LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — December is giving season and many local charities and non-profits will be competing for your dollars and donations.
One of those entities is SafeNest, Nevada's largest domestic violence shelter.
While the cause is noble and necessary in our community, the execution of its mission has been called into question by more than two dozen current and former clients and employees. Many of them say those who rely on your donations often don't get what you give.
"Your donations move survivors from crisis to confidence. Donate stuff and create hope!"
Those are the message on the side of SafeNest's donation bins. And by the looks of it, you answered the call. The bags of donations piled up outside SafeNest's administrative offices on Meadows Lane are evidence of the giving hearts of Las Vegas locals, but the path from your closet to SafeNest clients isn't as clear as you might think.
"What about the donations that pour in from the public here in Las Vegas," I asked Lauren, a former SafeNest client.
"Those donations are not distributed to us," Lauren said. "There's photos on their website, as well as Facebook, showing donations of bicycles, suitcases ... none of it is given to us at the shelter."
"I got nothing there. I mean, nothing," added M.J., another former SafeNest client.
Lauren, M.J., April and Natasha lived in the SafeNest shelter in varying stages from fall of 2023 through this summer. All agree SafeNest's mission is vital but say the nonprofit often falls short of properly serving the domestic violence survivors it's supposed to support.
Natasha took video with her cellphone in the shelter's employee bathroom showing donations in the bathroom.
"It was really bad," said Jayna Knight, who worked at SafeNest from October 2020 to March 2021. Knight disclosed that she was fired after a personal situation with an abusive ex impacted her at work.
"For all the things that I know, that people donate to that place, that shelter should be full of all of the nice things and those women should be enjoying the donations and they're not. I was disgusted."
In addition to Knight, two other former employees who left SafeNest more recently spoke to us about donations. Fearing retaliation, they asked for anonymity. They all feel there's a disconnect between what donors believe and what actually happens with their donations.
"Even as someone who was on staff, I would bring in donations thinking that they were going directly to the survivors."
"I've seen on their Facebook page donations after donations, from toys to scooters," Natasha said. "I've never seen any of the children at SafeNest have any of those items."
"Why aren't all of those being distributed to the shelter clients? Why are people saying they don't see that stuff," I asked a former employee.
"Those large donations are usually held for one or two annual events, such as back-to-school or Christmas," the employee told me.
"I asked them for months to get my daughter clothes her size," M.J. told me. "Nope. Nothing. 'We don't have her size.' But they get so much donated!"
So how does SafeNest handle the stuff you give?
I asked CEO Liz Ortenburger back in October.
"Everything is screened to see if we need it and then we outfit Cora's boutique — which is what our boutique is called at the shelter — with what we think is appropriate and what clients have told us they're looking for and that boutique is open four times a week and as needed."
"On the surface, it sounds like a wonderful thing but I rarely saw it open," one former employee said.
All the former employees we spoke to on and off camera say in their experience, shelter residents were only allowed to go to the no-cost shop once a month.
"They have to sign up. They have to receive a time in which they can go and most of the clothes that are wanted are gone relatively quickly. I witnessed first-hand a mother who had missed her call time, or her time to go to Cora's boutique and pick out clothes for her and her children."
When that mother tried to go at a different time, the former employee says, "it was really busy and she was turned away."
13 Investigates discovered what actually happens with most of what's donated to SafeNest and you can too if you delve below the surface on SafeNest's website.
- On the homepage, click "Donate now."
- Scroll down on the next page and click "Donate used goods."
- When the third page comes up, scroll down again to the FAQ section.
- Click on the down arrow next to the question, "Does my donation go directly to support SafeNest clients?"
There they tell you that, "Used items like clothing, shoes, and small appliances that are in excellent to good condition are inventoried for clients, including shelter guests. Any donated used items that cannot be utilized by our shelter residents and/or be stored at the warehouse (due to limited space, our maximum inventory capacity is three months) are sold to our community-partner, Savers Thrift Store."
SafeNest says it uses the money from selling donations to Savers to fund critical initiatives, operations and shelter expenses like food, utilities, and maintenance, as well as client needs such as burner phones, bus passes, emergency gift cards, and rental assistance.
But for Jayna, that was a mixed message.
"I was always told, 'Don't give them too much. Don't give them a jacket because they'll go sell it.' And when I found out about the donations being sold, I thought that's very ironic that they don't want them to sell the donations that are for them yet SafeNest is selling the donations to Savers."
What SafeNest's website doesn't tell you is just how much of your donations they sell to Savers — nearly 90%, according to IRS records.
As we first reported in October, an audit included in the non-profit's most recent federal filing shows SafeNest kept nearly $168,000 in donated goods for shelter clients but sold nearly $1.4 million.
"The donation portion of SafeNest is its own business," said a former employee.
In an email, SafeNest's public relations firm told me the shelter receives almost two million pounds in donated goods annually and that keeping 10% equates to 200,000 pounds per year for survivors.
To further explain how they spend some of the money from selling donations to Savers, the email cited a 2023 purchase of hotel rooms during an increase in shelter services from F1 through the Super Bowl.
However, former employees who were there at the time questioned that expense.
"Over $330,000 was spent on hotel rooms between the time period of December through the end of February. Everyone had to find line items to remove from their budget to make up for that."
Another former employee who says they worked at SafeNest for two years sent us an email underscoring the concern about how the hotel room overflow program was managed, writing, "Previous leadership had carefully managed this program..." but their systems were "abandoned."
SafeNest has declined every interview request we've made since the one sit-down we had with CEO Liz Ortenburger in October.
They have not directly addressed what former employees are telling us but we do know they're trying to find out who those former employees are.
That being said, it's clear that selling and keeping donations can be a delicate balancing act. Both the survivors and the non-profit need goods and money.
We hope this report helps you decide how and what you want to give this holiday season.
