Charities Fear All to Be Hurt by Bad Publicity : Social services: Officials at nonprofit organizations say the recent allegations of money mismanagement involving colleagues will in all likelihood hinder their own fund-raising efforts.

Officials at Orange County nonprofit agencies are bracing for what many describe as the potentially devastating effects of recent disclosures that several of their colleagues may have engaged in charity fraud and financial mismanagement.

The timing of the disclosures could be especially damaging, officials fear, because it came the week that many charities kick off their major fund-raising drives for the upcoming year.

“It’s very distressing,” said Joan Abrams, director of Christian Neighbors, a program for needy elderly people run by Lutheran Social Services. “It kind of gives a black eye to all of the agencies that are trying to do their best.”

Said Sam Boyce, president of Serving People in Need, which works with homeless people: “All of these things are really negative roadblocks for us. Yesterday we sent out a solicitation letter which lands on people’s doorsteps the same day that this (scandal) hits the front page. The timing was almost lethal.”

The scandals began Tuesday when the former head of a nonprofit agency serving homeless and needy families in Orange County was arrested on charges that he forged signatures on agency checks totaling $450,000. Clyde E. Weinman is also charged with skimming $81,000 from Irvine Temporary Housing for himself.

An attorney for Weinman, the agency’s former executive director, has said his client is not guilty of the charges.

Acting on the same day, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to evict the nonprofit group that runs the El Modena Community Center in Santa Ana after critics accused it of failing to account for thousands of dollars in funds and refusing to allow auditors to inspect their books.

And Thursday, in one of the largest charity fraud cases ever filed in California, the state sued three Orange County agencies--United Citizens Against Drugs, American Veterans Assistance Corp. and Stop the Pain--for allegedly funneling more than 95% of their $8.6 million in contributions directly into organizers’ hands.

Irvine resident Mitchell Gold, owner of a commercial fund-raising company called Orange County Charitable Services, under whose auspices the three agencies operate, denied any wrongdoing.

Rightly or wrongly, other executives say, the negative publicity generated by these cases could irreparably damage the fund-raising efforts of legitimate nonprofit agencies already hit hard by government cuts, soaring caseloads and a sluggish economy.

“I was in a restaurant in Newport Beach, and there were a couple of well-heeled couples in the next booth,” Boyce related. “They were talking about this and saying, ‘I’m just not gonna give anymore.’ That’s exactly the halo effect you don’t want; it hurts the small struggling agencies such as ours immeasurably.”

In fact, small agencies aren’t the only ones affected by scandal.

Earlier this year, United Way--one of the largest and most prestigious nonprofit agencies in the country--was rocked by the sudden resignation of its national president, William Aramony, after highly publicized allegations of financial misconduct.

About the same time, the Bay Area United Way agency decided to review its funding of that area’s Boy Scouts organizations after complaints that the youth group barred homosexuals from membership. In Orange County, United Way officials made news when the local Boy Scouts organization they fund was sued by two young atheists alleging discrimination.

According to Jeff Roke, a spokesman for United Way of Orange County, the agency has paid a price for the bad public relations generated by those events. Now in the middle of its annual four-month fund-raising drive toward a $21.5-million goal, the agency’s Orange County chapter is about 5% behind where it was last year at this time.

While most contributors blame the bad economy for the downturn, Roke said, about 15% attribute it to questions raised by the earlier adverse publicity.

Some county charities, in fact, are planning pro-active steps to stave off public skepticism in the wake of the recent developments.

Karren Schaeffer, executive director of the Orange County office of Lutheran Social Services of Southern California, said she will spend the first week of December personally calling each of about 80 church pastors to assure them of her agency’s integrity.

Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter, a facility for homeless families, will include an item on the recent scandals in the next newsletter sent to potential donors, according to Executive Director Sandee Gordon.

And Bonnie Gillman, coordinator of Charities for Truth in Giving, a task force made up of agency executives who favor a county ordinance to help expose illegal charities, said her group will announce within a week the details of an aggressive plan aimed at educating the public against fraud.

“We hope that (these scandals) won’t put a chill on legitimate fund-raising efforts,” Gillman said. “We hope that people will even feel a little comforted that (officials) are enforcing the laws against these people.

“We hope that (these cases) will stand as examples to illicit solicitors that the people of California aren’t going to stand back and take this anymore.”