Would-be contributors who get telemarketing calls from Greenpeace could be doing more to line the pockets of professional fundraisers than the cause they think they’re supporting. Greenpeace made the Indiana Attorney General’s list of organizations that use professional fundraisers for two eyebrow-raising “fundraising campaigns, one of which estimates the organization’s cut of the fundraiser’s take at 40 percent, and the other, at just 1 percent,” Fort Wayne News Sentinel business writer Linda Lipp writes. Lipp, who says she has given to Greenpeace herself, notes: “I don’t make that much, and I don’t like to see 99 percent of what I give going to support professional fundraisers.”
The Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance web site, which “contains information on hundreds of not-for-profit groups across the country,” reports that “Greenpeace has refused requests for information,” Lipp writes. That’s not too shocking: The State of New York reported early this year that Greenpeace saw less than a third of the funds it “raised” in New York in 2001 — netting just over $20,000 (23.6%) — while its fundraisers kept over $85,000.
Groups including MADD, PETA, and the Center for Food Safety had similar fundraising issues in New York last year. For much more on the finances of Greenpeace and 27 other leading anti-consumer activist groups, visit ActivistCash.com.
