Several months ago I telephone pledged then donated $75 to the Canadian Police Association involved in educating children against dangers.
Today out of the clear blue I get a letter from the CFAC claiming my current pledge was $75 and showed me how to send in the money. On the form was a window entitled “Protecting our Children” and blurbed on about internet predators.
$75 ? A coincidence?
I think not. To refresh my memory I logged onto their site
On the top of their list of current articles is
Okay I get the jist. I’m pissed off because I feel I been played by the CFAC.* “This mark is probably good for $75.00. He might think he had forgotten his pledge of $75.00. What does he remember if the bookkeeper…” *Sure I’m into protecting children, but I want no part of the rest of their agenda.
But what burns my ass even more is that the Canadian Police Association sold my information to these ass holes. They can kiss my ass next year.
Holy shit, dude. The CFAC are freaking scary people – they were the ones trumpeting last year that Bill C-10 would allow them to use their “in” with the Conservative Party to censor films like Breakfast with Scot.
Telling you that you pledged 75$ when you did not do so in the hope that you’ll get them confused with another organization you did pledge to seems like it could be fraud. I’d raise a stink.
But if you tell them “I’m giving no more money to an organization that passes my details on to the CFAC,” it might have some effect, especially if other people do the same.
I hate to tell you this, but most likely the Canadian Police Association you donated to was most likely a scam, also.
I posted before about the Texas State Fraternal Order of Police. If you donate $10.00 to them, you will be lucky if .25 cents of that money is applied to any “good works”. Eight dollars of that ten will be gobbled up by the telemarketers who called you, and of the 2 dollars the TSFOP gets, most of it will be eaten in administration costs.
That’s ‘standard operating procedure’ for the Texas State FOP. That’s what they say every time the call me. They say stuff like “We never received your check.” or “It must have been your husband.”
They also say they cannot mail literature to your house without a donation.
They hang up when you ask them to remove your name from their call list or ask any questions, etc.
I wound up filing a complaint with the Texas State Attorney General’s office and the phone company because these yahoos harrassed me so much.
I also spoke with the head of the TSFOP a couple of times-who denied anyone could have ever called me in a harassing manner, but also claimed that they record all calls. I challenged him to review the number and content of calls to my home number and tell me the stats, but he refused to contact me again after that conversation.
That is pretty stinky, on many levels (the selling of information, the fraud, etc.). I used to donate to The Mustard Seed (a local charity for the homeless), but stopped because of their marketing strategies. It’s getting so I don’t want to give my charity money to anyone - it seems like they’re all going to do something I don’t like with the money (like United Way and their big executive salaries), or to me. Maybe I’ll just donate food regularly to the Food Bank via Safeway.
The Canadian Police Association itself seems totally legit. I don’t know about any fundraising in their name, however. It may be a total scam, using the association name in vain, or a semi-scam, where 90% of the donations go to “administration” costs for the fundraisers.
The organization may be legit, but they might farm out their fundraising to an outside organization that uses shady tactics. Look out for terminology like “I’m calling on behalf of the Canadian Police Association”. They are likely not from the Canadian Police Association.
I think I get it now. I had dealt with a fundraising outfit who will keep a data base for their other clients. I don’t know how to get around this problem for future charitable donations.
Typically what happens is a fundraising company will agree to raise a certain amount for the group they are collecting for. Say…2 million. They then start the calls and raise 5 million. 2 million goes to the charity and 3 million is profit.
Well, you could drop off canned foods at the local homeless shelter and cut out the middleman.
As for me, I guess it’s time to send the War Amps another few bucks. I trust them.
I don’t think a fundraising company can say they are raising funds for a charity if those funds are not going to the charity. My experience with for-profit fundraising was that all the funds raised went to the charity, and the charity paid its contract with the fundraising company out of that.
I’m not certain, but if that’s the case in Canada it’s likely different here. I have heard of organizations that take a percentage of what they bring in.
That’s entirely possible. I looked for some cites on how fundraising is supposed to be conducted, but was not successful. If that is indeed the case, I agree that it should be outlawed as fraudulent.