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Kars4Kids is back in the news with a CA advertising ban

Not a total ban; they're just required to add "an express, audible disclosure of the charity’s religious affiliation".

Pennsylvania has a similar ruling in effect, but I don't know if they're running ads in PA which meet that requirement, because as soon as I hear the jingle start I switch to another station.

KFK's money virtually all goes to Oorah, and Oorah's mascot is "Fiveish" -- a cartoon of a five-dollar bill. Not the best look for a Jewish charity.
 
BruceNYC said:
KFK never explains what they do with the funds they raise. The commercials for Shriners and St. Jude's, for example, display some of the children they are helping with their medical issues.
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Years ago my parents took care of foster kids. The last one, a boy born in 1959, had extensive birth defects and was treated for many years by the Shriners Hospital in San Francisco. My parents adopted him and moved the family to California. He had almost 15 years of continuous surgeries; I have no idea what the costs would have been had my folks tried to pay out of pocket. He just turned 67 and has lived a virtually normal life despite a very rough start.

From first hand experience I can say the Shriners is a first class charity that does exceptional work.

I have no first hand experience with St. Jude's but suspect they are much the same.

After years of wondering why so many people were complaining about KFK I finally began seeing them here in Phoenix on some LP TV stations. AFAIK they are still being aired here.
 
landtuna said:
Years ago my parents took care of foster kids. The last one, a boy born in 1959, had extensive birth defects and was treated for many years by the Shriners Hospital in San Francisco. My parents adopted him and moved the family to California. He had almost 15 years of continuous surgeries; I have no idea what the costs would have been had my folks tried to pay out of pocket. He just turned 67 and has lived a virtually normal life despite a very rough start.

From first hand experience I can say the Shriners is a first class charity that does exceptional work.

I have no first hand experience with St. Jude's but suspect they are much the same.

After years of wondering why so many people were complaining about KFK I finally began seeing them here in Phoenix on some LP TV stations. AFAIK they are still being aired here.
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So far there's no injunction against the organization in Arizona, only California.

My frustration is there are a bunch of legitimate charities that operate under the auspices of legitimate Jewish organizations. Boatloads of them. But this group of scammers give everyone else a bad name when past or prospective donors hear the truth about them.

BTW, don't get me wrong. The summer camp they run for disadvantaged Jewish kids from their sect is legitimate, but parse what I just wrote. Not all kids, not Jewish kids from other locations, not Jewish kids whose families don't belong to their particular sect. What they do is very specific. And yet, through running a blizzard of lowest-rate-available ads, they're taking advantage, by omission, of donors who are naive and/or haven't taken any time to do some minimal due diligence about the charity. What gets donated could have gone to charities in their region that help people of their religion, or that they might have some other affinity with. That's not the same as sending a charity you're unfamiliar with a loose twenty so you can be on their list forever. They're asking you to donate big bucks items before you can think it through, because the kids in the ads look cute, or you haven't yet heard the jingle eight thousand times.

I now relinquish the soapbox.
 
Like I said in the California thread, I wish they would ban their ads nationwide. I don't care what they do with the money, ain't my problem, since I would never donate to them. But I absolutely refuse to listen to their ads, too annoying. If I ran a company and advertised on radio, I would immediately pull all advertising if they ran K4K ads. I'm not a one off, I immediately change stations if the K4K ad comes on. That means I don't hear any one else's ads.
 
From Charitywatch.org...

CharityWatch Rating

Even donors whose values align with the missions of Kars4Kids and Oorah may want to consider if these particular organizations are the ones most worthy of their donations. Since our initial rating of Kars4Kids based on its financial year 2015, the charity has never received a CharityWatch rating higher than a C-minus on our A+ to F rating scale: 2015 (D rating); 2016 (D rating); 2018 (D rating); 2021 (C- rating); 2023 (D rating).

Most recently CharityWatch analyzed Kars4Kids’ IRS tax Form 990 and consolidated audited financial statements and determined that in 2023 the charity spent $48 dollars to raise each $100. We also determined that it spent 41% of its expenses on programs and 59% on overhead that year.

blog.charitywatch.org

Kars4Kids Lawsuit & Updated CharityWatch Rating | CharityWatch

Read about Kars4Kids Lawsuit & Updated CharityWatch Rating
blog.charitywatch.org blog.charitywatch.org
 
kevtronics said:
Pennsylvania has a similar ruling in effect, but I don't know if they're running ads in PA which meet that requirement, because as soon as I hear the jingle start I switch to another station.
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I hear their ads all the time on the radio in Philly and there is no disclosure of their religious affiliation.
 
KilowattKat said:
From Charitywatch.org...

CharityWatch Rating

Even donors whose values align with the missions of Kars4Kids and Oorah may want to consider if these particular organizations are the ones most worthy of their donations. Since our initial rating of Kars4Kids based on its financial year 2015, the charity has never received a CharityWatch rating higher than a C-minus on our A+ to F rating scale: 2015 (D rating); 2016 (D rating); 2018 (D rating); 2021 (C- rating); 2023 (D rating).

Most recently CharityWatch analyzed Kars4Kids’ IRS tax Form 990 and consolidated audited financial statements and determined that in 2023 the charity spent $48 dollars to raise each $100. We also determined that it spent 41% of its expenses on programs and 59% on overhead that year.

blog.charitywatch.org

Kars4Kids Lawsuit & Updated CharityWatch Rating | CharityWatch

Read about Kars4Kids Lawsuit & Updated CharityWatch Rating
blog.charitywatch.org blog.charitywatch.org
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The shame is there are charities that receive less than 20% of funds raised.
 
secondchoice said:
The shame is there are charities that receive less than 20% of funds raised.
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For most Kars4Kids, the benefit of donating a car is getting a tax write off for a junker. So it really does not matter... you call, they come pick up the car and hand you a certificate showing you donated the vehicle (and got it out of your yard!)
 
davideduardo said:
For most Kars4Kids, the benefit of donating a car is getting a tax write off for a junker. So it really does not matter... you call, they come pick up the car and hand you a certificate showing you donated the vehicle (and got it out of your yard!)
Click to expand...

Quite a few public radio stations do the same thing. So do both consumer organizations of the blind (American Council of the Blind and National Federation of the Blind). And while none of these groups run radio and TV commercials like Kars For Kids do, as far as I know, all of these organizations get higher ratings from Charity Watch than Kars For Kids.
 
My day job involves appraising auto damage for an insurer. In the past I would work at some of the big salvage auctions, where we send the totaled cars to sell. When I would get there in the morning I would sort through the new arrivals to see which belonged to us; mixed in were always a half dozen charity vehicles. And that's what happens to them: the same trucks that pick up totaled cars will come out to your house and grab your donation, the auction company will make sure it's presentable, and up for bid it goes. Easy money for the charity, or "charity".
 
The local Community College's auto shop accepts donated cars, fixes them up, and resells them at fair market value to students who need or want them.

It's a pretty good deal, and totally transparent.

Unlike K4K, whose so-called "charity" seems about as transparent as mud, at least as far as their radio and TV ads go.

c
 
It would be nice if the regional or national television investigating teams and shows would spend more time on covering these misleading charity organizations then on the fluff or heavily biased equally-misleading stories.
 
thenetwork said:
It would be nice if the regional or national television investigating teams and shows would spend more time on covering these misleading charity organizations then on the fluff or heavily biased equally-misleading stories.
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Agreed, though it really does depend on the region or network, I think.

Some are better (or worse) than others.

c
 
thenetwork said:
It would be nice if the regional or national television investigating teams and shows would spend more time on covering these misleading charity organizations then on the fluff or heavily biased equally-misleading stories.
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Actually, this Kars4Kids story has received a lot of regional and national coverage. It popped up repeatedly over the weekend, including on WINS which ran it as a news item despite the fact that the station airs the spots a lot and benefits from the ad revenue. NBC Nightly News also reported on it tonight (Monday 5/18).
 


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