Some 9/11 funds have failed

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Americans eager to give after the 9/11 terrorist attacks poured $1.5 billion into hundreds of charities established to serve the victims, their families and their memories. But a decade later, an Associated Press investigation shows that many of those nonprofits have failed miserably.

There are those that spent huge sums on themselves, those that cannot account for the money they received, those that have few results to show for their spending and those that have yet to file required income-tax returns. Yet many of the charities continue to raise money in the name of Sept. 11.

One charity raised more than $700,000 for a giant memorial quilt, but there is no quilt. Another raised more than $4 million to help victims but didn’t account publicly for how it spent all of the money. A third helps support a 9/11 flag sold by the founder’s for-profit company.

There are other charities that can account for practically every penny raised — except that all the money went to pay for fundraising, and not the intended mission.

To be sure, most of the 325 charities identified by the AP followed the rules, accounted fully for their expenditures and closed after fulfilling identified goals.

There have been charities to assist ill and dying first responders, to help families of the dead, to help survivors and to honor the memory of victims. And there are charities that revolve around the flag, patriotism, motorcycle rallies and memorials of all sizes and shapes.

But in virtually every category of 9/11 nonprofit, an AP analysis of tax documents and other official records uncovered schemes beset with shady dealings, questionable expenses and dubious intentions. Many of those still raising money are small, founded by people with no experience running a nonprofit.

The Arizona-based charity that raised $713,000 for a 9/11 memorial quilt promised it would be big enough to cover 25 football fields, but there are only several hundred decorated sheets packed in boxes at a storage unit.

One-third of the money raised went to the charity’s founder and relatives, according to tax records and interviews.

Those records show founder Kevin Held also spent more than $170,000 on travel since 2004. He also listed $36,691 in credit-card and bank charges since 2005 and $10,460 for an expense listed as “petty” in 2009.

The chairman of the board, an 84-year-old Roman Catholic priest, says he didn’t know he was chairman and thought that only small amounts of money had been raised. He says he was unaware that the founder had given himself a $200 per week car allowance, rent reimbursement and a $45,000 payment for an unreported loan.