Commercial Campaigns Paying Slightly More.

Commercial fundraisers collected more than $193.3 million in California during in 1999. And of that total, less than half ($93.1 million, 48.2 percent) actually went to the organizations on whose behalf the solicitations were made.

That data is from a new report by the California Attorney General's office. While the numbers may sound grim, it's still an improvement compared to 1998, when 43.7 percent went to charities.

Unlike previous reports, this year's data only covered campaigns that concluded in the calendar year 1999, said Sandra Michioku, spokesperson for the AG's office.

Previous reports included on-going efforts, which could effect expenditure-to-donation ratios. Concerns were raised that prior reports skewed results, according to Michioku. "A lot of the costs come in at the front end," she explained, "you might have higher expenditures reflected (previously)."

She acknowledged that the redesigned report isn't necessarily more effective. "You're not going to get a perfect picture," she said. "It's only intended to provide a snapshot."

Investigators examined 466 campaigns with commercial fundraisers. While 41 percent of those fundraisers (192 organizations) paid more than 50 percent of the revenue to the charities, 130 commercial fundraisers provided 15 percent or less. The AG's office also noted that most of the 81,000 registered charities there do not use commercial fundraisers.

Looking at whole categories, while telemarketing was one of the most widely used techniques and raised more than $81 million, several campaigns lost significant amounts.

Taking the amount of money raised via telemarketing as a whole, 40 percent went to charity. Of those campaigns, seven reported zero going to charities and 21 reported money lost by the charities.

Internet fundraising showed the highest percentage returned to charities, but less than $20,000 was raised through such campaigns. And, most of that Web money was through Charitableway, which has since gone out of business. Michioku also noted that vehicle donation programs were growing in popularity in California.

This year's report also included tables of data compiled from annual disclosure reports that were returned to commercial fundraisers as incomplete - primarily for lack of adequate signatures. Within that table are some campaigns in which less than 8 percent of the amount raised was returned to charity.

One campaign reportedly received only $5,000 of the more than $115,000 raised. The AG's office, however, collected the information from reports made by the organizations and fundraisers, without editing.

"That's how it was reported. I'm not able to interpret what it means," Michioku said.

There seem to be some editing problems, however, in how the AG's office calculated average percentages to charity within the category breakdowns. Telemarketing and direct mail, for example, report negative percentages despite total revenues and totals to charity showing positive amounts. In fact, none of the averages for those figures are exactly right; only two are close to being correct.

"The purpose of the report is to provide the public with information about what commercial fundraisers are reporting. That is intended to allow the public to review whether they want to give through the commercial fundraisers or directly to the charities," Michioku said. "There are no laws that say how much needs to be turned over. Absent that, public education becomes important."

It also can educate the charities, she said, so they can evaluate the commercial fundraisers and design fair contracts.

The PDF report can be downloaded at http://caag.state.ca.us/charities.