Starbucker wrote:
Chuck,

I have always considered any charity that spends less than 10% of it's
contributions on administration and fund raising, as an extremely reputable
and efficient charity. My favorite charity spends 3% on admin and fund
raising.

The BBB uses 35% for admin and fund raising as their criteria for evaluating
reputable charities. The AIMS is not listed on www.Give.org ,
http://www.charitywatch.org/, or http://www.charitynavigator.org/. This is
normally a red flag.

What percent of AIM's contributions are used for admin and fund raising?
This info was not available on AIMS web site, which is another red flag to
look at the charity closely before contributing.

I never made any representations as to the specific percentages spent
for programs. I refered those inquiries to our accounting office. Very
few of the donors even gave a rats patoot about the nature of the org's
programs, they were all primarily interested in dumping their boat for
a combinatin of a little cash and a tax writeoff. (IRS approved
"bargain sale")

Less was spent on programs than could have been, but I know of a couple
of similar programs where almost *nothing* was spent on programs.
Enough was spent to qualify as a 501C3.
I am sure the organization spent far more than some on administration
and fund raising
than some groups and far less than others. One of the accounting
problems you run into with a "boat donation" organization is the very
high and continuing cost of maintaining donated vessels and moorage,
etc. There are more costs than are involved with a group that simply
deposits checks into a bank account and then writes smaller checks in
return. I can tell you that the overhead for my services was in the 15%
bracket, (of the boats that I personally received on donation and
resold).

Another challenge is that the percentage would vary from time to time.
When I joined up with this group in Seattle, they were having a real
tough go of it. Very few people were donating boats, and just paying
the office rent and keeping the lights turned on probably used up
something in the high double digits of the money actually coming in.
During the time I was there the number of donations just happened to go
up significantly, (we received an average of one boat per week) and
programs expanded as a result.

The organization may not appear on your approved charities list for a
number or reasons. One of which is that it, and most boat donation
programs, are now out of business due to a change in the tax law. And,
it may never have been run efficiently enough to qualify in the first
place.
We were on some approved lists when I was there in the late 90's, but I
can't remember which lists those were.

Your post is a perfect example. If you had approached me in the late
90's as a prospective boat donor with the concerns you expressed here,
I would have told you; "We do a significant amount funding and
charitable work. Our accounting office can give you more specific
details. Most of our donors are more motivated by the tax benefits than
by the exact nature of the work the Institute does, and the tax
benefits do not change based upon the administrative overhead of any
specific agency or organization. If after checking with your attorney
or tax advisor you want to make a donation but you are not satisfied
with the results of your research into our programs and would prefer to
donate elsewhere, that would be your option. I'm happy to explain who
we are and how the program works- you need to decide if it's the right
thing for you to do, or not. You can always sell your boat directly and
give the cash to whatever group you like." ((Of course 90% of the
boats we received on donations were from sellers who had despaired of
the sales process and just wanted to be "rid" of the boat, so few
thought that continuing a private sales process and donating the cash
was a good idea.))