AR-News: NY/NJ/CT fw: more on donation can scam

[Elizabeth Forel]

re the National Animal Welfare Foundation 

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Susan Gordon" <veganvirago at comcast.net>

The upper case portions of text in the below article are my emphasis.

Make copies of the below and carry them with you to give to store owners
who
display these phony donation cans. You might also bold and/or underline
the
sections I emphasized, as the article is long and store owners may not
want
to take the time to read it in its entirety.

Submit letters to eletters at starledger.com

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1082271146108
930.xml

Animal groups' new watchdog
Legislator pushes for donation-canister law
Sunday, April 18, 2004

BY BRIAN T. MURRAY
Star-Ledger Staff

IN HUNDREDS OF BUSINESSES ACROSS NEW JERSEY, PATRICK JEMAS' COIN
CANISTERS
AIM FOR THE HEARTSTRINGS.

PLACED BESIDE CASH REGISTERS IN DELIS, CONVENIENCE STORES, PHARMACIES AND
NEWSSTANDS, THE CANS BEAR PHOTOS OF EMACIATED DOGS, WITH PLAINTIVE
MESSAGES
WRITTEN BELOW.

"GIVE US A NEW LEASH ON LIFE," ONE OF JEMAS' YELLOW CANISTERS PROCLAIMS.
"ONLY YOU CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE."

JEMAS -- WHO PRESIDES OVER ONE OF THE LARGEST CANISTER-COLLECTION
OPERATIONS
IN THE REGION, WITH THOUSANDS OF CANS IN FOUR STATES -- PROMISES TO USE
THE
PROCEEDS TO SPAY AND NEUTER DOGS AND CATS.

SOMEDAY.

PRECISELY WHEN THAT HAPPENS JEMAS CAN'T SAY.

IN HIS SIX YEARS AS HEAD OF THE NATIONAL ANIMAL WELFARE FOUNDATION, BASED
IN
UNION TOWNSHIP, JEMAS SAID, COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH TRAVEL, OFFICE RENT,
SALARIES AND SUPPLIES HAVE PREVENTED HIM FROM SPENDING A SINGLE CENT ON
HIS
GROUP'S STATED MISSION.

"I AM ABLE TO MAINTAIN OUR WEB SITE," JEMAS SAID. "THAT'S IT."

JEMAS' OPERATION IS ONE OF THE INSPIRATIONS BEHIND A STATE LEGISLATOR'S
PROPOSAL TO ENACT STRICT NEW RULES ON THE CANISTER-COLLECTION BUSINESS,
WHICH CHARITY WATCHDOG GROUPS CALL THE MOST UNREGULATED AND UNRELIABLE
PHILANTHROPY IN THE NATION.

Some nonprofit groups that collect coins might make every penny count.
Some
might not. The problem is that nobody really knows.

"How can anyone be sure what is going on?" asked Assemblyman Neil Cohen
(D-U
nion), who said he will introduce his bill when the legislative session
opens next month.

"Good-hearted people have been putting their change into these cans for
decades, and there has been no accounting, and in some cases the money
has
never gone toward the purpose for which it was intended," Cohen said.

Cohen's bill would require charities to keep monthly accounting reports
on
each canister and to register each can's location. It also would require
groups to pay for semiannual audits and to notify the state of new
canister
placements.

Finally, charities would be required to establish one location for
counting
proceeds, a move that would allow unannounced state inspections.

The legislation applies specifically to animal protection groups, which
deploy far more canisters than other charities. But it also empowers the
state Division of Consumer Affairs to extend the restrictions to any
group,
particularly child welfare and anti-domestic violence groups, using
canisters to raise money.

In New Jersey, any nonprofit organization can place canisters in public
as
long as the group's name, address and charity registration information is
listed. Many groups, large and small, take advantage of the opportunity.

They include food pantries, child welfare groups, organizations fighting
domestic violence and animal protection agencies ranging from Jemas'
little-known National Animal Welfare Foundation to the more established
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Some of those groups express fears about Cohen's bill, saying it will
drive
up costs and waste valuable time on increased paperwork.

"Although we understand and agree with the purpose of the proposed bill,
it
will have the effect of putting our nonprofit organization out of
business,"
said Arnold Herman, head of a child abuse education program, Experience
Counts Inc., in Cliffwood, Aberdeen Township.

HERMAN, WHO ALSO MADE HIS CASE IN A LETTER TO COHEN, FILED FEDERAL AND
STATE
CHARITY RECORDS REPORTING EXPERIENCE COUNTS RECEIVED $34,000 IN 2001 AND
SPENT $33,000 ON OPERATING COSTS, $7,500 OF THOSE EXPENSES WERE FOR
PUBLISHING EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS. IN 2002, THE CHARITY TOOK IN $29,000
AND
SPENT MORE THAN $27,500 ON OPERATING EXPENSES, INCLUDING $4,521 ON
PUBLICATION AND MAILING EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS.

Another group, the Plainfield Area Humane Society, will remove its few
scattered canisters if Cohen's bill becomes law, said the agency's
director,
Sue MacWhinney-Cifuo.

"For the little guy, like us, that's a lot of paperwork for little
return,"
she said.

Cohen acknowledges his bill could harm the fund-raising efforts of
legitimate, well-meaning charities, but he and others contend new
regulations are a long-overdue necessity in the cash-only canister
business.

"There's no way of knowing how much goes into the cans, and there's no
way
to know what's going to happen to the money," said Daniel Borochoff, head
of
the American Institute of Philanthropy, a charity watchdog group in
Maryland. "... There is very little assurance that anything put into
those
cans reaches a charity."

JEMAS FIRST CAME TO COHEN'S ATTENTION IN MARCH OF LAST YEAR, WHEN HE WAS
NAMED IN A STATE COMMISSION OF INVESTIGATION REPORT HIGHLY CRITICAL OF
THE
NEWARK-BASED ASSOCIATED HUMANE SOCIETIES, NEW JERSEY'S LARGEST PRIVATE
ANIMAL CONTROL AND SHELTER OPERATION.

PART OF THE REPORT FOCUSED ON THE AGENCY'S CANISTER COLLECTIONS, SOME OF
WHICH WERE HANDLED BY JEMAS AND SEVERAL ASSOCIATES DURING THE 1990S.

THE SCI, A STATE WATCHDOG AGENCY, CONTENDED THAT WHILE AHS RECEIVED ABOUT
$1,000 A WEEK THROUGH CANISTER DONATIONS, THE WIDELY DISPERSED CANS
LIKELY
GENERATED MUCH MORE. SCI INVESTIGATORS CONTEND THAT THE CANS MAY HAVE
NETTED
AS MUCH AS $5,000 PER WEEK.

THOSE WHO RAN THE COLLECTIONS KEPT NO RECORDS, AND AHS, WHICH ENDED
CANISTER
COLLECTIONS IN MARCH 2002, NEVER DEMANDED AN ACCOUNTING, THE REPORT SAID.

THE SCI WAS EQUALLY CRITICAL OF AHS FOR ITS ASSOCIATION WITH JEMAS'
COUSIN,
ALFONSE BERGAMO, WHO RAN CANISTER COLLECTIONS WITH JEMAS. THE SCI SAID
BERGAMO HAD A 30-YEAR-OLD GAMBLING CONVICTION AND TIES TO ORGANIZED
CRIME.

TO SKIRT A CHARITY LAW THAT BARS PEOPLE WITH CRIMINAL RECORDS FROM
ENGAGING
IN FUND-RAISING, JEMAS IN 1994 CREATED A "FRONT" COMPANY TO HANDLE
COLLECTIONS FOR AHS, THEN MADE BERGAMO AN EMPLOYEE, THE SCI CHARGED.

JEMAS, 41, ACKNOWLEDGES THAT HIS COUSIN CONTINUED TO WORK WITH HIM ONCE
HE
FOUNDED THE NATIONAL ANIMAL WELFARE FOUNDATION IN 1998. BERGAMO, JAILED
ON A
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CHARGE SEVERAL MONTHS AGO, COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR
COMMENT.

Jemas said he has been unfairly targeted by Cohen, in part because of his
association with Bergamo.

"He's been incarcerated for almost a year now, totally unrelated to
this,"
Jemas said. "That's why this witch hunt is out of place. He's just not
involved at this point."

Jemas, who has run canister collections in one form or another since the
age
of 16, said he cares deeply about animals and wishes his fund-raising
efforts were more successful. But the contributions, he said, simply
aren't
there.

"I'd love to be spending money on caring for the animals," he said. "I
just
haven't been able to generate the money."

At the same time, he said, expenses have risen.

TODAY, JEMAS ESTIMATES, HE CONTROLS 2,000 TO 3,000 COIN CANISTERS IN NEW
JERSEY, NEW YORK, PENNSYLVANIA AND CONNECTICUT, MAKING HIS OPERATION ONE
OF
THE LARGEST IN THE AREA. IN THE GARDEN STATE, HIS CANS SIT ATOP COUNTERS
FROM BERGEN COUNTY TO CHERRY HILL.

YET FEDERAL AND STATE CHARITY RECORDS SHOW HE REPORTED COLLECTING JUST
$4,053 IN 2000 AND $3,039 IN 2001, FIGURES THAT AMOUNT TO A DOLLAR OR TWO
PER CANISTER EACH YEAR. IN BOTH YEARS, JEMAS SAID, HE LOST MONEY.

THE NATIONAL ANIMAL WELFARE FOUNDATION FARED LITTLE BETTER IN 2002,
COLLECTING $6,123 AND LEAVING $28 AFTER EXPENSES, FEDERAL AND STATE
CHARITY
RECORDS SHOW. RECORDS FOR 2003 ARE NOT DUE UNTIL JUNE.

JEMAS ALSO COLLECTS COINS FOR EXPERIENCE COUNTS, THE CLIFFWOOD CHILD
ABUSE
EDUCATION PROGRAM RUN BY HERMAN. IN MANY SHOPS, EXPERIENCE COUNTS
CANISTERS,
BEARING PHOTOS OF A SOMBER LITTLE GIRL, SIT SIDE BY SIDE WITH JEMAS'
CANS.

Herman said he doesn't know how many of his cans are out there. Under his
flat-rate deal with Jemas, he said, Experience Counts is paid at least
$550
a week.

The startling difference between the money collected from the Experience
Counts cans and Jemas' canisters alarmed Cohen, who said he spent months
conducting an informal survey of the two groups' canisters and noticed a
pattern.

"In every canister I have seen, the donations to the animal causes have
always been more than the child abuse causes," Cohen said.

Jemas insists the trend is reversed. On his Web site, he also argues that
his 6-year-old group's meager fund-raising will improve.

"As is the case with any new organization, it will take us a little time
to
get up and running at full speed," Jemas wrote. "Chances are we will make
mistakes and many changes along the way. Before too long, however, we
plan
to be a major source of information for animal lovers throughout the
United
States."

Staff writer Mark Mueller contributed to this report.