¢linton ¢a$h: The Clinton Foundation only uses 10% of Donations for Charitable Work

Right-wingers love to bash the Clintons with some form of this accusation: Sure, they set up this global, multi-million dollar charitable organization, but hardly any of the money actually gets spent helping people.  This is the first charge Schweizer makes in his Clinton Cash movie, and he really hits the ground flailing, because this charge is 100% demonstrably false.

According to the hyper non-partisan Consumer Reports, the three best watchdog sites for charities are: Charity Navigator, Charity Watch, and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance.  Of these, Charity Navigator doesn't give a rating for the Clinton Foundation, and says that the lack of a rating "does not indicate a positive or negative assessment by Charity Navigator".  As for the other sites, Charity Watch gives the Clinton Foundation an A, indicating that 88% of funds collected are actually spent on program costs.  The BBB Wise Giving Alliance indicates that the Clinton Foundation spends 86% of funds collected on program costs.

I'm no math expert (no wait a minute, I am!) --- but it doesn't take a PhD to figure out that 88% or even 86% is much, much larger than 10%.

As long as we're talking about the Clinton Foundation, I want to mention one other thing.  Practically all of the accusations in the Clinton Cash movie allege that some bad actor gave a lot of money either to the Clinton Foundation, or to Bill Clinton in the guise of a 'speaking fee', in return for which the Clintons helped said bad actor to do nefarious things.  As I said earlier, all such accusations are extremely difficult either to prove or to disprove, but there's a very important difference between giving money to Bill Clinton versus giving it to the Clinton Foundation.

If someone gives money to Bill Clinton as a speaker's fee, Bill Clinton pockets it.  It belongs to him (and Hillary) and not the foundation, and as such serves as a powerful incentive for him to perhaps help bad actors do nefarious things.

If someone gives money to the Clinton Foundation, on the other hand, the Clintons themselves don't receive a penny of it.  The Clinton Foundation clearly states that Bill and Chelsea receive no compensation for their work on the foundation, and neither did Hillary when she was on the board.  And we know they're telling the truth because unlike some presidential candidates (ahem!), the Clintons have released their tax returns.  So when someone gives money to the Clinton Foundation, I'm sure the Clintons appreciate it, but it seems highly unlikely that they'll do anything unethical in return.

UPDATE (9/04/2016): As of September 1, Charity Navigator now has a rating for the Clinton Foundation!  Charity Navigator gives the Clinton Foundation 4 stars, or a score of 94.74 out of 100!