Montana Wounded Warriors clarification

Well, the cat is out of the bag. 

What many of us involved with military service organizations have know for some time has finally been made public in a big way.  Wounded Warriors Project misuses much of the donations it receives.  We have heard claims by former veterans who were employed by WWP  who have told us that either they felt their status as wounded veterans was being exploited by the organization to raise funds or that the funds donated to the organization were being misused. Anyone who looked into the organization knew that the people running the organization were being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary that could have been used to help our returning wounded veterans.   I think the figures used that state 60 percent of funds donated for veterans services is probably high and could  well be under 50 percent. 

I would like everyone in Montana to know that Montana Wounded Warriors is a separate organization which has never been affiliated with WWP and never will be.   We are a stand alone 501(c)3 nonprofit based here in Flathead County. We have no paid staff, we don’t throw lavish parties and call them training sessions. We raise funds to serve our returning wounded Montana veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  We focus on taking these wounded veterans on high quality hunting and fishing trips right here in our state.  The funds we receive from our generous donors make sure that our vets have no out of pocket cost.  We pay for transportation, food, lodging, ammo, outfitters, meat processing, taxidermy and any other cost that might be associated with our trips.  

These trips allow us to take any where from  two to 12 wounded vets out together to bond and heal.  We feel that the best therapy for our combat vets to deal with their wounds is to be around other combat wounded veterans with the same experiences. We have also started to provide service dogs and help with  food donations to those veterans in need. 

We have been doing this for the last five years and have been able to increase the number of trips and services to our veterans  because of the generous donations we have received from the great people of the State of Montana who have supported our mission.  The residents of this state respect and support those who have served in the military.  They also want to show those who have been wounded physically and mentally in combat how much they appreciate their sacrifice to preserve our freedom. 

You might run into a wounded vet who has been on one of our trips or you may have seen our website at montanawoundedwarriors.org cruising the Internet but you will never receive a letter in the mail or see a commercial on TV asking for your donation.  If you ever do donate to our organization please realize that your funds will be used to benefit our wounded veterans to the fullest extend possible.

Neil Baumann, Columbia Falls

Board member, Montana Wounded Warriors