Inside the charity industrial complex, where corporations profit off your love of the military

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/03/charity-corporations-military-veterans-money

Americans have more confidence in the United States military than any other institution in the country and many American corporations are actively cashing in on that trust by associating themselves with veterans. Obviously corporations do not make the sacrifices that have earned veterans warm feelings from so many Americans. But some of those very same corporations have actively profited from harming veterans and active duty service members.

Call it “camo-washing”: brands associate themselves with the military and veterans through corporate sponsorships or even by putting actors who are pretending to be troops in their commercials. It’s a time-honored tradition in the breast cancer industrial complex and the corporate equivalent of putting a yellow ribbon magnet on your car. But corporations do little out of sheer philanthropy. They’re making money off it.

Mostly, camo-washing is an unethical marketing tactic that amounts to a mild annoyance for those who served. But camo-washing becomes more insidious when it involves corporations that prey on troops and their families. It becomes nauseating when non-profits that claim to actually help military members and veterans knowingly assist those same corporations earn absolution.

For example, the lists of corporate sponsors for military- and veteran-oriented charities are a who’s-who of financial services corporations. These corporations are some of the largest practitioners of camo-washing and many have already cashed in on veterans in other unethical or illegal ways.

Consider HBO’s Veteran’s Day “Concert for Valor” on the national mall: while the concert raised welcomed funds for great organizations like the Pat Tillman Foundation and the Fisher House Foundation, the production also counted JP Morgan Chase among its corporate sponsors. JP Morgan Chase settled lawsuits for overcharging for loans and illegally foreclosing on homes belonging to troops, vets and their families, and came to a settlement in 2012 with the Justice Department for potential violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

The rest at link.