As CEO of CharityWatch, Laurie Styron uses her deep expertise in nonprofit financial analysis to protect donors by exposing frauds, scams, and waste in the charitable sector. Under her leadership, CharityWatch partners with journalists to investigate and report on charities that misuse donations or engage in poor governance. By conducting in-depth reviews of charity tax filings, audited financial statements, and other public disclosures, Styron and her team help uncover inefficiencies and hold nonprofits accountable—empowering donors to give more confidently and ensuring their contributions are used effectively.
“‘It is, unfortunately, extremely common for for-profit professional fundraising companies to keep the majority of the donations they raise on behalf of their charity clients,’ says Laurie Styron, CEO and executive director of CharityWatch, an independent charity watchdog.”
“When people donate in response to a telemarketing call or a direct mail letter, they run a high risk of wasting most of their donations on middleman fundraisers.”
“Styron says donors should avoid high-pressure tactics that promote impulsive giving. ‘Donating in response to a telemarketing call or direct mail letter is a no-go if you value your privacy and want your donation actually to accomplish something.'”
“Charities and their fundraisers often rent, sell, exchange or share their donor lists. Styron therefore advises checking a charity’s privacy policy before donating to avoid receiving an avalanche of fundraising letters and telemarketing calls after making a single donation to one organization.”
“‘Donate directly to a charity versus through a middleman company if you want to avoid a big chunk of your donation going to a for-profit company,’ she says.”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, warning donors that for-profit professional fundraising companies often keep a large portion of what you donate for themselves.
Nashville Scene, 7/23/2025
“‘For a state oversight office to not even have a record of a nonprofit being registered at all when it’s known to be soliciting contributions from the public is extremely concerning,’ Styron told 11 News Investigates. ‘It’s just a real recipe for disaster.'”
“While TIME Organization reported receiving $8.8 million in charity for 2023, the nonprofit told the IRS that it spent zero dollars on fundraising. Styron called this her third red flag.”
“‘No staff time expenses, no postage printing or mailing, no internet fees or running ads or, you know, printing brochures,’ Styron told 11 News Investigates. ‘How does a nonprofit raise that much money with [sic] without spending even one penny to do so? It’s almost unheard of.'”
“The tax filings state that TIME’s CEO made $226,692 in 2018, then $0 in salary from $2019-2022, and then than [sic] $476,000 in 2023.”
“‘That causes us, as a watchdog, to question, ‘Are they receiving compensation some other way through some related legal entity that is obfuscating what they’re actually getting?’ Styron told 11 News Investigates. ‘There’s just really obvious red flags with this organization not having an audit, claiming it has zero fundraising expenses.'”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, cites major red flags at a Maryland nonprofit based on her analysis of its financial reporting.
Baltimore WBAL TV News Investigates, 5/21/2025
“Laurie Styron is the CEO of CharityWatch, where she researches non-profit finances. She said she was puzzled by the arrangement between BCYF and Mayor Scott.”
“‘When dealing with public money, not closing loopholes to avoid audits or disclosures is really bad form, whether strictly illegal or not,’ Styron told Spotlight on Maryland. ‘While there could be legitimate instances of transactions occurring back and forth between a charity and a government office, I have never seen an arrangement structured in a way that has the effect of allowing a government office to avoid scrutiny about its use of public money.'”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, comments on a circular financial arrangement between a charity and a government office that could limit accountability over certain funds.
Baltimore FOX 45 News, 5/09/2025
“Laurie Styron, the CEO and executive director of CharityWatch, said fiscal sponsorships make it difficult to track how money is spent, which becomes especially concerning when taxpayer dollars are involved.”
“‘It’s just so tricky because this information is reported in aggregate and the public just can’t see what’s going on with the individual organizations and that really does create a really big transparency and public accountability issue,’ she told Spotlight on Maryland.”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, cites the transparency and accountability issues inherent in fiscal sponsorships.
Baltimore FOX 45 News, 3/28/2025
“Laurie Styron, CharityWatch’s executive director and chief executive officer, was surprised to find that the school’s three-member board doesn’t have a conflict-of-interest policy, a whistleblower policy or a document retention and destruction policy.”
“‘This lack of basic policies combined with a 3-person board and significant related party transactions is a recipe for disaster,’ Styron said. ‘There is no accountability here.'”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, questions financial transactions between a virtual religious school and the family members who run it, citing weak governance.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/25/2025
“Laurie Styron, the CEO and executive director of CharityWatch, said fiscal sponsors can lack transparency and efficiency, especially when dealing with taxpayer dollars.”
“‘When one charity folds, you’re [not] just talking about losing the resources and the services and the community support of one organization,’ she told Spotlight on Maryland. ‘When a fiscal sponsors folds, or spins off its fiscal sponsorships, there could be dozens and dozens of individual organizations affected very suddenly that may not be able to carry out programs that people are relying on.'”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, commenting on the instability created for fiscally sponsored organizations when a sponsorship arrangement ends unexpectedly.
Baltimore FOX 45 News, 3/21/2025
“Laurie Styron, the CEO and executive director of CharityWatch, said fiscal sponsors can become inefficient and lack transparency when using taxpayer dollars.”
“‘Anytime you have layers of different organizations in between the money and the end recipient, there’s always going to be additional overhead costs at the different legal entities that are occurring,’ Styron told Spotlight on Maryland.”
“So if the money is going from the government to then a fiscal sponsor to then a fiscally-sponsored organization and then, eventually, maybe granted to an individual or used to carry out specific programs, there’s going to be overhead costs all along the way that take a cut of that money.”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, comments on tax-payer funded arrangements with fiscal sponsor nonprofits and the layers of overhead that can eat into such funding, leaving less for programmatic activities.
Baltimore FOX 45 News, 3/20/2025
“Laurie Styron, CEO at CharityWatch, a Chicago-based watchdog for nonprofits, said the dairy farmers who are represented by Dairy Management should be made aware of the salaries.”
“‘A nonprofit’s stakeholders shouldn’t be blindsided with a seven-figure severance payout to its leader,’ Styron said. ‘When someone is making a purchase of any kind they consider the cost of what they are buying relative to the value they are receiving in exchange.'”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, commenting on a seven-figure severance payout to an outgoing Dairy Management, Inc. executive, Thomas Gallagher. (Dairy Management is a 501 (c)(6) nonprofit organization).
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/14/2025
“‘It would not be correct to say Folds [of Honor Foundation] spent 91% on direct grants for scholarships,’ said CharityWatch Executive Director Laurie Styron. ‘The laws governing how charities are allowed to spend their money are highly permissible. You can’t generally trust what charities tell you in their marketing.'”
“‘It’s not about whether or not some good is being done,’ Styron said. ‘It’s about whether a charity is accomplishing as much as it can with the resources it has.'”
“‘If the charity is fortunate enough to receive a donation of a size large enough to cover the costs of a private jet and first-class travel, that money could likely be better spent on providing more life-changing scholarships,’ Styron said. ‘A public charity’s money doesn’t belong to the people running it, but to the public.'”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, explains that direct scholarships or grants are not the only types of program expenses charities are allowed to include in their financial reporting, and that charity marketing materials are frequently misleading.
Treasure Coast Palm Newspaper, 3/12/2025
“‘Ethically speaking, it’s concerning,’ said Laurie Styron, CEO of CharityWatch, an independent charity watchdog group.”
“‘What was the purpose of creating middlemen entities when there are so many established groups in the climate space with good track records? What was the value-added in [by] doing it this way, especially with such large sums of taxpayer funds?'”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, comments on billions in taxpayer funds granted to new climate charities with inadequate track records.
The New York Post, 3/05/2025
“‘Maintaining public trust should be something charities are enthusiastic about, not something they begrudgingly participate in only when you force their hand,’ Styron told Spotlight on Maryland.”
“‘If Thrive Arts had filed its final tax filing with all the required schedules, we would be able to see if money was returned to BCYF and in what amount,’ she told Spotlight on Maryland.”
“‘Since it didn’t bother to file tax returns, the public has no way of verifying what happened to the taxpayer funds.'”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, comments on a public charity’s responsibility to disclose how it distributed its assets upon dissolution.
Baltimore FOX 45 News, 2/28/2025
“Laurie Styron is the CEO and executive director of CharityWatch, a nonprofit watchdog. She noted nonprofits are required to file annual tax forms as well as an additional tax form when they dissolve that details how their assets are distributed. She questioned how Thrive Arts was able to secure the BCYF grant in the first place.”
“‘Typically, to receive a grant of that size, the charity has to show some kind of a track record that it’s capable of overseeing those kinds of funds and responsibly spending them,’ Styron told Spotlight on Maryland. ‘Usually, this much taxpayer money doesn’t go to an untested organization that’s small and just getting started.'”
“‘A charity’s board of directors has a duty to provide proven oversight of its grantmaking activities,’ Styron told Spotlight on Maryland. ‘Part of that includes adequately vetting organizations to which it’s donating money. So for an organization to have only been in existence for 18 months to receive that size of donation, there should have been more follow through there to really ensure it was prepared to be able to spend that money according to the grant agreement.'”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, comments on a taxpayer-funded children’s charity grantmaking process and its oversight of grantees.
Baltimore FOX 45 News, 2/26/2025
“‘A board member voting to end their own lucrative, multiple six-figure contract with the same charity they are responsible for overseeing seems unlikely, even if it would be in the charity’s best interest for them to do so,’ said Laurie Styron, the CEO of CharityWatch.”
“Unless the consultants are offering some kind of incredible discount for services and these services could not be reasonably obtained elsewhere from a disinterested provider, charities really shouldn’t engage in these kinds of contracts.”
“‘It just looks bad,’ Styron told the Washington Examiner. ‘It damages public trust.'”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, reviewed recent audits and tax filings of The Flower Hill Institute, a charity that was found to have material weaknesses in internal controls related to its government funding.
The Washington Examiner, MSN 2/14/2025
“CharityWatch executive director Laurie Styron says donors should try not to give in to heart-wrenching appeals, she adds: ‘Use your empathy and compassion as a catalyst for giving, but don’t allow your emotions to make your giving decisions for you.'”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, advises donors to be cautious of emotional fundraising appeals and high-pressure tactics related to California wildfire relief.
AARP, 1/22/2025
“During disasters like these ‘it’s best to donate to a highly efficient and experienced charity versus to an individual crowdfunding campaign,’ said Laurie Styron, the CEO and executive director of CharityWatch. ‘Charities are better equipped to distribute aid equitably to everyone who needs help.'”
“If you aren’t sure how best to provide support, ‘don’t donate impulsively,’ Styron said. ‘Take your time to confirm that a charity is not only legitimate and efficient but is actively providing aid on the ground.'”
– CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, providing advice for donating to aid victims of the wildfires in greater Los Angeles.
CNBC, 1/09/2025
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