Calls repeatedly. Mostly just hangs-up.
A really poor organization to donate to. Read the article, following.
Call the "Ohio Troopers Coalition" at 800-337-4187 to tell them to stop calling.
Address: 6161 Busch Blvd. #130, Columbus, Ohio 43229
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Tuesday November 20, 2007 9:14 AM
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The calls sound convincing.
For just a few dollars, thousands of Ohioans have been told, you can help sponsor a basketball league for disabled children and put teddy bars in the cars of state patrolmen for traumatized children. Best of all, the fundraising solicitors say, all of the donations go toward the charitable purpose -- not for overhead.
Using such pitches, a New Jersey-based fundraising company has raked in more than $3 million a year for the Ohio Troopers Coalition, a nonprofit group affiliated with the union representing state troopers.
Of that money, however, only a tiny fraction has gone toward teddy bears, basketballs and other charitable purposes. According to the coalition's own federal tax filing, less than 6 percent of revenue in 2005 -- the latest year available -- was devoted to charitable purposes.
Most of the rest went into the pockets of Civic Development Group LLC, a New Jersey company that's now being sued by the Ohio attorney general's office over its fundraising practices for the troopers' group and a Cleveland-area nonprofit for disabled veterans.
Under Ohio law, people can donate directly to a charity without going through a middleman.
Citing the Ohio Troopers Coalition's skimpy spending on charity, a national charitable watchdog group recently put the organization on its "10 Nonprofits that Make Ebenezer Proud" list, advising people to shun its holiday fundraising pitches.
"There are probably lots of other dubious groups out there, but these are the ones we singled out based on feedback from our members," said Sandra Miniutti, spokeswoman for Charity Navigator, a nonprofit rating service. "Unfortunately, we see this a lot with groups that say they support the troops or police or children's cancer (services) and that really pull on the heartstrings."
Charity Navigator also slammed the troopers' group for paying its 20-hour-per-week executive director, Jim Roberts, more than $70,000 in 2005 and $90,000 in 2004.
Roberts is on leave from his position with the Ohio Troopers Coalition and the Ohio State Troopers Association, an affiliated labor union. Roberts, who is expected to step down from both jobs at the end of the year, could not be reached.
Trooper Larry Phillips, the past president of both groups who is filling in for Roberts, said the coalition has not severed ties with Civic Development Group. At the same time, Phillips said, the coalition has become more hands-on in its own fundraising.
"If there are problems, hopefully they can be worked out," Phillips said of the relationship with Civic Development Group. "We're satisfied with the work they've been doing."
Attorney General Marc Dann is not satisfied. On Nov. 7, he sued the company in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, alleging that it duped both the troopers' group and the Disabled Veterans Association Inc.
Tax records show that the Rocky River-based veterans group spends about 28 percent of revenue on charitable purposes, with the largest share going back into fundraising. Its executive director did not return a call for comment.
Civic Development Group executives and their attorneys declined to comment.
While the government can't mandate that charities spend a specific percentage of revenue on their stated purposes, the law does require fundraisers to give the address of the charity on request.
The company misled potential donors into thinking that all money given to the Ohio Troopers Coalition would go toward charitable works by using a legal sleight of hand: the fundraisers were classified as employees of the coalition, said Jason Small, the assistant attorney general who filed the case.
"Our concern is primarily that Ohioans be told the truth," Small said.
A Dispatch review of federal charity tax filings showed that most nonprofits that raise money in Ohio put the vast majority of their revenue into charitable purposes. Charity Navigator did not single out any other Ohio-based nonprofits.
Two charities that spent less than half of their revenue on charitable purposes -- the Columbus Foundation and the ACLU of Ohio Foundation -- carried the remainder forward as savings rather than spending it on fundraising or other overhead, according to their tax returns.
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