CharityWatch is unable to provide a rating of Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Charitable Service Trust (the Trust) due to how the organization is structured. The Trust publishes its own, separate financial statements, and primarily acts as a fundraising arm for its related organization, Disabled American Veterans (DAV). Because the two organizations' financial activities are not consolidated into a single audit or tax filing, it is not possible to rate the two as one organization, despite the them sharing certain board members in key position and engaging in significant related-party financial transactions. For the year-ended 12/31/2024, the Trust reports spending $92,068 to raise just over $17 million in cash contributions. This reporting reflects that charity spent only $1 to raise each $100 of cash support. However, due to the limitations of the reporting (the financial information of the two organizations not being consolidated into one audit), it is not possible for CharityWatch to verify this information. The charity reports in its audit that the Trust reimbursed DAV $168,030 in 2024 due to DAV personnel assisting the Trust on a limited basis with "administering its business operations, fundraising, and grant programs." However, the audit note does not provide breakouts reflecting what portion of the reimbursements were fundraising-related. CharityWatch is also unable to provide a Program % for the Trust. The Trust reports granting $4,726,967 to DAV (Audit Note 6 - Related-Party Transactions) during 2024. Since these inter-organizational grants represent 43% of the Trust's Program Expenses, and 42% of its Total Expenses, CharityWatch classifies the Trust as a fundraising arm for its related organization, DAV. CharityWatch's methodology is not designed to measure how efficiently one entity of a charity grants funds to one of its partner organizations. For this reason, we do not believe it is fair to publish a Program % for the Trust alongside those of other charities that conduct their own substantial programs and/or primarily make grants to other, independent charities.
In addition, CharityWatch analyzed the Trust's assets and liabilities in an effort to understand how long it could continue to operate at 2024 spending levels without raising any additional contributions or other revenue. More information about how this figure was computed can be found by visiting CharityWatch's Our Process page. From the Trust's Net Fund Balance of $71,939,051, CharityWatch subtracted $12,438 of assets used in operations (software), and $4,806,714 of reported net charitable gift annuity reserves. This results in an adjusted Net Fund Balance of $67,119,899. We then divided this figure by the Trust's total reported expenses net of transfers/grants to related organizations. This results in a computed figure for years of available assets of just over 10 years. If we were to instead include distributions from the Trust to its related organization, DAV, in the total cash expenses figure, the Trust could continue to operate at 2024 spending levels for 6 years without raising another penny of revenue from any source. |
