About a third of the Colorado fundraising campaigns ostensibly run last year for the benefit of a nonprofit — usually operated by for-profit telephone solicitation companies — kept nearly all of the money that was raised.
In all, about $14 million in charitable contributions that Coloradans made last year were given to solicitation companies hired to get the money, according to a new report by the secretary of state’s office, which keeps track of the industry.
That means Coloradans who believed they were giving money to charities such as the African Wildlife Foundation, the American Bible Society, the American Civil Liberties Union or Easter Seals were actually paying the salary and expenses of the telephone solicitor taking their donations.
Overall, though, charities raising money in Colorado actually received about 51 cents of every dollar, the highest average since 2004, according to the report.
Solicitors raised more than $213 million in Colorado, of which about $109 million actually went to the charities, the report shows. That’s a fraction of the $3.5 billion that Colorado-based charities collected from all sources last year.
Still, paid solicitors for some well-known charities kept the bulk of the funds they collected in the name of the nonprofit groups. Among them:
• Colorado Police Protective Association (CPPA) received $66,000 of the $551,000 raised on its behalf.
• Denver Police Brotherhood Youth Boxing got $16,000 of the $143,300 raised by a solicitor.
• Denver Sheriffs Union received $32,000 of the $267,000 raised on its behalf.
• Firefighters Charitable Foundation in New York received $140,000 of $1.1 million donated by Coloradans.
The practice of raising money for a charity and keeping much of it is legal — as are the tax deductions taken on funds that never actually get to the charity — experts say. Not all charities are tax-deductible ones, however.
“I’d like to think there’s a growing awareness of how fundraising works and more people are asking questions, hence why charities are seeing more of the money,” said Chris Cash, charities program manager at the Colorado secretary of state’s office. “Courts have made it clear that states can’t establish any level solicitors must reimburse a charity, not even as little as 10 percent.”
Charities say it’s simply the cost of doing business and of getting their message to the public.
“I have a staff of 1.5, and people have a hard time understanding what it would cost for us to raise it all in-house,” said Carole Charles, general manager of the CPPA. “When the economy weakens, it gets harder to get donations. Our small staff precludes us from doing the work.”
The state has issued the annual report on charitable giving and closely tracked the affiliated solicitations since 2002.
You can read the full report and research a charity at
David Migoya: 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com
