Donald Trump has typically terrible taste when it comes to charities

A miffed Republican presidential frontrunner, Donald Trump, is skipping tonight’s 9 p.m. GOP candidate debate and has deliberately scheduled an overlapping charity event at the same time.

Trump characteristically chose a can’t-miss choice of a charity to benefit from his narcissistic event -- the Wounded Warrior Project, which assists military veterans. Who could not generate sympathy and support for a nonprofit group to aid Wounded Warriors?

Well, Trump apparently has no qualms about the fact that the Wounded Warrior Project has faced scathing criticism and is rated as one of the worst pro-veterans charities in the nation.  

In typical fashion, for Trump the WWP’s appeal isn’t cost-effectiveness or frugality, instead it seems to center on their splashy form of raising money by enlisting celebrities, engaging in hugely expensive TV ads, and spending lavishly on executive perks.

Dozens of former WWP employees have come forward over the past year to denounce the charitable group’s extravagant spending on parties, first-class flights, dinners, booze and five-star hotels.

Some of these disenchanted ex-employees, a group that includes wounded veterans, questioned the nonprofit’s approach toward delivering social services. In response, they heard a refrain from their bosses that is particularly pleasing to Trump: “You’re fired.”

According to the watchdog group Charity Navigator, the Wounded Warriors group spends about 40 percent of its income and donations on administrative costs, marketing, advertising and overhead, not on services to help wounded American soldiers.

In contrast, other veterans groups such as the Semper Fi Fund, Disabled American Veterans  and the Fisher House devote more than 90 percent of their funds directly to veterans services.  

Using vets' injuries to make money
At the same time, the WWP, the nation’s largest and fastest-growing charity for vets, rakes in far more money than any other veterans group. Its ultra-patriotic sales pitch results in nearly $400 million in annual donations. According to one report, the majority of that money comes from senior citizens.

Millette

One whistleblower who stepped forward was former Army Staff Sgt. Erick Millette, who came home from Iraq in 2006 with a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, a traumatic brain injury and PTSD.

In 2013, he took a job with the WWP but after two years he quit. He explained to CBS News his distressing conclusions about the nonprofit organization as he departed:

"You're using our injuries, our darkest days, our hardships, to make money. So you can have these big parties.

"… Let's get a Mexican mariachi band in there, let's get maracas made with [the] WWP logo, put them on every staff member's desk. Let's get it catered and have a big old party.

"… Going to a nice fancy restaurant is not 'team building.' Staying at a lavish hotel at the beach here in Jacksonville, and requiring staff that lives in the area to stay at the hotel is not 'team building.'”

All of this seems to fit in nicely with Trump’s ludicrous lifestyle, including the gold-plated walls and Roman columns in his Manhattan penthouse, which resembles one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces.

Wounded Warriors, the supposedly philanthropic organization, gradually attracted public attention after Charity Watch, an independent monitoring group, gave the WWP a “D” rating in 2011. It has not given it a grade higher than C since.

CEO never served in military
The CEO of the WWP is 45-year-old lawyer Steven Nardizzi, who never served in the military. His total compensation from Wounded Warriors in 2014 was $473,000 and he has increased the organization’s spending on PR and fundraising by an average of 66 percent annually. Nardizzi took over in 2009 after reportedly pushing aside the founder of the WWP, who harbored a much more modest vision of the nonprofit group’s mission.

According to the charity's tax forms, spending on conferences and meetings went from $1.7 million in 2010, to $26 million in 2014. CBS News reported that that’s about the same amount the group spends on combat stress recovery -- its top program.

Former employees who became disgusted with the reckless spending point to the group’s 2014 annual meeting at a luxury resort in Colorado Springs as typical of Nardizzi’s style.

Nardizzi

For his entrance, Nardizzi rappelled down the side of a building. At a previous annual conference, he entered riding a horse.

CBS reported that about 500 staff members attended the four-day conference in Colorado. The price tag? About $3 million.

The WWP’s excuse for such extravagance? As Sgt. Millette noted, the explanation is that it leads to “team building” among employees.

$500-per-night hotel rooms According to various publications, including the New York Times' documentation plus interviews with more than 40 current and former employees, here’s the big-picture look at the WWP:

* Former workers recounted buying business-class airline seats and regularly jetting around the country for minor meetings, or staying in $500-per-night hotel rooms.

* When negative news stories emerged, it seemed that a substantial portion of their funding would dry up. No more TV commercials featuring actor Bruce Willis and country singer Trace Adkins. No more gaudiness. Instead, Nardizzi fought back. In 2013, the WWP gave $150,000 to a nonprofit called the Charity Defense Council and Nardizzi joined its advisory board. The council’s mission includes defending charity spending on overhead and executive salaries.

* Nardizzi, became a vocal advocate of the idea that charities should be able to spend what they want on travel, fundraising and executive salaries. He called those expenses “investments” in the Wounded Warriors’ cause. In 2014, the WWP lobbied in California and Florida to fight proposals that would have required nonprofits to increase financial transparency. 

* The WWP has produced more than 50 slickly produced TV commercials to promote its cause and those ads have run routinely, particularly on cable TV. While most corporations balk at the eye-popping price of a Super Bowl TV commercial, Wounded Warriors paid for such an ad during the big game in 2013.