This page contains information on how to read and interpret the data presented in the table of active charitable campaigns.
What charitable campaigns are registered
Under state law, when a fundraising campaign for a charitable organization is conducted by a professional solicitor, then the solicitor must file a Promotion Registration Statement with the Office of Consumer Protection prior to soliciting contributions in Kentucky. Charity fundraising activities that are not conducted by professional solicitors are not registered with the Office of Consumer Protection. Registration is not an approval or endorsement by the Attorney General of any professional fundraiser.
What you can learn from the table
The table is a list of both completed and ongoing promotions (also known as campaigns) in Kentucky. The information provided is obtained from the Promotion Registration Statement filed by the solicitor at the beginning of the campaign and from the Financial Report submitted by the solicitor at the end of the campaign. Some campaigns are designed to continue for more than one year, and in such campaigns the solicitor files an annual Financial Report until the campaign is concluded. Representatives of the solicitor and of the charity must sign the filed Promotion Registration Statement and Financial Report.
The information provided in the table relates to how much of the money contributed during a campaign will go to the charity after payment of the solicitor fees and costs of the campaign itself. Information about how the charity spends the revenue it receives is not provided in the table.
This table is presented to help consumers decide whether to donate to a particular charity's campaign. Donors may want to consider whether to give to charities that routinely receive a low percentage of the total revenue generated by a campaign or charities that spend a high percentage of revenue on fundraising or administrative expenses rather than their stated charitable purpose.
While it may be appropriate to consider whether a charity will receive a low percentage of the total revenue raised by a campaign when deciding to make a contribution, donors should also keep in mind several factors that reasonably may affect fundraising costs. For instance, identifying new donors may be more time consuming and thus more expensive than contacting prior contributors. Also, fundraising is not always the only goal of a charitable campaign. A charitable organization may want to educate the public about an issue, recruit volunteers or increase awareness of the charity’s mission in connection with a fundraising campaign.
Donors are urged to review the entire annual financial report of a charity when considering whether to make a contribution and should not rely solely on the table in trying to ascertain the cost effectiveness of a charity’s fundraising efforts.
Other resources
Additional information comparing the amounts charities spend on administrative and fundraising expenses with their actual charitable programs may available on the following websites: Better Business Bureau at www.give.org; Charity Navigator at www.charitynavigator.org; Guidestar at www.guidestar.org or from the Internal Revenue Service at www.irs.gov/charities/ or by contacting the Office of Consumer Protection.
How to read the table
The table is arranged alphabetically by charitable organization. The solicitor conducting the fundraising campaign is identified in the column to the right of the charity. The beginning and end dates of each charitable campaign also are given in the table under the columns "Promotion Begin" and "Promotion End". Note: There may be multiple entries for a charity if there is more than one campaign currently ongoing or if there have been previous campaigns conducted on its behalf.
If a Financial Report has been filed, the total revenue received during the campaign and the amount of revenue that will go to the charity are presented in the table as "Total Revenue" and "Amount of Revenue to Charity" respectively. The Amount of Revenue that goes to the charity is determined by decreasing the Total Revenue by the costs of the campaign and the solicitor’s fee. The "Actual" percentage of the total revenue that the charity receives has been calculated and is provided. Note: For ongoing campaigns that will last longer than a year, the final figures and ratios may change when a campaign is completed and all revenue and expenses are reported.
If the campaign is ongoing and a Financial Report has not been filed, then the percentage of contributions that is expected to go to the charity—based upon the information provided by the solicitor in the Promotion Registration Statement at the beginning of the campaign—is shown in the column "Projected % to Charity". The actual percentage that goes to the charity calculated at the end of the campaign may be different from the projected percentage, depending upon the contract between the charity and the solicitor. Note: In instances where the solicitor and charity have agreed that the solicitor will be paid a percentage of the total revenue raised, the "Projected Percentage" is most easily determined and should be fairly close to the final "Actual" percentage reported. But in those instances where the solicitor’s fee is not a percentage of the revenue raised, (for instance if the contract says the solicitor will be paid $1.00 per call made), then the "Projected Percentage" is not as easily determined at the start of a campaign and may differ greatly from the actual percentage that the charity receives by the end of the campaign.
When the "Actual % to Charity" shown for a charity is "100% or greater", the solicitor may have guaranteed a minimum payment to the charity regardless of the amount contributed and the guaranteed payment exceeded the total revenue of a campaign.
When the "Actual % to Charity" and the "Amount of Revenue to Charity" columns show a negative number or a loss to the charity, the contract between the solicitor and charity may not guarantee the charity a specific amount of the total revenue collected, or the contract may require the charity to pay the expenses of the campaign and the solicitor’s fee even if the expenses and solicitor fee exceed the total revenue generated by the campaign.