Wash. Reports on Fund Raising

Charities in the state of Washington that hired commercial fund raisers received about 55 percent of the money donated thus far in 2001, according to a joint report by the state’s attorney general and secretary of state.

That is a better return than the charities received last year, when slightly less than half the money raised on behalf of nonprofit groups ended up going to them.

Commercial solicitors keep a portion of the money they raise to cover expenses and profits.

While the percentage of total donations given to charities exceeded 50 percent, only about one-third of the fund-raising companies turned over more than half the money they raised to their client nonprofit groups. Fourteen of the solicitors provided charities with less than 15 cents of every dollar raised.

The percentage paid by the state’s commercial fund raisers is somewhat higher than the national average, according to a study by The Chronicle (April 5). That report showed that for 1995 through 1999 nonprofit groups that hired commercial solicitors received an average of about 35 percent of the donations raised.

The commercial fund-raising company that paid out the highest percentage in the Washington report is InService America, a telemarketing company in Forest, Va. Of the $12.6-million it raised on behalf of five charities, 98 percent — $12.4-million — went to the groups that hired InService.

The worst return was from Bargain World, in Federal Way, Wash. It has so far paid out just $35,934 — 1.4 percent — of the $2.5-million it collected on behalf of two children’s charities.

Free copies of the report are available online at http://www.secstate.wa.gov/charities, or by contacting the Secretary of State’s Charities Program, 801 Capitol Way South, P.O. Box 40234, Olympia, Wash. 98504-0234; (360) 753-0863.