Charity Officials Amplify on Spending Reports

I am writing concerning “United Way Scandal Puts Charities Under Scrutiny” (March 30) regarding charities and the percentage of contributions used for charitable purposes. It was reported that the Orangewood Children’s Foundation raised $2,075,879 in 1990, yet spent only $847,357 on behalf of abused and neglected children.

Unfortunately, the article failed to mention that $1 million was raised in 1990 as part of a capital campaign to expand Orangewood Children’s Home; $760,071 of this was not spent until 1991 when we broke ground for the construction of additional facilities. Consequently, these expenditures were not part of our 1990 IRS Form 990 report.

This clarification is extremely important to us since we have always taken pride in the fact that we exercise good stewardship concerning charitable donations made to Orangewood. We have only five paid employees, no paid fund-raising staff and our administrative overhead is only 10% of funds raised. This is possible because of the fund-raising efforts of our 25-member board of directors and countless volunteers.

As was mentioned in the article, “The public has a high degree of trust in nonprofits. (Yet) it’s a fragile relationship that can he destroyed overnight.” Hopefully Orangewood will continue to enjoy the generosity of our community. Certainly, thousands of abused and neglected children are counting on this support.

WILLIAM G. STEINER, Executive Director, Orangewood Children’s Foundation, Orange