Shocking article in Sunday's Washington Post about how the American Cancer Society gave all the money it raised thru telephone calls to the telemarketer with not a penny going towards Cancer activities. Always donate directly to any charity and never never ever in response to a phone call.
The full article has all the CEOs of the big illness charities defending this as good business and a loss leader. Yet these "leaders" approved false scripts for the telemarketers to lie and say 70% would go to the charity despite the contracts saying otherwise.
Makes you appreciate Brian Hill and his honesty with OCF all the more.
Charitable donations benefit telemarketers
Here is an excerpt
[quote]The American Cancer Society, the largest U.S. health charity, enlisted InfoCision from 1999 to 2011 to raise money.

In fiscal 2010, InfoCision gathered $5.3 million for the society. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers took part, but none of that money went to fund cancer research or help patients, according to the society�s filing with the Internal Revenue Service and the state of Maine.

In fact, InfoCision kept 100 percent of the funds it raised, plus $113,006 in fees from the society.[/quote]

While ACS does lots of good work, your money is better spent on donating to OCF, IMO
Charm

WOW!!!!

That is disgusting!!!!! So many people participate in the Relay for Life, it has become a HUGE event. Wonder where all that money goes????

I agree, OCF is a reputable charity which puts money back into research. Such a shame other non profits cant do the same!!!!

Man that is just gross, it pisses me off to be honest as it makes those of us trying to truly make a difference look bad by association.

The only reason I give the time I do to OCF is because of Brian and his vision, and what he and all of the survivors and caregivers on these forums have done for me over the last 4 years. It makes me feel good to know that OCF is a good steward of it's donors money, being associated with that integrity makes me feel like less of an a$$hole...

I felt obligated to post because I support this forum in standing up against misleading phone solicitors. I don't understand why some foundation spend unnecessarily in hiring telemarketers when they can easily just do it by themselves or assign a number of people within their group to solicit for help. Why hire these professional callers, possibly get a lot of help but still lose them to pay for the salaries? It doesn't make sense.

I've always been a believer of big charitable foundations and their purpose so I donate whenever I can. As a matter of fact, there were several instances when I have carelessly disclosed my credit card number to solicitors over the phone. And it was okay. So far, I haven't had any problem with credit card fraud. But when I read the complaints posted at Callercenter.com about how some charities waste the donation into paying salaries instead of helping somebody get better, I'm utterly disgusted.

How can these people operate like that? Don't we have laws against such terrible practices?

Cornelia,

As a guy that used to make my living on the phone (B2B technology sales) I'll tell you that there is an art and science to being able to make those phone calls and be successful at it. Also being involved with OCF on many levels as a dedicated volunteer, I'll tell you that getting volunteers to do mission specific work can be a lot like herding cats.

I'm not agreeing with the use of using a telemarketing company and paying them, but here's the business advantages to doing that and something that the article failed to properly cover. Once a person donates to a certain organization, like ACS for example, they are more likely to donate again and do so without the use of that service. The telemarketing company may be making the calls...but ACS is getting that information and it's now a relationship that can be nurtured by ACS through other means that no longer cost them very much, like email, snail mail, or even inside volunteers for ACS willing to make follow up calls instead of Cold Calling.

For the record, I've done telemarketing for OCF, in 2011 I turned my restaurant into a call center and trained my wife, friends, and employees how to make cold calls into dental offices to push the April Oral Cancer Awareness month. We did that from January through April 1st and I burned through a lot of people that didn't enjoy the duty. Cold calling and dealing with rejection isn't easy, especially when you're volunteer, salaries are incentives.

Anyways those are my thoughts for what they are worth. I still think there are easier ways to make those connections, and more cost effective.

Very good thoughts, Eric. Being a telemarketer is not an easy job, especially if the person really needs a job and the money involved. And more difficult now because of the way calls can be blocked. I'm on my son's phone service and after paying for a remodeling of my kitchen I got so many calls where the company also sold my number to many others, that I had to have calls blocked and I don't answer unknown calls. If they leave a message I can get back to them.

On a more positive note, this topic is what gave me the impetus for donating to the fund raising page of one of my favorite OCF fundraisers. When I went to the donation link yesterday, there were only two fundraisers listed but one of my favorites was there so it was easy to donate. I know there is a link where you can put in the name of someone to see if they are a fundraiser, but if there was a list of fundraisers to go to with links to their donation page, it may be easier for people to donate to someone they feel especially grateful to for help received and also create some fundraising competition like I've seen Eric do on FB. BTW, Eric - I love and understand your apt reference to "herding cats" - I recently herded three feral cats into my house.

I feel your pain Anne-Marie, I've been herding cats in Seattle

Eric, thanks for your comments. My first job was telemarketing. I was good at it but lasted only six months because it was such a miserable job. I agree there are easier, more cost effective ways to make the connections.

I herd my 6 cats daily in the wilds of rural Maryland. Have you seen the old EDS Herding Cats commercial? It's my all time favorite. Search for herding cats on You Tube and you'll see why 😃.