November 29, 2001 | Read Time: 1 minute
A federal court has sided with a coalition of national charities and fund-raising consultants in a closely watched lawsuit against a county fund-raising law. The case, in Pinellas County, Fla., is one in a series of recent court challenges to state and local solicitation rules around the country.
Reversing her own 1998 decision, a federal district judge in Tampa rejected a portion of the county’s charitable-solicitations ordinance requiring fund-raising consultants who work with charities seeking donations from county residents to register with local officials.
The ruling makes a clear distinction between fund-raising consultants (those who are paid by charities to help plan and manage fund raising) and professional solicitors (telemarketers and other companies that are paid by charities to solicit gifts). And it says that Pinellas County does not have jurisdiction over consultants who “are not sufficiently involved” in the actual solicitations. Consultants, the decision says, “are not aware of where solicitations are mailed, they do not advise charities on where to send solicitations, and they do not control where solicitations are sent.”
In 1997, American Charities for Reasonable Fundraising Regulation, a coalition of charities and consultants, and a Virginia company called the Creative Advantage sued Pinellas County, which includes St. Petersburg, alleging that the county’s ordinance was unreasonable. A year later, the Tampa court upheld the law. But last year, a federal appeals court sent the case back to the lower court for review.
A separate lawsuit filed this year against the county’s charitable-solicitations ordinance is pending. It raises some of the issues left unresolved by the first case, such as whether the law is “unduly burdensome,” unconstitutionally stifles free speech, and restrains commerce.
