charity. And, depsite asking them to remove my name & phone number from their calling list, I still receive calls. I work from home and this is extremely disruptive andannoying.

I donated for my cousin but got on their mailing list. I hate it when you donate to an organization and then they start sending you glossy magazines and spending money to get you to donate more. Why a glossy magazine? I donated without them asking and resent that they are after me for more money. I left of VM to get me off their list completely - we'll see if it works.

Foundations. Charities. They do great things and need donors, of which, I often donate to charities of my choice based on that charities mission and fiscal responsibility. What I don't want is for an organization, this one, calling my home phone a few times per week while I am at work and letting the voice mail system go to the point of recording, just for them to hang up immediately. Now I am coming home everyday picking up the phone to wait for the prompt, entering my password, and finally deleting a half second message. If their mission is to pester individuals into donating by making multiple calls per week, then I want no part in it.