Citizens Group Shines a Light on Questionable Fundraising Practices by
International Union of Police Associations
SARASOTA, Fla., Feb. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Starting in Florida, a new
organization of concerned citizens forms Citizens for Ethical Non-profit
Treasury Stewardship ("CENTS") to highlight the fundraising practices of the
Sarasota-based International Union of Police Associations ("IUPA") and their
for-profit telemarketing contractor LAS, LLC.
Less Than 2% of Contribution Dollars Go To Charity
CENTS says: "Nearly everyone has gotten a call from a police organization
asking for a charitable contribution. We support our officers, but what IUPA
is doing in their names is shocking."
In 2006 and 2007, according to its IRS 990 Form, IUPA raised $4,848,758 from
donations made by US citizens. Of this, a whopping $4,342,009 went to
fundraising expenses, which included $1.9 million in fees to LAS, LLC, (a
Washington, DC-based telemarketing firm). Only $506,749 ended up with IUPA,
which is only 9% of donations. Worse, of that, only $53,900 is reported as
having gone to law enforcement causes and scholarships. The balance
apparently covered union budget shortfalls and executive salaries and
expenses.
"It makes no sense," says CENTS, "that less than two pennies of every citizen
dollar goes to legitimate charitable causes. If government officials can't or
haven't done anything about this, we must."
Why IUPA?
IUPA consistently ranks among the worst charitable organizations in terms of
fundraiser fees. Many states track charitable giving and publish the amounts
charities spend on fundraising fees. CENTS found IUPA consistently retains
only 10-15% of donations in states which keep these records. A New York
Attorney General ("NYAG") report titled Pennies for Charities found IUPA
retained only 14.8% of its donations in 2006. This ranks IUPA near the bottom
in New York. The NYAG report found that other major charities had
considerably higher retention of donations: UNICEF, League of Women Voters,
Sierra Club and the NAACP retained more than 60%.
CENTS also found an agreement between LAS and IUPA in which IUPA agrees to
retain only 10% of donations "to its primary account" with the rest going to
pay for IUPA's telemarketing expenses and fees to LAS. According to documents
filed with the North Carolina Secretary of State, LAS has an exclusive
contract with IUPA to solicit donations and manage IUPA's telemarketing call
center in Lakeland, Florida. According to the contract with LAS, IUPA uses
the services of Financial Processing Services to handle and distribute the
telemarketing donations.
LAS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Civic Development Group (CDG), which is a
notorious telemarketing firm with a long track record of state and federal
investigations. The Federal Trade Commission recently filed a civil suit
claiming that CDG had violated a 1998 consent agreement to cease misleading
telemarketing calls. (According to the whistleblower website
http://civicdevelopment.net/home, there have been eight recent state
investigations involving CDG.) Financial Processing Services, which handles
IUPA's telemarketing donations, is a "lockbox" company run by Dolores Keezer,
the mother of David Keezer, principal officer of CDG.
The telemarketing agreement between the LAS and IUPA is called a Professional
Management Consultant Agreement (PMC) and the FTC declared recently that such
agreements are bad for charitable transparency. The FTC believes that such
agreements are a way of skirting state filing laws and allow telemarketers to
deceive potential donors into believing that all of their donation will go to
the charity.
CENTS questions IUPA's judgment in entering into such an agreement when the
FTC clearly views them as detrimental to charitable transparency. Is IUPA
trying to hide their track record of paying exorbitant telemarketing fees?
Why Florida?
In 2005, IUPA moved its headquarters to Florida and has set up a call center
in Lakeland, FL managed by LAS. IUPA uses the call center to solicit
donations in the state of Florida under the name IUPA-Florida Local 6000.
IUPA-Florida Local 6000 is controlled entirely by IUPA leadership.
This week, from February 19-22, top IUPA officials will be meeting at the
Hyatt on Sarasota Bay for their Public Safety Benefits Conference. "It's time
the executives responsible for this Florida sham answer some questions," says
CENTS. Do officers on the beat know about this? What is IUPA's relationship
with LAS? Where's the money going?"
What's Next for CENTS?
"Right now, we're a small group of concerned citizens," says CENTS. "Our goal
is to highlight this questionable operation while IUPA officials are gathered
here. But our plan is to enlist the aid and support of other community
organizations and to ultimately make this a priority matter for the Florida
Attorney General."
SOURCE Citizens for Ethical Non-profit Treasury Stewardship
Allison Schmidt, Press Spokesperson, +1-305-519-0996, for Citizens for Ethical
Non-profit Treasury Stewardship; or Ramiro Rodriguez, CENTS Organizer,
+1-305-433-5105
