Santorum charity fell short of giving goal

Good Neighbor donated about 40% of what it spent. The BBB says such groups should allocate 65%.By Kimberly HeflingAssociated PressWASHINGTON - Sen. Rick Santorum's charity donated about 40 percent of the $1.25 million it spent during a four-year period - well below Better Business Bureau standards - paying out the rest for overhead, including several hundred thousand dollars to campaign aides on the charity payroll, records show.

The charity, Operation Good Neighbor, provides grants to small nonprofit groups, many of them religious.

The Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance says charitable organizations should spend at least 65 percent of their total expenses on program activities.

Operation Good Neighbor is based at the same address as Santorum's campaign office in West Conshohocken, and some of the same people who have worked on his campaign are working for his charity and collecting money from it, records show.

Among them is Maria Diesel, who has been paid fund-raising fees by the campaign. She is listed as the charity's finance director; filings show she has received $192,958 since 2001 in professional fund-raising fees from Operation Good Neighbor.

Robert Bickhart, who has also been involved in raising campaign funds for Santorum, is listed as the charity's executive director. Filings show that he has earned $75,000 in salary from the charity since 2001 and that his business, Capitol Resource Group, rents the office space to the charity. The charity has paid $20,437 in occupancy fees, filings show.

Santorum (R., Pa.) is embroiled in a tough reelection campaign against his leading Democratic opponent, State Treasurer Bob Casey Jr.

The foundation's treasurer defended the organization's level of giving. If money set aside for future gifts is counted, she said, 45 percent of the money collected during the period will go toward charity.

"It is important to realize that the foundation does not have the same ability as better-known charities, such as the Salvation Army or the American Red Cross, to raise money without spending much money to do so," treasurer Barbara Bonfiglio said in a letter posted last night on the charity's Web site (http://operationgoodneighbor.net).

Bonfiglio said Santorum is not involved in the charity's day-to-day operations. Virginia Davis, Santorum's campaign press secretary, referred questions to the charity.

The charity's finances came under scrutiny earlier in the week by the liberal magazine the American Prospect.

From 2001 through 2004, filings show, Operation Good Neighbor took in a total of $1.6 million and spent about $1.25 million. Of that amount, a little more than $501,000 was awarded in grants, helping groups including homeless people and AIDS patients.

Santorum's charity spent 31 percent on fund-raising during the four-year period, an AP analysis found, under the 35 percent maximum the Better Business Bureau sets as a standard in that category.

Charities are exempt from filing in Pennsylvania if they do not pay for fund-raising or if they collect less than $25,000 per year. Operation Good Neighbor is not registered with the Pennsylvania Department of State, said Allison Hrestak, a department spokeswoman.

Bonfiglio said that the charity learned of the state's registration requirement during an IRS audit and that it would comply.

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