My Nonprofit Reviews

This organization is now known as Lupus Foundation of America-DC/MD/VA Chapter. Not sure where to begin with the cons of this chapter. Please note that the majority of reviews online at this site is written by either former or current staff or board members. To an outside bystander that should be your first red flag. As a former volunteer I have to say that I am very disappointed by organization. The disappointment hits you slowly. The staff tend to be nice people (although good luck in keeping up with who's who on the rotating positions) And their niceness sucks you in. But when you start to ask yourself what does this organization do? And did the stuff I worked on made a difference in the life of someone who has lupus? You start to figure it all out.....just about every single you do is related to fundraising!! And the other 5%? Awareness!
Awareness? What is awareness? You know the stuff that many organizations claim as part of their mission but what is awareness exactly? A competent organization would be able to answer this question effectively for you. Not LFA-DMV. Awareness at LFA-DMV is a warm gooey mess that suppose to make you feel are good inside about how you're helping people. Let's get real. LFA-DMV inflates the # of people it helps. On any given day at a typical support group you will find an avg of 3-5 people in attendance----on a good day. Yet LFA-DMV would have you believe that they are actively providing services for the 85,000 people living with lupus in the dc/md/va area. Umm LFA-DMV doesn't even have 85,000 people on their mailing list! (I know I worked on their databases and mailing lists) So you're probably thinking so what if the # is inflated. Nonprofits inflate the # of those served all the time. What you should find shocking is that the total # of people LFA-DMV DIRECTLY HELPS is less than 1,000! So the shock is that these people are so brazen in their lies! How does LFA-DMV justify the #s they provide? Well first they try to make you think they are somehow providing service to all those afflicted with lupus with the DC/MD/VA area. That’s where the 85,000 # comes from. The second way is through health fairs. The will count the # of people who attend a health fair as the # of people they provided awareness too. Think about that. Not the # of people who may come to their table to get information. Just the # of warm bodies who walks into the health fair. The third way they count is to use the # of participants at their walks as people who were provided awareness-(and thus their services….see how that works out? I won’t even go into how the # for walkers and participants are over inflated!!! I hope I been able to provide a peek behind the wizard’s curtain into the inner working of the LFA-DMV. Their CEO & President gets high praise. She’s also paid well over $120,000. For an organization who’s 2010 annual revenue was $636,414 seems a bit excessive to me. Like Wall Street excessive. I’m looking forward to seeing the 990 for 2011. Wonder what’s taking so long?

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