Fundraisers pocket nearly half of charity donations
By Teri Sforza, Orange County Register
Commercial fundraisers – the middlemen who hit you up for charitable donations by phone, mail and outside the supermarket – often pocket a big chunk of the dough. And it’s only growing: They extracted a stunning 90 percent more money from do-gooders in 2014 as they did in 2013, according to the California Attorney General’s latest numbers.
These often for-profit firms raked in $687.7 million from well-meaning Californians last year. They gave a bit more than half of it to charities – $371.9 million – and kept $315.8 million for themselves.
Most kind-hearted donors have no idea that so much of their donation gets waylaid, and some in the fundraising business have harsh words for the charities that employ them.