The money charities didn't get

The fundraising organization for two Hernando County firefighter unions and six others in the Tampa Bay area raised more than $2.3 million in donations from 2004-07, but turned over less than $348,000 to the unions.
The donors who mailed their checks and invoices thought they were giving to firefighters and their charities.
Based on financial records from Jan. 1, 2004, through Dec. 31, 2007, the local fire unions received about 15.1 percent of the contributions from Bay Area Council Inc., the agency they hired to do their soliciting, according to financial records obtained by Hernando Today.
The rest paid for salaries, professional fundraising fees, rent, printing, shipping and posting, telephone bills and other expenses that totaled more than $1.9 million.
In 2004, Bay Area Council distributed 15.3 percent of its revenue to its fire agencies, according to state records. In 2005, it was 14.1 percent. The next two years were 15.4 and 15.9 percent, respectively.
As of Thursday, the company had not submitted its 2008 revenue figures to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs, which registers charities.
Bay Area Council let its registration expire in July, even though it is still raising funds.
Multiple calls to the office and to President Ron Howell have not been answered and messages have not been returned. Employees on Wednesday refused to speak to a reporter who knocked on the door at their office in Port Richey.
The office is located in a strip mall off U.S. 19.
There have been a few U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have allowed for agencies like Bay Area Council to operate with little fear of prosecution.
In 1984, the court ruled 5-4 in favor of a Maryland fundraiser that had its license denied based on a law that limited how much a solicitor could take from donations. The majority wrote the Maryland law was based on a "fundamentally mistaken premise that high solicitation costs are an accurate measure of fraud."
In 2003, the court unanimously ruled against the State of Illinois, stating it couldn't demand from charities that they disclose fundraising costs or related information prior to making solicitations. The court also reiterated previous decisions that forbade states from creating arbitrary limits on how much charities could spend on fundraising.
The case came about after Telemarketing Associates, a phone solicitor for VietNow, had swallowed 85 percent of its revenue, according to the Illinois Attorney General.
However, the court admitted in its same decision that the possibilities were "open for fraud actions to guard the public against false or misleading charitable solicitations."
The American Institute of Philanthropy wrote in that same year that the courts only would act on the donors' behalf when they are victimized by the "most extremely dishonest telemarketing practices."
The watchdog group also disclosed that in 2001, VietNow raised $3.5 million and spent only $118,000, or 4 percent, on program services.
Sen. Mike Fasano, who addressed Bay Area Council's tactics during a public meeting earlier this month, said while he was angry about the recent data, he didn't think the agency's "aggressive attacks" were illegal.
One man is committed to taking Bay Area Council and its affiliates to task.
Ron Wegner, whose mother died in May, was disturbed by something he found while sorting through her pile of mail.
It was an invoice requesting a $30 donation to the Professional Firefighters of Spring Hill.
He didn't think it looked like an invoice. To him, it was a bill.
He complained to the Spring Hill Fire Rescue District as well as to Sen. Fasano.
Wegner has contacted authorities, including the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, he said.
The forms Bay Area Council sends in the mail are purposely deceptive, he said. They are, in his mind, designed to fool seniors into thinking they are paying for fire services.
That constitutes fraud, Wegner said.
"I've always been a friend of the firefighters," he said during a Spring Hill Fire District meeting Wednesday. "I'm not a friend of dishonesty, which is what I think is going on here."
The total revenues generated by Bay Area Council are divided into three categories - program services, management and general and fundraising.
Program services are the funds given to the eight fire agencies.
Management and general include line items such as accounting fees, supplies, insurance, bank charges, capital improvements and other charges.
Fundraising includes salaries, professional fees, telephone charges, postage and shipping, printing costs, subcontracting services, casual labor and other miscellaneous payments.
The amounts allocated for benefits to members were $79,735.81 in 2004; $100,062.00 in 2005; $91,725.49 in 2006; and $76,170.66 in 2007.
The majority of the revenues each year went toward fundraising.
Salaries and fundraising fees make up the largest expenses each year, state financial records show. Those costs totaled $150,943 for 2004, $372,625 for 2005, $217,316 for 2006, and $183,035 for 2007.
In 2005, which was Bay Area Council's most lucrative year, $517,642 out of the $707,528 collected was used to pay for fundraising expenses - more than 73 percent.
The postage costs paid by Bay Area Council in 2004 totaled $13,624, the third-highest fundraising line item behind salaries and subcontracting. By 2007, that total was $17,789. That is the cost of the scads of letters sent to prospective donors across the Tampa region.
Scott Edmisten, president of the Spring Hill fire union, said invoices aren't mailed to people unless they agree to give a donation.
"The company calls. If you say yes, you get a letter," he said.
Edmisten said his union has hired Bay Area Council to do its phone solicitations for about 15 years.
The company also solicits on behalf of the Hernando County Professional Firefighters, Citrus County Professional Paramedics and EMTs, New Port Richey Firefighters, Pasco County Council of Firefighters, Polk County Firefighters, Zephyrhills Professional Firefighters and the Hillsborough Firefighters Benevolent Association.
Bay Area Council, whose state registration expired in July, has been under investigation by the state since September, according to a spokesman for the State Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.