For-Profit Solicitors Kept 63% of Funds Raised in Calif. in 2012

Commercial firms raised almost $300-million in California on behalf of charities in 2012, with an average of 37 percent going to their nonprofit clients, the Orange County Register writes, citing data collected by the state attorney general’s office.

The split represents a marked decline for groups using for-profit solicitors. In 2011 charities got more than half of professionally raised funds. Several big-name charities, including Planned Parenthood and Oxfam, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on campaigns in 2012.

Doug White, a nonprofit consultant who teaches ethics and fundraising at Columbia University, called telemarketing campaigns “a ripoff” but added, “I don’t blame the fundraisers. They’re for-profit companies doing their job. I blame the nonprofits that use them over and over and over again.”