Ohio telephone fundraising firm fined for misleading consumers

• Date: 01 March 2018
• Published date: 01 March 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30427

8

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12

design and reach of their programs, the groups said.

In short, better data will mean better outcomes for

more beneciaries, they said.

• A more level playing eld. Currently, smaller

charities often can’t afford to collect and process

impact data. The free IGP data will essentially de-

mocratize impact evaluation and improve all charities’

ability to report reliable outcomes data, enabling all

charities to compete for donations on a level playing

eld, the groups said. The ultimate goal is to com-

bine all of the impact data to replace the “overhead

metric” with a set of “outcome metrics” that provide

a more reasonable basis for judging charitable effec-

tiveness, GuideStar said.

For more information, visit http://www.guidestar.

org. ■

PARTNERSHIP (continued from page 6)

Ohio telephone fundraising rm ned for misleading consumers

Under a proposed settlement agreement with

the Federal Trade Commission, InfoCision Inc., an

Akron, Ohio–based fundraising company, will pay a

$250,000 civil penalty to settle charges that its tele-

marketers misled consumers by not disclosing that

they were calling to solicit charitable contributions.

The settlement, which is awaiting nal approval,

resolves violations of the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales

Rule, which requires telemarketers calling on behalf

of a charity to promptly disclose the name of the

charity they’re calling for and if the purpose of the

call is to seek a donation.

According to the FTC complaint, since at least

2013 InfoCision has conducted hundreds of tele-

marketing campaigns reaching consumers nation-

wide on behalf of charitable organizations. In some

of those campaigns, the FTC alleges, InfoCision’s

telemarketers called consumers and told them at

the start of the call that they were not calling to

ask for a donation.

However, according to the FTC, the telemar-

keters subsequently asked consumers to mail or

hand-deliver materials requesting donations to

family members, friends or neighbors. In addi-

tion, the agency said, despite initially saying they

were not calling to solicit donations, InfoCision’s

telemarketers allegedly asked consumers to donate

money, typically in amounts ranging from $10 to

$50 — constituting a violation of the TSR.

The settlement would require InfoCision to spe-

cically disclose the name of the charity on whose

behalf it is making the call; that the purpose of

the call is to solicit a charitable contribution; and

whether the contribution sought is a donation,

monetary gift or anything else of value.

The settlement also includes standard record-

keeping and monitoring provisions to ensure com-

pliance with its terms, the FTC said. ■