By Joe Bergantino, Andrea LePain, Maggie Mulvihill and Rachel Paradis

| Return to index for this investigation

Over the past decade, the Salvation Army of Massachusetts has bought at least $4 million dollars worth of spacious homes in some of the most sought after communities in the state to house its top officers, including paying $799,000 for a white Colonial in Needham for the charity’s state commander.

In six of the 10 residential purchases the charity made in Massachusetts since the beginning of 1999, the purchase price exceeded the median price of a home at the time, in some cases by over one hundred thousand dollars, an analysis by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University shows.

Officials with the Salvation Army, an evangelical religious organization, stress that they buy homes in communities with strong school systems for church officers.

Those officials said that dollars spent on the houses—$799,000 in Needham, almost $500,000 in Bridgewater and $350,000 in Holden, among others – do not come from the charity’s iconic Christmas kettles or holiday appeals. Instead, the money comes from unrestricted gifts—often made in a donor’s will—that end up in the Salvation Army’s fund reserved for real estate purchases and capital improvements.

“I think it’s (the purchase of homes) an investment that allows us to provide for Salvation Army families who are doing service. We’re not throwing money away,” said Major William Bode, the Salvation Army Commander for Massachusetts, who lives in the Needham home.

Unlike some charities, which give top officials huge compensation packages, the Salvation Army – an urban ministry – supplies housing to supplement the relatively low salaries to even its highest-ranking officers. The charity typically pays a married officer couple, both of whom are ordained ministers, between $30,000 to $40,000 annually.

But money from the fund that purchases homes for Salvation Army officers can be used instead to buy, expand or renovate facilities that directly impact the poor, Salvation Army officials said. In March, 2009 the Salvation Army announced it was abruptly closing its unit in Lakeville and Middleborough because of a lack of money and personnel.

A national advocate for ethics and transparency in charitable organizations says money the Salvation Army spends on real estate could be used to bolster services for the needy.

“What troubles me most about this is that in times of great need by poor people, you have expenditures on properties and on housing that could be more moderate, which would permit more funding going to those who need it most, which is actually the mission of the Salvation Army,” said Pablo Eisenberg, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Public and Non-Profit Leadership.

The Salvation Army has been buying real estate at the same time the grim economy has spurred demand for Salvation Army services. Need is up 30 percent statewide in 2009, Bode said adding that 83 cents of every dollar raised goes to programs and services and 17 cents to cover administration and fund-raising costs. Groups that rank charities consider that ratio to be a strong one.

The Salvation Army paid $799,000 for Bode’s four-bedroom, two-and-a- half-bath home in 2007, when the median home price in Needham was $617,000, according to The Warren Group, a real estate analysis firm. The real estate listing for the house says it has a large master bedroom with a sitting room and a large master bath with a Jacuzzi tub.

Bode said two other homes owned by the Salvation Army were sold in order to buy the house, now assessed at $899,000, according to real estate records. The Salvation Army bought the home shortly after Bode was appointed to the charity’s top job in Massachusetts.

“Maybe you would agree with it (the purchase), maybe you wouldn’t agree with it. But that was the decision that was made for the Salvation Army,” Bode said.

A furnished house with all utilities, maintenance and taxes paid by the Salvation Army, and a vehicle are part of the compensation package for the charity’s officers.

The Salvation Army, established in London in 1865, is an evangelical Christian ministry. It has operated in the U.S. for 129 years and is headquartered in Virginia. Nearly 30 million Americans get help from the Salvation Army each year. Among its many services, the Salvation Army provides food and shelter for the homeless, assistance for disaster victims, services for the disabled and opportunities for under-privileged kids.

Bode, who has worked for the Salvation Army for more than 40 years, estimates the compensation package for him and his wife is worth about $75,000 annually. About $30,000-40,000 is a cash allowance and the remainder the rental value of Bode’s home and vehicle.

“I could not afford to own my own home with the allowance the Salvation Army gives to me,” he said.

Bode said the Salvation Army’s practice of buying real estate is no different than that of other religions supplying housing for clergy. But an examination of real estate records shows that over the past 10 years, the charity has been upgrading the housing it provides its ministers.

Overall, since 1999 the Salvation Army has sold 12 older and smaller homes for a total of about $3 million and purchased 10 larger and often more expensive houses for about $4 million, real estate records show. Some of the homes are now worth more and others less depending on the time at which they were originally purchased, real estate records.

Among the upgrades is the purchase of a stately, four-bedroom home in a suburb of Worcester last summer for Major Michael Copeland.

Copeland, who does not have school age children, manages the Salvation Army’s $5 million thrift shop and adult rehabilitation program in downtown Worcester. The Salvation Army paid $350,000 for his home on a ¼ acre lot in Holden in July, 2009, when the median home price in the town was $240,000, real estate records show.

Copeland and his wife Carol, who is also a Salvation Army officer, had been living in a smaller older home in Paxton that Copeland recommended the Salvation Army sell because it needed extensive repairs. The house sold for $215,000 in July, 2009. The new home exceeds the 3,000-square-foot structure limit set by the Salvation Army for total size including a garage and basement.

“What we tried to do is get a very nice home as far as location and functionality that would be good for the Salvation Army for the next 50 years,” said Copeland, who with his wife, worked with various realtors to find the property.

Copeland said several times during an interview that he and his wife need a place to escape the stress of working with a challenging population.

“You work with people who are very troubled for many hours a week. You need a place where you can kind of get away from things, recoup, so that when you come back you are renewed and refreshed,” Copeland said.

But Eisenberg said that money could go directly to the charity’s needy clientele.

“They could plow that money (spent on homes) into homeless shelters, into food banks that really serve the poor and not really their CEO’s. There is no excuse for huge expenditures on houses,” said Eisenberg.

The process for purchasing real estate within the organization requires a strict three-step process, including board of advisor approval at the local, state and regional level, according to Col. James Reynolds, the finance director for the charity’s Eastern Territory headquartered in West Nyack, NY.

“The purchase of quarters for officers is based on a long-term investment strategy and sound business logic,” the Salvation Army said in a statement. Specifically addressing Bode’s $800,000 home in Needham, the charity said, “we are confident this residence will provide a positive return on investment over the long term.”

Major Bode said the charity’s Greater Boston Board of Advisors had to approve the purchase of his home, before a recommendation was sent to New York. The chairman of that board, Bank of America executive Edward J. Lynch, did not return telephone calls seeking comment, nor did the board’s first vice-chair, Kathleen MacLaren, managing partner at MacLaren Advisors LLP.

Gary L. Countryman, a former chairman of the Liberty Mutual Group, is the chair of the Salvation Army’s state Board of Advisors. He did not respond to calls and emails requesting comment.

The New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University (NECIR-BU) is the nation’s first nonprofit investigative reporting collaborative in the nation focused on local and regional issues. Joe Bergantino and Maggie Mulvihill are the Center’s co-directors. Also contributing to this report: New England Cable News investigative producer Andrea LePain and Boston University students Sydney Lupkin, Sarah Favot, Andrew McFarland and Jaime Lutz. NECIR’s media partners include The Boston Globe, New England Cable News, WBUR (NPR), El Planeta and the New England Ethnic Newswire.