Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author, Eric Klein. Klein is the CEO of CAN-DO.ORG, a disaster relief and community revitalization 501c3 organization.

(CAN-DO.ORG) – Those who know me know that I’m not one to keep my mouth shut or give people a pass. Not when it comes to this.

Fourteen. That is the amount of newsletters I received this week from groups begging for more money to help the people in Haiti. Timely, as you know, because Monday marked the 5th anniversary since the Haiti earthquake.

Every time one of these newsletters popped up in my inbox or Facebook feed, my stomach turned.

It’s not only irresponsible, but I believe criminal, for any non-profit organization to continue to solicit money for a country if they failed to show results the first time around.

More than 13 billion dollars — billion with a B — was donated 5 years ago for Haiti and the overwhelming majority of that money was not used to better the people since the earthquake. It did not provide a better life for them. It was not used efficiently.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth that no one likes to talk about: most of the money donated was wasted or remains unaccounted for. That is an undisputed fact.

Before I go on, I want you to understand that my words today are coming from years of frustration watching a lot of charities take in ridiculous amounts of money while tugging on the heartstrings of donors, yet fail to be transparent about how they use the money, or publicly document their results. This frustration is the very reason I got into this line of work more than 10 years ago. And not much has changed.

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