A national charity that vows to help disabled veterans and their families has spent tens of millions on marketing services, all the while doling out massive amounts of candy, hand sanitizer bottles and many other unnecessary items to veteran aid groups, according to a CNN investigation.
The Disabled Veterans National Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., and founded in 2007, received about $55.9 million in donations since it began operations in 2007, according to publicly available IRS 990 forms.
Yet according to the DVNF's tax filings with the IRS, almost none of that money has wound up in the hands of American veterans.
Instead, the charity made significant payments to Quadriga Art LLC, which owns two direct-mail fundraising companies hired by the DNVF to help garner donations, according to publicly available IRS 990 forms.