About

In 2006 and 2007, according to its IRS 990 Form, IUPA raised $4,848,758 from donations made by US citizens. Of this, a whopping $4,342,009 went to fundraising expenses, which included $1.9 million in fees to LAS, LLC, (a Washington, DC based telemarketing firm). Only $506,749 ended up with IUPA, which is only 9% of donations. Worse, of that, only $53,900 is reported as having gone to law enforcement causes and scholarships. The balance apparently covered union budget shortfalls and executive salaries and expenses.

Why IUPA?

IUPA consistently ranks among the worst charitable organizations in terms of fundraiser fees. Many states track charitable giving and publish the amounts charities spend on fundraising fees. 2 CENTS found IUPA consistently retains only 10-15% of donations in states which keep these records. A New York Attorney General (”NYAG”) report titled Pennies for Charities found IUPA retained only 14.8% of its donations in 2006. This ranks IUPA near the bottom in New York. The NYAG report found that other major charities had considerably higher retention of donations: UNICEF, League of Women Voters, Sierra Club and the NAACP retained more than 60%.

2 CENTS also found an agreement between LAS and IUPA in which IUPA agrees to retain only 10% of donations –to its primary account– with the rest going to pay for IUPA’s telemarketing expenses and fees to LAS. According to documents filed with the North Carolina Secretary of State, LAS has an exclusive contract with IUPA to solicit donations and manage IUPA’s telemarketing call center in Lakeland, Florida. According to the contract with LAS, IUPA uses the services of Financial Processing Services to handle and distribute the telemarketing donations.

LAS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Civic Development Group (CDG), which is a notorious telemarketing firm with a long track record of state and federal investigations. The Federal Trade Commission recently filed a civil suit claiming that CDG had violated a 1998 consent agreement to cease misleading telemarketing calls. (According to the whistleblower website http://civicdevelopment.net/home, there have been eight recent state investigations involving CDG.) Financial Processing Services, which handles IUPA’s telemarketing donations, is a ‘lockbox’ company run by Dolores Keezer, the mother of David Keezer, principal officer of CDG.

Why Florida?

In 2005, IUPA moved its headquarters to Florida and has set up a call center in Lakeland, FL managed by LAS. IUPA uses the call center to solicit donations in the state of Florida under the name IUPA-Florida Local 6000. IUPA-Florida Local 6000 is controlled entirely by IUPA leadership.

From February 19-22, top IUPA officials met at the Hyatt on Sarasota Bay for their Public Safety Benefits Conference. “It’s time the executives responsible for this Florida sham answer some questions,” says 2 CENTS. “Do officers on the beat know about this? What is IUPA’s relationship with LAS? Where’s the money going?”