Timothy Lehey is one of three bounded association who teamed up with The Journal News/lohud.com to assay public-records laws. Lehey, of Piermont, accustomed 526 pages in annal from the state.(Photo: Peter Carr/The Journal News)Buy Photo
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Tim Lehey had questions about the addictive “Kars-4-Kids” chime that floods Lower Hudson Valley airwaves to accost agent donations for children.
Unable to abstain the ubiquitous yet ambiguous ad, the Piermont nurse/anesthetist wanted details about a New York accompaniment Attorney General's Appointment assay launched in 2010 into the New Jersey-based Kars4Kids, and other vehicle-donation programs targeting radio admirers and television viewers nationally.
As concerns about improper fundraising mounted, Lehey requested the information in March as allotment of The Journal News/lohud project focused on announcement public-records access. After about bristles months, the Attorney General's Appointment appear hundreds of abstracts that shed new ablaze on its vehicle-donation probe, which apparently bankrupt in 2014.
CITIZEN FOIL PROJECT: Hit or miss; mostly missDOCUMENTS: 526 pages appear in FOIL request
While accompaniment board accept banned to altercate the matter, Lehey declared the activity for annal as acute to acquirements about what goes on abaft bankrupt doors in government.
Tim Lehey FOILed for abstracts on Kars4Kids and Heritage for the Blind car donation programs. Actuality are some abstracts accompanying to the inquiry. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)
"The complaints and apropos about nonprofits ambiguous donors is article that should be public, and I could absorb a ages attractive at these abstracts and still accept added questions," he said.
An absolute assay by The Journal News/lohud of the 526 pages, which included the delving of Brooklyn-based Heritage for the Blind, provides a attenuate glimpse of how authorities handled complaints about adulterated donations, misleading ads and conflicts in the civic arrangement of nonprofits, towing companies and auctions affiliated to agent donations.
The allegation include:
(Photo: Peter Carr/The Journal News)
Complaints about Heritage for the Blind declining to accommodate donors with paperwork, or answer buzz calls and emails, led investigators to dig into the nonprofit's banking records, abstracts show.
Donors additionally said they were concerned about vehicles being undervalued and awash for parts.
Authorities eyed a database of vehicle donations, abstracts show. The makes and models varied from bunched cars, like Ford escorts, to affluence SUVs, like the Lexus RX3, which had one of the accomplished amounts at $6,330. A Ford Explorer topped the account at $8,475, with a Chevrolet Denali a abutting second, at $8,080.
It is difficult to actuate abounding capacity of the agent donations because some abstracts lacked specifics, such as the nonprofit’s character and how board acclimated the information.
The Attorney General’s Appointment banned to altercate the documents, citation behavior preventing animadversion on investigations.
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Prior to New York's probe, Oregon’s Attorney General's Appointment accused Kars4Kids of ambiguous donors there by declining to acknowledge that its "free vacation" activity was advised to recruit bodies to appear timeshare presentations.
“Many times agent donations about-face out to be a raw accord because some of the money goes to those in need, but a lot of it goes to administering and aerial costs.”
Under the settlement, Kars4Kids agreed to annals as an Oregon charity, stop alms "free vacations" to Oregon donors and to change its solicitations to accommodate able acknowledgment of its religious purposes as a nonprofit Jewish organization.
Wendy Kirwan, administrator of accessible relations for Kars4Kids, acclaimed fundraising laws alter by accompaniment and prompted the adjustment in Oregon in 2009, and a agnate one in Pennsylvania.
Oregon’s law, for example, prohibits the vacation voucher, but it’s accustomed elsewhere.
“In all added states we activity it because there is annihilation amiss with it,” Kirwan said.
The New York Attorney General's Office beatific a letter to Kars4Kids that acclaimed its assay bankrupt in December 2014, but may be accountable to reopening awaiting added information.
In 2015, two complaints about ambiguous announcement kept Kars4Kids on authorities’ radar, abstracts show.
“We’ve begin the car-donation archetypal to be a abundant way to accommodate a account to the accessible while accompanying adopting funds for our alms programs.”
When told about the complaints in 2015, Kirwan said the affair had been addressed by accomplish taken beneath above-mentioned settlements. She wasn’t acquainted of any alive investigations.
One of the issues aloft in the complaints was whether ads sufficiently appear the religious purposes. Kirwan acclaimed The Kars4Kids website has capacity about it's mission as a registered nonprofit Jewish alignment that provides casework for bags of children.
“The absorbing affair is that I acquisition abounding bodies who accord their cars do so for the accessibility of it, and for the service,” Kirwan said. “People who actual abundant affliction about the account of who they’re altruistic to will do the due diligence.”
Authorities and babysitter groups, such as Alms Navigator, accept declared agent donations in accepted as a careless archetypal affected to abuses.
“Many times agent donations about-face out to be a raw accord because some of the money goes to those in need, but a lot of it goes to administering and aerial costs,” said Sandra Miniutti, a carnality admiral at Alms Navigator.
The alms babysitter alignment gave Kars4Kids, based in Lakewood, New Jersey, an all-embracing account of 66 recently, advised a low baronial by civic standards. It additionally accustomed a one-star baronial out of a accessible four stars, acquainted that beneath than 60 percent of the charity's acquirement is appropriate for casework it delivers.
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“I feel that I ability be the victim of a ‘car donation for charity’ betray and I’m acquisitive you ability be able to advice me cross this in the best able and able way possible. Abounding things don’t add up here, and I’m acquisitive your appointment can activity guidance.”
Kirwan disagreed with Alms Navigator's ranking. She declared it as a scoring arrangement that unfairly penalized the nonprofit's budgetary strategy.
"Unlike abounding charities who advance a middle-man to activity their donations, generally with a ample allotment of the profits actuality absent from the alms forth the way, we accumulate the activity in-house," Kirwan said. "From business through processing, our centralized professionals are able to accumulate costs as low as accessible and aerate the profits for the alms programs."
Authorities in New York advised 16 vehicle-donation programs during a delving launched in 2010. High-profile cases of nonprofits break administration agent donations triggered the probe, which included Heritage for the Blind and Kars4Kids.
Addressing apropos about agent donations overall, Kirwan said Kars4Kids provides casework to accouchement while aggravating to absolute careless spending.
“Although historically there accept absolutely been bent players in the car-donation industry, and we acerb animate donors to do their due activity in allotment who to accord to, one could hardly altercate adjoin donation altogether,” Kirwan said. “We’ve begin the car-donation archetypal to be a abundant way to accommodate a account to the accessible while accompanying adopting funds for our alms programs.”
Still, the abstracts acquired by Lehey underscored why authorities and donors accept questions about agent donations.
Addressing the documents, Miniutti acclaimed investigations into nonprofits about amount years because of the ambit of civic operations.
Timothy Lehey at a Sunshine Week accident hosted by The Journal News/lohud babysitter aggregation at Rockland Community College in March. (Photo: File photo by Peter Carr/The Journal News)
She acicular to the Federal Trade Commission aftermost year charging four blight charities with bilking added than $187 actor from consumers from 2008 to 2012, admitting the case is different to agent donations.
“It’s absolutely donor beware, and allotment of it is added complicated by the actuality that there are over one million charities in America,” Miniutti said.
Investigators in New York focused on abundance of banking annal affiliated to Heritage for the Blind.
Some abstracts accept costs accent in chicken on the nonprofit’s 2008 budgetary records. It includes hundreds of bags of dollars in American Express credit-card accuse and credible advertising, such as with “media” companies like Vista Media, Google and NBC Universal.
Investigators additionally eyed annal accompanying to a specific announcement attack for Heritage for the Blind.
The nonprofit’s ad appeared in book and agenda publications in about every state. A majority of ads appeared in small, bounded account newspapers, advertisement books and magazines. A scattering of them were average and ample newspapers, such as the Post-Star and New York Daily News, abstracts show.
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A 2005 charter acceding additionally drew scrutiny. The certificate lists David Toiv and Rivka Toiv as landlords for the Heritage for the Blind’s appointment at 2882 Nostrand Avenue, Brooklyn. The anniversary hire was $28,663, or $2,388 per month.
The landlords’ aftermost name is the aforementioned as the nonprofit’s treasurer, Shrage Toiv, and director, Steven Toiv, according to 2008 federal tax filings included in the assay documents.
Shrage Toiv is listed as Heritage for the Blind's director and was paid $172,0000 in 2014, the best contempo tax filings show.
Heritage for the Blind didn’t acknowledge to calls about the documents, which don't accommodate advice about the cachet of the accompaniment investigation. Emails beatific to the nonprofit's abode were alternate as undeliverable.
Charity Navigator rated it a 65, and awarded it aloof one brilliant in its latest ranking. Aloof 46 percent of its acquirement went against services, according to the website.
The Journal News babysitter aggregation hosts a Sunshine Week accident at Rockland Community College March 14. The accident was allotment of a civic activity to advance a chat about the accent of accessible government and abandon of information. (Photo: File photo by Peter Carr/The Journal News)
The Attorney General’s Appointment accustomed six complaints about Heritage for the Blind mishandling specific agent donations from 2013 to 2015. Donors complained about missing paperwork, calls activity changing and cartage actuality awash for beneath than the believed value. Authorities redacted names due to aloofness laws.
Some complaints prompted action, however.
The Attorney General's Appointment forwarded several complaint belletrist to the nonprofit and threatened added antidotal steps. Nonprofit admiral responded by alienated paperwork had been beatific in some cases, admitting abstracts didn't detail the outcome.
One complaint complex a Volvo base wagon that didn’t assume to back top dollar.
“I feel that I ability be the victim of a ‘car donation for charity’ betray and I’m acquisitive you ability be able to advice me cross this in the best able and able way possible,” the email complaint asked of the Attorney General’s Office.
The complaint aloft questions about the nonprofit befitting agent donations beneath the $500 beginning to abstain government oversight.
“Many things don’t add up here, and I’m acquisitive your appointment can activity guidance,” the email requested.
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