Donors deceived, money meant for charity goes to telemarketer

Million of dollars in donations intended for charities have instead gone to the telemarketing firm soliciting the donations, an investigation from Bloomberg Markets found. 

InfoCision Management Corp. claims on its website to raise more money for charities over the phone than any other company in the world. But one-sided contracts leave the majority of money donated to organizations like American Diabetes Assocation actually ending up with the telemarketer.

"Many of the biggest-name charities in the U.S. have signed similarly one-sided contracts with telemarketers during the past decade. The American Cancer Society, the largest health charity in the U.S., enlisted InfoCision from 1999 to 2011 to raise money.

In fiscal 2010, InfoCision gathered $5.3 million for the society. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers took part, but none of that money -- not one penny -- went to fund cancer research or help patients, according to the society’s filing with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the state of Maine."

Also see NPR's coverage of the investigation: http://www.npr.org/2012/09/12/160997044/when-telemarketers-pocket-money-meant-for-charity