AC Services / Breast Cancer Society: Before You Donate, Read This.

General background on the problem: the American Institute of Philanthropy explains how some breast cancer charities waste a lot of their funds.

Here's a great ABC news investigative report (with video) on AC Services and serveral of the charities it telemarkets for. Includes whistleblower's testimony.

Here's Charity Navigator's report on Associated Community Services.

A 2009 investigative report on Associated Community Services found that:

"For just the State of Washington, ACS raised $1,152,000, but was only able to pass $353,000 of that to its 14 client 'charities'; the "Breast Cancer Society," operating in several states, manages to devote just 3% of the money it raises to actual services, "Cancer Fund of America" manages 9%, and "Firefighters Assistance Fund" manages to spend just 5% of the money it raises on assistance. ACS has even harassed people while soliciting donations, it seems. While all of this is sounds like it should be illegal, it isn't. The most that Attorneys General in Kentucky, Iowa, Conneticut, and Michigan have been able to do is make public warnings about the fundrasing. "

Charity Navigator WILL NOT LIST "The Breast Cancer Society" because TCBS is under investigation by the NY Attorney General for "misleading practices".

The CEO of TBCS is James Reynolds II, vice president and son of the CEO of the Cancer Fund of America (see that link for numerous problems with THAT charity, including handsome salaries for the sons). The Cancer Fund of America was nominated by Charity Navigator for "10 Non Profits That Make Ebenezer Proud." Better Business Bureau reports that the CFA raised millions through telemarketing but "The BBB found that more than 99 percent of all cash donations to the organization pay professional fundraising costs, salaries for charity officials, consultant fees and other expenses related to the charity's operations."

TBCS is one of the charities mentioned in this excellent Investigative report on "The Big Business of Breast Cancer". ("the group spent 90 cents of every dollar that it raised on telemarketers, not patients.") Like father, like son?

A breast cancer survivor reports on her bad experience with a BCS telemarketer and recommends alternate cancer charities she DOES support.

Another blogger reports on AC Services strongarm tactics (I had a virtually identical call.)

Another victim of Breast Cancer Society telemarketing reports on harassment.

Hundreds of reports of BCS's telemarketing harassment.

"James," almost certainly James Reynolds himself, prowls reports of harassment by BCS and leaves typo-riddled comments attempting to discredit news reports about his company, without identifying who he is. I find this an odd thing for a CEO to be doing. He also claims the charity is listed with the BBB, but the BBB site actually calls out TCBS for refusing to give the BBB any information.

Similarly, "Kristina," Director of Public Relations, threatened legal action against a blog post discussing BCS telemarketing because -- she claimed-- the administrator was deleting her comments. (The administrator asserted he was not). Freedom of Speech only gives people the right to express themselves; it does NOT require any particular publication, blog, or organization to print your comments on THEIR site, any more than people are required to take your telemarketing call on THEIR telephone.

I am all for supporting breast cancer research. But it appears to me that TCBS is one of these charities that uses donations very inefficiently. There are other charities which do use your donations efficiently, putting most donor money towards research and cancer patients than towards administration.

I've also received ACS calls for several other charites, several of which are mentioned in that ABC News investigative report.

The Washington government website maintains a list of which charities ACS telemarkets for. Below is the list (September 2011), cross-linked with independent reports on each of these charities, many (but not all) of which demonstrate similar patterns of shady fundraising practices. These links are largely a charity Hall of Shame:

• Autism Spectrum Disorder Foundation, Inc.
  
• Big Hope, Inc.
  
• Breast Cancer Charities Of America, Inc., The
  
• Breast Cancer Society, Inc., The
  
• Cancer Fund of America, Inc.
  
• Children With Hair Loss, Inc.
  
• Children's Cancer Fund Of America, Inc.
  
• Children's Cancer Recovery Foundation (note: this one is a little better than the rest, but it writes off fundraising expenses as "program expenses", and there's a lot of 'em)
  
• Circle of Friends for American Veterans (This may be a legit but small charity with a history of hiring so-so fundraising companies-- in that BBB report, see remarks from "Brian Hampton").
  
• Disabled Veterans Services, Inc. (I did NOT find much info on this one, so I don't know if it's good or bad)
  
• Firefighters Assistance Fund, Inc.
  
• FireFighters Charitable Foundation, Inc.
  
• Firefighters Support Services, Incorporated
  
• Foundation For American Veterans, Inc. (six cents of every dollar goes to actual veterans services)
  
• National Children's Leukemia Foundation
  
• Operation Lookout National Center For Missing Youth
  
• Vietnam Veterans of Washington State
  
• Youth Development Fund, Inc.

If you ever donate to even one of them, ACS continues to call you asking for donations on behalf of the others, as I found out the hard way.

A couple years ago, to a particularly legitimate-sounding charity call, I said, "I don't take solicitations over the phone, but if you send me something in writing, I'll take a look." Despite my refusal to pledge anything on the phone or make any commitment, they mailed me a pledge card claiming I'd pledged $25. They kept calling and calling me, and stupidly, I finally paid it to get them to stop calling me. Ha. Ahahaha. Aha. Yes, I was naive.

It took me until now to connect the dots. I tend to hang up after I hear "AC Services" because I've heard it so often, so I had gotten the hazy impression it was a rude air conditioning company. I had not realized it was a telemarketer connected with all those charities.

In the U.S., nonprofits are exempt from Do Not Call Registry regulations, which require commercial companies to comply with the Do Not Call Registry. Once your name is on the registry, they're not allowed to call you -- even once -- and you can report them if they do.

The Breast Cancer Society is a nonprofit. But Associated Community Services is a COMMERCIAL company. Therefore, I think we should all report them for violating the National Do Not Call Registry.

First: Register with the National Do Not Call Registry.

Then: Whenever ACS calls you, fill out the Do Not Call Registry Complaint Form. If you have caller ID, be sure to get their phone number, but it's not necessary to report them.

You might also want to take a look at this unconfirmed comment from an ex-employee of Associated Community Services, which claims:

The law states that if you request to be put on a do not call list they only have to do it for that one charity that they are calling for. They do not have to take you off of all their charity lists. If worse comes to worse just ask for a manager and they will take care of it. Make sure that you have it documented the date and time. At that point you can press charges. Also, all the calls in the entire office are recorded so if you do go to court you can ask for that piece of evidence.

I have no way to corroborate that independently, but it does sound like it comes from someone who actually worked at an AC Services call center, so it's worth trying.