A bill was passed by Parliament on Thursday requiring professional fundraisers that raise money for on behalf of charities to disclose their fees and costs if the amount they retain exceeds more than of half the money collected. It received unanimous support.
The Bill was drafted following reports that some professional fundraisers were keeping up to 75% of what they collect, and in some cases up to 90%.
Before the bill was passed all costs associated with fundraising carried out by a charity directly had to be disclosed, but if a third-party business was employed to do that work, no record of the amount retained by that company came under public scrutiny.
When submissions were being heard by the Commerce Commission, the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association said in its submission the bill would have minimal impact because the majority of third party fundraising is not conducted on a “percentage of donation received basis, and therefore is outside the scope of the bill.”
The Fair Trading (Soliciting on Behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill, was introduced by Minister for the Environment Amy Adams in 2009 and taken over by National list MP for Dunedin Michael Woodhouse after the last election election.
Source
