Charities Receive Only One-Third of Telemarketing Revenue February 4, 2005
Funding Tips & Trends
A mere one-third of total telemarketing grosses raised in charitable drives actually went to charities in 2003, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer found in his annual Pennies for Charity report.Of the $187.4 million raised by telemarketers in New York, only $63 million found its way back to the charities themselves; the remainder was spent on the campaigns and telemarketer's expenses. Few fundraisers satisfied the standard set by the Better Business Bureau of 65 percent returns to charitable organizations; only 42 of 592 campaigns met this criterion.
In light of these findings, Attorney General Spitzer called upon nonprofit and charitable organizations to be "actively engaged in their organizations' fundraising decisions … [with] an obligation to ensure that their organization's income for charitable purposes is maximized."
