At Charity Navigator, we always advise donors not to give over the phone, instead doing preliminary research on our site, and then avoiding the middleman by giving to the charity directly. This will ensure that no telemarketing firm will take a percentage of your donation before sending it on the organization of your choice. Unfortunately, it will not stop the phone calls coming in asking for your money.
However, answering the phone in Kansas might become a little less harrowing if Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt has his way. He is proposing that telemarketers calling on behalf of charities should be required to disclose the amount of any donations that will make its way to the charity. In response, the Attorney General’s office has stated such a requirement may interfere with telemarketers’ free speech rights.
The author of the article describing the Senate Majority Leader’s proposal poses an interesting alternative: Instead of a required disclosure of percentages, could the federal “Do Not Call” list be expanded? Due to current limitations in the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, those calling on behalf of charities are exempt from adhering to the Do Not Call list.
What do you think? Would you support an expansion of the Do Not Call list to include charitable organizations and the professional telemarketers calling on their behalf?
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I would like to have charities and telemarkets on their behalf banned. A week ago I would have said I didn't care but last week I got a call from a charity I had donated to previously and got the hard sell from the telemarketer. She would not take no for an answer and kept pushing. I really should have just hung up on her, but it showed me that even charities can be no better than regular telemarketsr sometimes
Yes, I just got a call from a breast cancer charity and I first pointed out that I'm on the do not disturb list for a reason. She said that charity didn't count on that list and started her talk...when I said not interested for the third time she hung up on me...so now I'm even more eager to get that extension added.Yes please expand that list now...
I definitely agree that charities should be a part of this. The number of phone calls from charities this year is disturbing and bothersome. And as Mike says, they're just as bad (if not worse) than "regular" telemarketers because they try to pull on heart strings to get money out of you. I would be for a "selective" do not call where I could specify "all" or "allow charties" (although I would be on the list for ALL).
I think the charities have gone way too far in calling people for donations.My father is 79 years old & works full time & recieves at least 7 to 10 calls a day,to give money.It is annoying & he is a vetern of The korean war and is bothered constantly by these so called Police & other Charities.They should honor the do not call list,and what is even worse,when you tell them nicely that you have no money,THEY HANG UP ON YOU.I HAVE TRIED TO CALL THEM BACK & GUESS WHAT THEIR # IS BLOCKED.THIS HAS TO STOP,GIVE US A BREAK,WE CAN'T EVEN FEED OUR OWN FAMILIES & ARE EXPECTED TO GIVE WHAT WE DON'T HAVWE AWAY.....PLEASE STOP THEM....Ellen Kohler
Post a Comment