The fact is that were it not for the money spent on advertising, they would not be able to function at the level, or with the scope, that they do. As such, I think that advertising expenses are very difficult to divorce from operating expenses. The work that they do (i.e., the money spent “actually helping people”) is qualitatively different as a result of the money they spend on advertising. I do not consider the advertising money as having been “wasted”. On the contrary, it is an important part of their charitable activities.
The question is not whether it is worth spending 48 cents of every dollar on advertising to facilitate 42 cents of operation; the question is whether the operations of the specific charity are worth $34M.