I found out who these guys are... N.C. Fire Fighters Association aka (NCFFA) It's a telemarketing outfit owned by the "Ghel Group" of Florida. Joe Ghel is the Owner. These people aren't firefighters at all, in fact, they don't work for the firefighters, they work for the Ghel Group. They solicite funds to over sell tickets to an event that you will probably forget about when the date comes and the Fire Fighters Association get's 50% of the proceeds. That means that they get 50% of what's left after all the telemarketers are paid for a 6 month campaign, the Peformers, the Colliseum, the stage hands, the rent, utilities, all bills etc. etc. etc. which usually amounts to about $20-$40,000. So 50% would be $10-$20,000 to the Firefighters assoc, and the same ammount to the Joe Gehl. The Firefighters association is a lobby group that pays senators and congresspersons to lobby for a vote in which they support. None of the money goes to any fire fighters station at all. It ends up being used for political lobbying after all the telemarketers are paid. Check it out for your self. I used to Work for them and even Managed an office and was quite successful at it.
I hate these types of calls. Actually I love them, when I can get someone on the line (tonight's call was "dead air" when I answered). They are glorified telemarketers - and half of the donations go towards the telemarketing company, for their fees and overhead for running that particular fundraising event. I get them on the line and basically tell them that I am not about to give x-amount of money when the department only sees half of it; they try to argue that that is not the case and I ask them where their pay comes from if that is not true. They never have a good answer to that one. After that, I tell them that if I choose to donate my money to the organization, it will go to them directly, not through some lamebrained middle-man company that's going to steal half of my donation! If they haven't hung up on me by this point, I tell them to remove me from their list or face fines from the FTC for being in violation of the Federal DNC list.