WASHINGTON – The American Institute of Philanthropy’s (AIP) Charity Rating Guide & Watchdog Report has downgraded Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to a “D” rating on a A-F scale in its August 2010 report.
“Under the leadership of CEO Chuck Hurley, MADD further diminished its focus on victim services and educating Americans about the dangers of drunk driving, instead pushing anti-drinking, anti-alcohol public policies,” said American Beverage Institute (ABI) Managing Director Sarah Longwell. “The public needs to realize that MADD isn’t the same group it was 20 years ago.”
MADD has consistently received low ratings from the Charity Rating Guide due to its poor fundraising and spending practices.
According to the AIP, it should cost most charities $35 or less to raise $100. In some years, MADD has spent nearly double that amount. The AIP also says most highly efficient charities are able to spend 75 percent or more of total expenses on charitable programs. In some years, MADD has spent as little as 57 percent on programs. In 2008, MADD spent almost $30 million on salaries and fundraising, leaving just 1/3 of its budget available for charitable work and victim services.
Another charitable giving guide, Charity Navigator, gives MADD an overall rating of 1 out of 4 stars. Charity Navigator reserves this embarrassing basement-level for a charity that “fails to meet industry standards.”
During Hurley’s tenure at MADD, the organization’s revenue declined while Hurley and other officers and directors saw their salaries increase – a whopping 56 percent. In contrast, MADD’s revenue declined nearly one-quarter over the same period. And MADD’s spending on community programs—what a charity should be about—dropped by 17 percent. In 2009, MADD had to lay off 50 employees nationwide—15 percent of its workforce—a move that cut much of the organization’s victim advocacy work.
These financial changes reveal a shift in MADD’s mission. In the words of its own founder Candy Lightner: MADD “has become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned … I didn’t start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving.”
Longwell continued: “MADD’s anti-alcohol agenda includes advocating for alcohol detectors in all cars, sobriety checkpoints and sky-high alcohol taxes. By spending on these new priorities, MADD has diverted money from programs created to help the victims of drunk driving and get dangerous drunk drivers off the roads.”
My primary measure of any program is the results they get. In the 1980s there were about 25,000 drunk driving deaths. This has steadily dropped to the point it is now roughly 12,000 per year even though the population has increased tremendously in that time.
These results would be better with stronger political efforts to jail drunk drivers, especially those who have killed. Now, even a multiple killing drunk driver is still on road in most cases. But huge progress has been made by lowering the alcohol level allowed for drivers and check points. It would also help tremendously if Hollywood stopped promoting drug and alcohol use in their movies – read the movie reviews in your local paper to see that. We have stopped treating drunks as humorous – remember Dean Martinw, Red Skelton and their frequent drunk skits. There were many others. Victims expenses seems to me to be a separate issue, important but not the main focus. So MADD gets results, in part just due to the name of the organization. And the results are measurable, something we should demand of all charities.
One thing does bother me and that would is the high level of the salaries. The other would be the political will to treat drunk driving as a felony – also making all proven drunk driving killers guilty of at least manslaughter and jailed accordingly.
I will continue to support MADD.
Thanks, Marv. Just know that correlation does not necessarily prove causation. One could argue that other entities unaffiliated with MADD or other changes in society have had just as much, if not more, to do with reducing those rates than MADD.