Sunday, December 10, 2006

MADD at the Toronto Star

Which One's the Mother?
That'd be MADD CEO Andrew Murie, Foreground

Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. If you've ever donated to them, even once, you'll know who they are by the seemingly endless calls of their telephone campaigners that follow.

The Toronto Star got MADD furious by publishing an account revealing that only 19-cents on the donated dollar ever finds its way to victims services or the fight against drunk driving. Where is the money going? Here's the Star's account:

"Yesterday, more than 100 MADD donors contacted the Star to say they had been suspicious of MADD's fundraising practices due to the high volume of telemarketing calls and other fundraising contacts they receive, sometimes monthly. MADD has numerous paid fundraising campaigns, using paid telemarketers, a company that sends people knocking on doors, a direct mail company and a company that distributes chocolate mint boxes around the province."

"The Star's investigation found the paid fundraisers take most of the money, and send the remainder to head office.

"However, MADD's local chapters do volunteer fundraising and money sent directly to a chapter is not subject to these high costs.

"MADD founder John Bates, who is at odds with CEO Murie, and other long-time volunteers said if people want to donate to MADD they would do well to send the money to local chapters found in many cities and towns.

"The Star's story revealed that MADD has been claiming for years that 83.6 per cent of donor dollars is spent on its programs. They claim this by including the high payments to professional fundraisers as charitable works on the theory they educate the public on the dangers of drunk driving when they ask for cash.

"Yesterday, Murie continued to stand by this claim, despite a warning from the federal charity regulator in 2003 not to call fundraising expenses charity. This week, Canada's top charity official (speaking about the issue but not MADD specifically) spoke out against the practice, saying fundraising is a way to earn charity money — but it is not charity."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just because you've got the word "mothers" in your name doesn't mean you're above criticism. MADD is a special interest group like all the others. I say shine the light on them.