Spitzer Takes Aim At Charity Telemarketers -- Again
New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer released a report yesterday showing that charities retain less than half of the money telemarketers collect for them in fund-raising campaigns.Spitzer said in the report titled "Pennies For Charity" that telemarketers kept $125.8 million or 68.1 percent of the money they raised for nonprofits in New York in 2001. Of 588 nonprofit telemarketing fund-raising campaigns active in the state in 2001, 29 gave at least 65 percent or more of money raised to the charity, and charities got less than half of the funds raised in 82 percent of the campaigns.
The results of the report nearly mirror Spitzer's "Pennies For Charity" survey of telemarketer fund raising issued at this time last year.
In last year's version of the report, Spitzer's office found that telemarketers kept $129 million or 68.5 percent of the $188 million they raised for charity in New York in 2000. Of 586 nonprofit telemarketing campaigns in the state in 2000, 16 gave at least 75 percent of funds raised to the charities and 80 percent returned less than half the money.
