In the LJWorld on August 24, 2011, there was an editorial titled: 'Charity Concerns'
Instead of commenting all over again, I'm clipping in my comments from then, with a small amount of editing to correct spelling, grammatical, and possibly factual errors. From:
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/aug/24/charity-concerns/?opinion

"there isn’t anything illegal about a charity giving only 11 cents on the donated dollar to those who are supposed to benefit from the charity."

Where did that idea come from? They don't have to give that much.

The following are repeats of postings I made here on LJWorld. The article was titled:
'Save the Children solicitors irk some downtown shoppers, business owners', by Shaun Hittle.
It was published on June 6, 2011.

I was told by a former employee of an organization that solicited for 'The Association of Chiefs of Police', or maybe it was Highway Patrol, or Sheriff, or some similar name, that they were paid a flat fee of $100,000 (at that time) for the right to make and collect telephone solicitations for them.

The flat fee was the same, regardless of how much money they actually collected. And, from what I was told, it was a very profitable business.

I could hardly believe him!

I had questions about how ethical that was, and I was told that $100,000 was more than 'The Kansas Association of Chiefs of Police' or whatever the name was, could collect any other way, and that by collecting money that way, they got more of an income than they could any other way.

Well of course one day the phone rang, and guess who it was! I started to grill the person on the other end of the phone line - and he admitted all that was true!

Ethical man, I must admit!

But if anyone heard that call, he lost his job for sure.

(continued from above)

That brings to mind another "legal" "scam" that people see all the time and an amazing number of people contribute, thinking that they are doing someone some good by sparing just a bit of pocket change.

I'm talking about those cardboard stands that you commonly see in restaurants and other businesses, asking for spare change, usually quarters, for some charity. You are to insert your quarters or dimes into the stands to make your contribution.

But if you look closely, you will notice that it appears that someone has been stealing from the charity!

Here's the way it works: Someone pays a flat fee for the "right" to place a solicitation card in a business, and then they get to keep all the money collected. I don't know how much the flat fee is, but I'm guessing that it's about $25 a month, but I really don't know how much.

So, every once in a while, the person who placed the collection card there goes and collects all the change collected, and then pockets the money. Of course, he counts every last dime for tax purposes, you can count on that.

If you seriously want to donate to that charity, note the name and phone number from the card, it's printed right on it, and then send your donation directly.

But of course, no one ever does that. They just put their quarters in, and "feel good" about themselves.

But in some cases, 100% of the money donated goes to the charity. I've been informed that at least one very large grocery store chain sponsors charities and forwards 100% of the proceeds.