Give to charity, but do so directly not on calls from telemarketers. Find some good charities. Charity navigator provides statistics and ratings of charities based on how much of the funds raised go to doing the work of the charity versus paying fundraisers, etc.. Telemarketers profit doing charities’ work:
Brigham’s group is one of many state and national charitable organizations that rely on telemarketing companies for fundraising, and those companies keep the vast majority of the money they raise.
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Then he asked the caller how much money goes to the charity and the caller replied that all of it goes to the charity’s fund, which is technically true. The money is required to be deposited in charity’s bank account – which is how states track charity fundraising – then the charity pays the company’s share back to them. “It’s so deceptive,” he said. “People aren’t going to know that.”
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Borochoff said that nationally, groups that hire telemarketers keep about a third of the money they solicit. The rest goes to the telemarketers, which incur the expense of compiling caller lists, hiring employees, maintaining calling facilities…
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Then he asked the caller how much money goes to the charity and the caller replied that all of it goes to the charity’s fund, which is technically true. The money is required to be deposited in charity’s bank account – which is how states track charity fundraising – then the charity pays the company’s share back to them. “It’s so deceptive,” he said. “People aren’t going to know that.”
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Borochoff said that nationally, groups that hire telemarketers keep about a third of the money they solicit. The rest goes to the telemarketers, which incur the expense of compiling caller lists, hiring employees, maintaining calling facilities…
If you want to pay people to call you at home while you are eating dinner, feel free to do so, but if you want to give to charity you should give directly to the charity.
Related: What To Do When A Charity Calls – Stop Dishonest Telemarketers
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On average, I get more than 100 calls a month, including Saturdays and Sundays. I now screen my calls and do not answer 800/900 numbers, numbers I don’t recognize, numbers with charity name given, or “unknown names/numbers,” which all come shortly after 8:00 am and continue up to 9:00 pm — but mostly around mealtimes. If I include the 160+ charity letters ( often with guilt gifts) I also receive each month, it could become a full time job trying to deal with all this. Can we STOP THIS MADNESS?!! If they can’t be included on Do Not Call lists, at least prohibit them from calling on weekends or holidays!!!! It would help a little bit.