Rush Limbaugh says Clinton Foundation spends just 15 percent on charity, 85 percent on overhead

[geek tragedy]

51. You are failing to understand why Limbaugh's statements were false.

Money can be spent to help poor people without being given directly to poor people.

If you hire an engineer to build a well and water distribution system, or if you design a needle exchange and education program to reduce HIV, that is money spent to help poor people that is not given away.

The article discusses this fact, as well as noting this hard number:

The foundation says its own employees are doing its charitable work. The annual report -- which, remember, includes both the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Health Access Initiative -- says that 7 percent of expenditures were spent on "management and expenses" and 4.5 percent for "fundraising." (The numbers on the 990s for the two entities are in the same ballpark.)

Add those two percentages together and you get almost 12 percent; subtract that from 100 percent and you get the magic 88 percent figure the foundation cited.

An independent academic CPA who specializes in nonprofit foundation finances said Limbaugh’s error was in assuming that all spending beyond grants amounted to wasteful overhead.

Management expenses and fundraising=overhead.