Police charities often count on for-profit fundraisers

Professional fundraising companies count police charities among their most enthusiastic and faithful clients.

These for-profit firms solicit year after year on behalf of unions, fraternal orders and benevolent associations, deputy sheriffs, badge-wearing motorcycle enthusiasts and officers of Irish ancestry, plus dozens of others.

Police organizations accounted for a third of the 90 professional fundraising drives by Hampton Roads-based nonprofits from January 2008 to June 2011, according to state data. In that time period, professional fundraisers collected $4 million for Hampton Roads-based law enforcement organizations - mostly by phone.

Additionally, Virginians donated to out-of-state police charities, including some that report little in local giving.

An analysis of state records by The Virginian-Pilot shows that police groups that solicit in Virginia typically get 21 cents on the dollar from the drives, with fundraisers keeping the rest. Local police charities averaged 19 percent returns.

Representatives of the organizations say they are satisfied, if not thrilled, with the results. Fundraising companies cost them nothing out of pocket. Someone else does all the work, and the money they get helps their missions.

"Telemarketing organizations know there is a strong sympathy for police and firefighters," said Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer of the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance. "It is an area that can be beneficial to them because they know there will be a public response."

When it comes to local law enforcement groups, two companies have the market: Virginia Beach-based NAS Marketing Inc., which operates out of an office near the intersection of Lynnhaven Parkway and Southern Boulevard, and Public Safety Management on Granby Street in Norfolk.

The for-profit companies are not required to disclose earnings to state regulators, though they must report the outcome of charitable drives. Both firms keep about 80 cents of each donated dollar.

NAS raised more than $1.3 million for eight local law enforcement nonprofits between January 2008 and June 2011, state records show. The nonprofits got about $270,000. NAS got the rest.

During the same three years, Public Safety Management collected nearly $574,000 on behalf of four local police groups, turning about $115,200 over to the organizations.

Stephen Arrendale, owner of Public Safety Management, said his company, which he has operated since the mid-1980s, made a 7 percent profit in 2010. His salary, other payroll costs and office expenses accounted for the bulk of costs, he said.

"Everyone pictures us sitting under a palm tree sipping a martini," Arrendale said. But caller ID, a tough economy and cellphones have afflicted the industry.

He employs about half a dozen people and pays them based on what they collect.

Steve Agrios, who founded NAS, has been in the professional fundraising business for about 25 years.

Agrios agreed to answer emailed questions about his business but declined to provide specifics about company revenue or pay for the fewer than 20 people he said he employs.

Contracts filed with the state in 2009 offer a glimpse into how NAS operates. They show that one supervisor kept as his commission 60 percent of all funds collected that year on behalf of the Chesapeake Fraternal Order of Police, the Chesapeake chapter of the Blue Knights, the Newport News Fraternal Order of Police and the Newport News Police Pipes and Drums. A second supervisor earned as commission 35 percent of donations to the Virginia Beach Police Benevolent Association, the Virginia Police Defense Fund and the Norfolk Police Union.

The drives for those organizations, most of which spanned a year, brought in an average gross of $78,067.53 per drive between January 2008 and June 2011, according to state data.

"The services that we provide and the funds received from our work make all the difference in the world to the organizations," Agrios wrote. "If the charity were to do their own work, they would profit much less than 20 percent."

Nonprofits have expenses beyond fundraising, Keith Curtis, a Virginia Beach fundraising consultant, said in an email.

"Once that organization receives their 20 percent... there are still going to be some administrative costs that will eat away at that revenue," he wrote.

Take the Virginia Police Defense Fund, for example. The group, founded by former police officers, raised money for training and legal assistance for police.

From 2006 to 2008, Virginians donated more than $330,000 to the fund, according to state and federal records.

NAS turned over $45,000 to the charity during those three years. The defense fund, in turn, spent during that period $36,000 on salaries for its president and treasurer, according to federal tax filings. It spent $12,300 on training and to help families of slain and disabled officers.

Daniel S. Niedhammer, a retired Richmond police officer, was treasurer of the Virginia Police Defense Fund. Raymond Bach, a retired Virginia Beach police officer, was president. Niedhammer said he was happy with the work NAS has done for the group. Contracts dictate up front how the funds will be divided.

The police defense fund gave $1,000 each to the families of Jarrod Shivers in Chesapeake and Michael Phillips in Virginia Beach. Both were police officers killed in the line of duty in 2008. Another $1,000 went to the family of Seneca Darden, a Norfolk officer who was shot while working undercover in 2006, the tax records indicate.

Niedhammer said the organization also sponsored crime prevention training in Virginia Beach, a legal seminar on officer-involved shootings and a local street survival seminar, which teaches officers how to handle stressful, unexpected and life-threatening circumstances.

The Virginia Police Defense Fund is no longer a registered charity. Niedhammer said the nonprofit is on hold until the economy improves.

Not every police nonprofit uses professional fundraisers. Members of the Virginia Beach Police Foundation sell T-shirts and commemorative coins at local festivals and approach local corporations for donations, treasurer William F. Humphrey said. None of its members are paid.

This summer, the organization so far had raised about $200,000 for a planned memorial at 35th Street along the Boardwalk that will honor fallen local, state and federal officers.

"As an organization, we've never, ever considered doing paid solicitors," said Humphrey, a retired business executive whose son is a Virginia Beach police lieutenant. "I suppose if you get $10 and have to pay $100 to get it, you're still $10 ahead. Ethically, I don't like it."

But many nonprofits say professional fundraising provides the most practical way for small organizations - often run by a handful of dedicated volunteers who also work full time - to accomplish their missions.

The Police Association of Virginia has employed Atlanta-based professional fundraiser JAK Productions for years, said Brian Hallman, executive director of the charity.

When people ask Hallman what portion the nonprofit collects from fundraising drives, he tells them. If they'd rather make a donation directly to the nonprofit, it's fine with him.

JAK records all of its calls, and if Hallman gets a complaint, it's tracked and handled appropriately, he said.

Donors gave about $1.9 million for the Police Association of Virginia via JAK Productions from April 2008 to March 2011. The nonprofit kept $342,605, or 18.1 percent, which it used for body armor, scholarships for family of active and retired police, a safety belt program, death benefits for members and an annual dinner and dance for members and their spouses.

The organization earmarks $50,000 a year for body armor and scholarships. Law enforcement agencies in Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Suffolk and at Norfolk State University have benefited from ballistic vests, Hallman said. So have more than three dozen other jurisdictions, including the Town of Quantico Police Department, where most officers are volunteers. Thank-you letters from the agencies are posted on the nonprofit's website.

One Quantico officer had been using the same duct-taped vest for nine years, Hallman said, and when he got a brand-new one based on his measurements, he went misty-eyed.

More than a quarter of the police groups that solicited in Virginia from January 2008 to June 2011 are based in other states. In many cases, it is unclear whether money raised in Virginia makes it back here.

The Disabled Police Officers of America, based in Florida, granted financial assistance for rent, utilities, medications, car repairs, property taxes, food, eyeglasses and other needs of disabled officers about 120 times between 2004 and 2010, according to its website. One recipient lived in Virginia. Likewise, only two of the approximately 160 scholarship recipients from 2002 to 2009 lived in the state.

The Disabled Police Officers group also raises money outside Virginia.

The public is often unfamiliar with the purpose of such nonprofits, said the Better Business Bureau's Weiner, noting that their missions can include educating the public on crime and helping officers get better equipment and benefits.

"Just because the word police or firefighter is in the organization's name doesn't mean any police and firefighter in your community has any association," he said. "There are certainly legitimate ones that are seeking to do reasonable things. We strongly urge people when they do get solicited, find out more about the organization before they give a gift."

Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5131, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com