From Newsday.com:

At least one nonprofit that received slim returns from telemarketers that solicited funds for it argued Tuesday that the New York attorney general’s report about the practice, issued Monday, doesn’t present a full picture.

A telemarketer for the Children’s Leukemia Research Association raised more than $1.3 million for the Garden City-based cancer charity last year, but only about $300,000 actually went to the association.

The charity’s executive director, Allan Weinberg, defended the practice, saying that using telemarketers enables the group to build a base of donors that will ultimately pay off. “We’ve been very, very happy, and we’ve raised a lot of money,” Weinberg said.

He compared the cost of telemarketing to the cost of other charity fundraising events. “Why is telemarketing different than a dinner or a special event, a golf tournament?” Weinberg asked. “Everything has a cost.”

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