Charity fundraising: Times readers blog their own investigations

UPDATE I AND UPDATE II BELOW

Over the weekend, The Times published an investigation into the poor performance of for-profit fundraisers hired by not-for-profit charities. The poster child was Citizens Against Government Waste, an advocacy group that rails against reckless government spending. According to reporting and analysis by Charles Piller and Doug Smith:

Records filed with the California attorney general’s office show that over the last decade, for-profit fundraisers for [Citizens Against Government Waste] kept more than 94 cents of every donated dollar.

...

In more than 5,800 campaigns on behalf of charities that were registered with the state attorney general from 1997 to 2006, the fundraisers reported taking in $2.6 billion. They kept nearly $1.4 billion -- about 54 cents of every dollar raised.

In addition to the broad analysis found in the story, the Web package included an interactive database that allows users to search for individual charities by name, look up common charity types and check out the most and least efficient for-profit fundraising efforts.

Within a matter of hours, Times readers started using the data to conduct their own independent investigations.

The Humboldt Herald examined its local police and firefighter charities and concluded that "small returns aren’t limited to our neck of the woods," before zeroing in a particular for-profit fundraiser, Gold Coast Productions, that's been busy with profitable local work. Commenter Mike Buettner said, "It would be nice to have that chart on the fridge just to check the next time you get a solicitation."

Michael Airehart at the gay-rights activism site Truth Wins Out took a close look at fundraising on behalf of Concerned Women for America as he tried to unwind what he says is a plot to "siphon off donations for partisan political uses."

PDSurfer at RealJock advised other boarders to consult the database when "considering making a contribution to any of these organizations." Dedicated Murketing voiced some frustration with the performance of a favorite charity. And The Dynamist advised readers to "hang up on telemarkers, who degrade life for everyone with a telephone."

To join the conversation, leave a comment here or jump in to our discussion board.

UPDATE: Today, the non-profit journalism group Pro Publica joined in when Matthew Schwarzfeld used the database to highlight the performance of charities described as having "emotional or patriotic appeal."

UPDATE II:The Washington Post's Investigations blog and the non-profit Washington Independent also spun off their own take on the database.

--Ben Welsh

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Most people realize that funding is a tool to do God's work and the amount of funding earned helps to determine the effectiveness of our giving...