Almost everyone knows at least one veteran or active duty service member in the military. This is why veterans causes hit so close to home for so many. People feel a strong sense of duty and gratitude towards those who have served and want to help when prompted by a charity to make a donation.

Unfortunately, highly popular causes tend to attract the most money, and therefore the most scammers and unscrupulous fundraisers, as compared to more controversial or niche ones. CharityWatch encourages donors to be extra cautious when fielding direct mail letters, telemarketing calls, or online solicitations from veterans charities since even charities that are “legitimate” may be financially inefficient and end up wasting most of your donation on exorbitantly high overhead.

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List of CharityWatch F-Rated Veterans & Military Charities

Beware of charity ratings that are based on automation or crowdsourcing. Charity financial reporting can be complex, so ratings that take a charity’s financial reporting at face value without scrutinizing it for accuracy, comparability, consistency, or completeness are often inadequate for helping you to avoid wasting your donations. There are dozens of ways for nonprofits to present their financial reporting to look good to donors, even when they are spending very little of what you donate on legitimate programs.

The below chart contains veterans and military nonprofits to which CharityWatch has assigned failing grades for low program spending, high overhead, and high fundraising costs. As you can see, the results of CharityWatch’s in-depth analysis of charity audits and tax filings are often drastically different than those of data aggregators like Charity Navigator that rely on automation for their computations, or of nonprofit trade associations like Candid that crowdsource program “impact” data directly from the charities they are rating.

Charity / Nonprofit	Fiscal Year	CharityWatch Rating	CharityWatch Program %	Charity Navigator Program %	Most Recent Candid Seal
Adoptaplatoon Soldier Support Effort	12/31/2022	F	24%	80.8%	Gold
AMVETS National Service Foundation	8/31/2023	F	27%	82.6%	N/A
Disabled Veterans National Foundation	9/30/2022	F	5%	21.7%	Gold
For the Troops	12/31/2022	F	36%	48.3%	N/A
Help Heal Veterans	7/31/2023	F	24%	46.2%	Platinum
Homes for Veterans	9/30/2023	F	15%	69.7%	Platinum
Mutts With a Mission	12/31/2022	F	7%	75.8%	Platinum
Paralyzed Veterans of America	6/30/2023	F	34%	55.9%	N/A
Purple Heart Foundation	6/30/2022	F	6%	6.9%	N/A
Veterans of Foreign Wars	8/31/2022	F	44%	N/A	N/A
Veterans Relief Network	12/31/2022	F	7%	7.5%	N/A
TroopsDirect	6/30/2022	F	26%	81.9%	Platinum

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This research and analysis is made possible by donors like you. As the only independent charity watchdog organization in the United States, CharityWatch relies on contributions from the general public to support our work. We are not funded, directly or indirectly, by the charities we rate, by charity fundraisers, or by nonprofit industry interests. For this work to continue, we need your help. CharityWatch is a small organization and your donations are noticed, needed, and greatly appreciated. Thank you for giving wisely!

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“?” Ratings

CharityWatch’s ratings are based on an in-depth analysis of a nonprofit’s audited financial statements and IRS tax Forms 990, conducted by degreed accountants. By contrast, the ratings of online data aggregators and nonprofit trade associations take a charity’s self-reported financial and impact reporting at face value. This is why CharityWatch is able to identify issues of concern to donors that other raters miss.

The below list includes information on three charities to which CharityWatch has assigned “?” ratings, indicating that we have specific concerns about the reliability of the organizations’ financial reporting. Detailed information outlining our concerns is reported below the chart.

Charity / Nonprofit	Fiscal Year	CharityWatch Rating	CharityWatch Program %	Charity Navigator Program %	Most Recent Candid Seal
AMVETS National Headquarters	8/31/2023	?	?	Not Rated	N/A
HeroBox	12/31/2022	?	?	80%	Platinum
National Veterans Foundation	12/31/2021	?	?	92.2%	Silver

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AMVETS National Headquarters: CharityWatch is unable to provide a letter grade rating of AMVETS (American Veterans) at this time due to the organization’s failure to respond to our request for its fiscal year ended August 31, 2023 audited financial statements. For this reason, we have issued AMVETS a “?” rating for its fiscal year-ended 8/31/2023.

CharityWatch sent an inquiry to the Executive Director of AMVETS via U.S. mail and email on 8/20/2024 and has not received a response as of May 20th, 2025. Additionally, CharityWatch attempted to locate fiscal 2023 audited financial statements for the organization in several online public databases, including the online databases of state attorneys general and secretaries of state, but was unable to locate them.

According to the Charity Organization Record for AMVETS (American Veterans) that CharityWatch obtained from the Maryland Secretary of State’s online public registry on 9/17/2024, its registration is “Delinquent,” with its last approval date listed as August 31, 2020. 

CharityWatch’s most recent letter grade rating of AMVETS was based on our analysis of its fiscal year ended August 31, 2018 audited financial statements and IRS Form 990. We assigned the organization a rating of “D” on our A+ to F rating scale for spending only 45% of its cash budget on programs and for spending $28 to raise each $100 of cash support. 

If AMVETS (American Veterans) responds to CharityWatch’s request for copies of its financials at a future date, we may update our rating of AMVETS at that time.

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HeroBox: CharityWatch analyzed HeroBox’s IRS tax Form 990 for the charity’s fiscal year ended 12/31/2022 and assigned it a “?” rating, which indicates that we have specific concerns about its financial reporting. Our concerns are similar to those that we pointed out in our in-depth 2019 article, “Unboxing Herobox.”

In its 2022 IRS Form 990, HeroBox responded “No” to the question: “Were the organization’s financial statements audited by an independent accountant?” (Part XII, line 2b).

In its tax filings for 2012-2022, HeroBox reports that the accounting method it used to prepare its Form 990 was cash-basis, not accrual. With the exception of very small nonprofits, most charities report their financial activities on an accrual-basis. In simple terms, this means that expenses are reported when incurred, irrespective of when they are paid; and revenue is recognized when earned or pledged, irrespective of when cash happens to flow into a charity’s bank account.

Accrual-basis accounting is the method used for charity audited financial statements in order to comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in the United States. The accrual method of accounting is favored because it provides a more complete picture of an organization’s finances and is less susceptible to manipulation that could occur based on the timing of when cash deposits are made, or vendors paid. 

Given that HeroBox reported its financial activities in its 2022 IRS Form 990 on a cash-basis, and that it did not have an audit conducted of its 2022 financial activities, CharityWatch is unable to assign a letter grade rating to HeroBox. Therefore, we have assigned HeroBox a “?” rating for its fiscal year ended 12/31/2022.

For more information on the importance of an audit and how cash-basis accounting impacts the reliability of the financial statements, read this helpful article. 

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National Veterans Foundation: CharityWatch assigned National Veterans Foundation a “?” rating due to our specific concerns about the charity’s financial reporting for its fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.

Specifically, National Veterans Foundation (NVF) reports that its financial statements for fiscal 2021 were neither compiled, reviewed, nor audited by an independent accountant. (Form 990, Section XII, lines 2a & 2b). For more information about the importance of an audit please read CharityWatch’s article here. 

If NVF publishes an audit of its finances in a future year CharityWatch may reassess our rating of the organization at that time. 

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As the only independent charity watchdog organization in the United States, CharityWatch relies on your support to fund our in-depth research and analysis in order to bring you the unbiased charity ratings and other information you rely on to help you make more informed giving decisions. We are not directly or indirectly funded by nonprofit industry interests.

We hope you will consider making a donation today so that we can continue to speak openly and critically and call out wrongdoing when we see it without concern for special interests cutting our funding. CharityWatch is a small organization and your donations are noticed, needed, and greatly appreciated. Thank you for giving wisely!