The Daily Illini Online
published Friday, September 14, 2001

Illegitimate donation requests flood Illinois

Jason Cantone
Metro editor

As students and faculty begin to make charitable donations to causes aiming to help victims of Tuesday's attacks, they might want to investigate where the money is going.

The Illinois Republican Party was alarmed to learn Thursday that people across Illinois have received illegitimate requests for donations.

A group, claiming to be the National Republican Committee, used telemarketing calls Thursday to ask for donations for the current national crisis. Some of the calls blamed former President Bill Clinton for the terrorism.

"The fact remains that this group does not even exist," said Brad Goodrich, executive director for the Illinois Republican Party.

Goodrich believed the group used the name-recognition of the Republican National Committee to its advantage. By switching the order of the words in the group's name, it confused the people they called into thinking it was the actual committee.

The Illinois Republican Party immediately called the Republican National Committee on Thursday morning after people began to complain about the calls. The committee denied all involvement in the telemarketing campaign, Goodrich said.

The Illinois Republican Party received more than 50 complaints Thursday. Both Kentucky and Tennessee Republican parties also received complaints about telemarketing, Goodrich said.

"No one can come to the root of where this is all coming from," Goodrich said. "I am saddened that anyone would use these tragedies for financial gain and sickened that they would mention the Republican Party in their efforts."

Both the Illinois Republican Party and the National Republican Committee have suspended all advertising and telemarketing activities in light of the recent crisis. Anyone contacted by a telemarketer asking for donations through the Republican party is advised to call the Illinois GOP Headquarters at (217)-525-0011 to verify legitimacy.

Goodrich said it is still important for people to be financial donors, but they need to look into where their money is going.

Local reputable groups and organizations have set up different opportunities for people to donate.

Market Place Mall started the "We Care, America" donation program Thursday.

"We own 150 shopping centers across the nation and this program will be through every one of our malls," said Karla Braudis, acting marketing director for the mall.

The program focuses on monetary donations with a collection site at the guest services desk.

The mall's program will send all donations to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, which will directly help in the relief and recovery efforts in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh.

The United Way of Champaign County established the "September 11th Fund" on Thursday to mobilize financial resources and respond to the pressing needs of the victims and their families and all those affected by the tragedy, said Meredith Bosack, marketing and communications director.

Donations can be sent to or dropped off at United Way of Champaign County, 404 W. Church St., Champaign.

The donations from Champaign will be sent in full to the United Way of New York City and The New York Community Trust, Bosack said.

"The fund has already received more than $11 million," Bosack said.

The September 11th Fund will let people donate as long as they want to contribute, Bosack said.

Unlike the mall and United Way projects, the campuswide fund drive established by the University's Staff Advisory Council and the Council of Academic Professionals will not send contributions directly to the disaster fund.

"Donations will be sent to the American Red Cross as a whole," said Denise Hendricks, University assistant vice president for human resources. "This is still important, but it's not going to the disaster fund."

About 27 drop boxes have been placed on campus. The locations are available at www.pso.uiuc.edu.

The American Red Cross was not available to comment on how much money not earmarked for the disaster fund will reach the victims of Tuesday's attacks.

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