Posted on: Thursday, December 25, 2003

Charities can bypass do-not-call registry

By Sandra Block
USA Today

More than 50 million Americans have signed up for the Federal Trade Commission's do-not-call registry, putting an end to dinnertime calls from aluminum siding salesmen.

But all is not calm in American households. Charities are exempted from the registry, and some of the charitable solicitations might come from the same people who used to hawk aluminum siding.

Some telemarketing firms, deprived of their former source of profits, have switched to charitable fund-raising, said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, which monitors charities.

"All these boiler rooms have 55 million names they can't call for commercial purposes," he said. "What do you think they're going to do? They're going to call for the charities."

Charities often allow professional fund-raisers to solicit for them because it comes free of cost, said Trent Stamp, executive director of Charity Navigator, which evaluates the financial health of charities. But the amount the charity receives is often small. A recent study by the Massachusetts attorney general found that charities received an average of 26 cents of every dollar raised by professional telemarketers last year.

While nearly 40 percent of charities have seen an increase in contributions this year, 70 percent say demand also has increased, according to GuideStar, an online database of nonprofit organizations. That means raising money is more important to them than ever.

Some tips for the benevolent:

• Ask the caller if he or she is a professional fund-raiser; then find out how much of your contribution will go to the charity. Don't contribute if the caller won't give you a straight answer.

• If you're not interested, tell the caller you don't want to receive any more phone solicitations. Telemarketers are required to honor your request, although that won't stop other charities from calling you.

• Before donating, find out how much of your money will go to charitable programs, and how much to administrative costs. Look for charities that have a clear mission and measurable objectives, said Robert Ottenhoff, chief executive of GuideStar.

• Follow the money. Once you've made your year-end contributions, make a note to yourself to call the charity in March or April and ask what they're doing with your money, Stamp said. The charity should be able to give you a progress report.