The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has long been a client of InfoCision, an industry gorilla among commercial fundraisers. No one has said if the client name is instead a copycat. My remarks apply regardless.
Charity calls are commonly placed by a commercial fundraiser, such as Associated Community Services, Dial America, Donor Care Center, Donor Services Group, Harris Direct, Horizon Marketing, InfoCision, Insight Teleservices, MDS, and TeleFund. Like all non-sales calls, these are exempt from federal and most state no-call registries, even though the call centers executing the recurring campaigns are very much for-profit and pocket most of what is collected.
At times the ''charity'' client is itself a closet profit enterprise, compounding the deception. Never forget that "nonprofit" is a tax category, not an indicator of actual earnings and not a guarantee that anyone who deserves your generosity will benefit.
As commercial entities, the hired call centers are expected to honor an internal no-call list and add any number upon request. Break that order, the FTC declares, and ''the telemarketer may be subject to a fine of up to $16,000.'' They can also be spanked for excess call abandonment, transmitting inaccurate Caller ID, and calling outside default hours.
Because the amounts collected are rather small, these call centers are quite motivated to repeatedly hassle you. The worst of the industry will "reload" a donor multiple times a year, preferring forgetful and easily confused victims. Most if not all such phone farms assume that your no-call order, when given verbally or by keypress, conveniently expires when a client's campaign ends.
In comments from November 2012 and June 2013 linked below, I've discussed simple steps I took to rid myself of a major pain fundraising boiler room by politely rubbing its face in federal laws. You will note that I never rely on verbal cease-communication demands.
I almost never answer calls from numbers I don't recognize. However, I have a very sick family member. Number Called asking for "Heidi". Also, had a southern accent. I got a similar call last week asking for Heidi. When I said they had the wrong number she said "oh well maybe you could help" and then went on saying she was from the cancer society. I hung up and blocked both numbers. Very annoying
Called my Cellular, when I answered they asked for "Richard". when I said it was the wrong number, he said "oh, maybe you can help" and went on, I hung up.