Giving till it hurts

Do you get fund raising / spam phone calls from very persistent, insistent callers asking for money to 'Support our Veterans'? I've gotten them more than once, and have even donated. For some reason it has stuck me that these particular calls were unusual in the high-pressure tactics they used. So I was interested when I came across this:

"The public has rightly shown its empathy with wounded and troubled war veterans, contributing hundreds of millions of dollars to private charities that claim to have the veterans’ best interests at heart. A new study details rampant abuses of the money flow." (from The New York Times)

I don't know what to make of it, but it does feed into my suspicions.