Vermont Business Magazine Vermonters donate millions of dollars to charitable causes each year, aiding members of their local community and supporting causes with nation-wide impact. But paid fundraisers keep most of it. According to data on over 1,100 campaigns run in Vermont, Vermonters gave close to $8 million to charitable causes through paid fundraisers. Of this total, however, 70 percent, or more than $5.4 million, stayed with the paid fundraisers. The charities, meanwhile, received less than a third of the total donations.
When solicitations are made through a paid fundraiser – an entity hired by a charity to solicit contributions – many Vermonters are unaware of how much of their donation may go to the paid fundraiser rather than to the charity itself. Today, the Attorney General’s Office hasreleased a reporton its website analyzing fundraising data for the past three fiscal years, July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2015, and outlining enforcement actions completed during that time.
SEE "WORST" AND "BEST" TABLES BELOW
“I encourage Vermonters to continue to be generous in supporting charitable causes,” Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell said. “But you should be sure to make informed decisions about where your money will go.”
Charities should also educate themselves. Attorney General Sorrell highlighted the fact that “some paid fundraisers keep 75-90% of donors’ contributions, whereas others may keep significantly less.” While not every Vermont charity can afford to have employees dedicated to fundraising, all charities should make informed decisions about how to responsibly raise funds and ensure anyone soliciting on their behalf is doing so in compliance with Vermont law.
Charities Raising the Most Money through Paid Fundraisers
A small number of charitable causes are responsible for a significant amount of all contributions obtained through paid fundraisers. In fact, three in-state causes account for approximately $2.6 million, or 61%, of the total funds raised for Vermont charities through paid fundraisers. Importantly, these three causes all employ SGS campaigns to raise funds making the actual percentage each fundraiser keeps difficult to determine. What is clear is that, by donating through such campaigns, a smaller percentage of the contribution gets to the charitable cause, even if the donor also receives something of value.
- Professional Fire Fighters of Vermont (PFFV): raised $1,146,314.70, or 15% of the total funds raised in Vermont, and retained $274,026.24. For much of the past decade, PFFV has been the top grossing charity, which is all the more remarkable this year when PFFV was only reporting on campaigns through July 2014 because they changed their fundraising model after that time and are no longer required to file reports. PFFV received almost 24% of donor’s dollars, with its fundraiser, FireCo, claiming nearly 12% as profit and an additional 64% as SGS expenses.
- Vermont Police Association: raised $733,228.55, or 9% of the total money raised in Vermont, and retained $147,364.68. The Police Association used two paid fundraisers: Xentel, which raised 70% of the funds ($515,642), but kept almost 81% of them; and Police Publications, which ran three SGS campaigns, netting the Police Association 24% of the donations, and claimed 65% as expenses and 11% as its profit.
- Special Olympics of Vermont: raised $679,765.67, or 9% of the total money raised in Vermont, and retained $223,066.01. Special Olympics also used two fundraisers: The Heritage Company, which raised 50% of the total funds and gave over 50% of these funds to the charity; and DialAmerica Marketing, which ran four SGS campaigns, and gave 14.3% of dollars to the charity, with 62.7% claimed as expenses and 23% as DialAmerica’s profit.
Other charities which used paid fundraisers to solicit in Vermont and raised over $150,000 during the three years analyzed in this report are as follows:
- Vermont Veterans of Foreign Wars: raised $306,445.00, received $55,160.90 (18%) in SGS campaigns with 40.55% claimed expenses and 41.45% as profit.
o Paid fundraiser: Consult Tele-Communications
- Vermont Troopers’ Association, Inc.: raised $299,277.07, received $85,137.91 (28.4%) in SGS campaigns with 60% claimed as expenses and 11.6% as profit.
o Paid fundraiser: Police Publications
- International Union of Police Associations, AFL-CIO: raised $198,504.37, received $11,890.77 (6%)
o Paid fundraisers: Outreach Calling: raised 13% of total – 10% to charity; Courtesy Call: raised 87% of total – 5.4% to charity
o Of note: #7 ranked worst charity according to Tampa Bay Times.
- Vermont Public Radio: raised $187,878.88, received $173,095.41 (92%)
o Paid fundraiser: Aria Communications Corporation
- AMVETS: raised $187,239.00, received $38,429.07 (20.52%)
o Paid fundraisers: Xentel: raised 68% of total – 17% to charity; The Heritage Company: raised 32% of total – 36% to charity
- Fletcher Allen Health Care, Inc.: raised $176,711.32, received $20,900.43 (12%)
o Paid fundraiser: Harris Connect, LLC
- New England Association of Chiefs of Police: raised $175,450.00, received $27,912.01 (16%)
o Paid fundraiser: Midwest Publishing-DN, Inc.
- United States Fund for UNICEF: raised $172,143.59, received $76,650.44 (44.5%)
o Paid fundraisers: Donor Services Group: raised 97% of total – 45% to charity; PDR II, Inc.: raised 2% of total – 20% to charity; InfoCision: raised less than 1% - 81% to charity
The Attorney General’s Office urges Vermonters to become more informed donors by:
- Checking the breakdown of contributions between fundraisers and charities on the Attorney General’s website: athttp://ago.vermont.gov/focus/consumer-info/charities.php
- Asking if a solicitor is a paid fundraiser, and if so, what portion of a donation goes to support charitable programming and what portion goes to fundraising.
- Exploring a charity’s website or requesting a brochure or other document explaining the mission of the charity and how contributions are used and visiting other organizations’ websites that rate charities based on various factors, including their fundraising expenses.
Vermonters are also encouraged to contact the Consumer Assistance Program with complaints or concerns about paid fundraisers or other charitable solicitations using the on-line complaint form atwww.uvm.edu/consumer, or by sending a written complaint to: Consumer Assistance Program, 146 University Place, 103 Morrill Hall, UVM, Burlington, VT 05405.
Vermont AG: Dec 3, 2015