Cynthia Urbach was touched. She filled 13 baskets and delivered one for each child living there. With that act of charity, her fledgling organization -- Families in Need of Assistance -- took off.
The Albany-based group is one of numerous small nonprofits in the Capital Region. They all have missions. Some help cancer patients or a child battling a health problem with astronomical expenses. Others serve families in distress or domestic victims or people whose loved ones are missing.
Tragedy spawns these groups. They pop up quickly, almost like a cottage industry. They're often run from a home. Organizers have their hearts in the right place, and friends and strangers alike naturally want to do something.
But when people are asked to donate, they do so on faith, because many of these groups are not registered with any government agencies. Some don't even have a board of directors. As a result, oversight is minimal, at best, and the potential for abuse is real.
But no indications have surfaced of wrongdoing by any of the local groups that formed in recent years in the wake of misfortune and caught the public eye. Among them are:
Joshua Szostak Search Fund, created after the State University at Plattsburgh student from Latham disappeared Dec. 23 after celebrating a friend's birthday in Albany. On Tuesday, Szostak's body was pulled from the Hudson River near Coxsackie.
Liza's Legacy Foundation, founded to help domestic violence victims in memory of hair stylist Liza Warner, who was shot to death four years ago by her estranged husband in a murder-suicide at their Princetown home.
Center for Hope, started by Doug and Mary Lyall after their daughter, Suzanne, a University at Albany student, disappeared 10 years ago. The Lyalls counsel others who have missing loved ones, giving advice on dealing with police, obtaining tax-exempt status and keeping their cause before the public.
Riding 4 Audrey, named for Audrey May Herron, a nurse who disappeared six years ago after her shift at a Catskill nursing home. In July, motorcyclists will ride in the annual fundraiser across Columbia and Greene counties.
As CEO of the Council of Community Services of New York State for more than two decades, Doug Sauer has been a guiding hand for 1,400 charitable nonprofits statewide.
He trains a sharp eye on self-described charities that aren't charities by legal definition. "Having a fund for a person is not a charitable activity," he emphasized. "That's a private purpose."
"The whole trend now is for people to be accountable and transparent, accountable to public and regulatory agencies," Sauer said. But that objective is sometimes lost with new fundraising efforts.
Matt Glazer, a spokesman for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, agrees. In New York, a fundraising effort "formed for the benefit of a specific individual is not a charity," he said. The organization cannot apply to the IRS for tax-exempt status or register with the Attorney General's Charities Bureau and should not say donations are tax deductible, he said.
However, an organization or foundation "formed in a person's name to benefit the public good" is a charity and may obtain the exemption and register with the state, he said.
Sauer stressed accountability. Financial filings with the IRS and sent to the attorney general are basically the only public information available unless a government agency gives a grant and requires more information to be disclosed.
Sauer said 70 to 80 percent of the attorney general's enforcement work with charities concerns fundraising fraud. He noted that "a lot of groups popped up raising money supposedly for 9/11 and a lot of them were not real groups."
Families in Need of Assistance is a 24-hour advocacy and referral agency "for victims of homelessness, domestic violence, illnesses and other issues that the under-served population may have," said Urbach, executive director and a longtime mediator.
FINA raises more than $25,000 annually from a benefit event and grants, is incorporated, has a board of directors and federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, and is registered with the Charities Bureau.
Lynne Lyons of Colonie, a divorced mother of two teenagers who works with children with disabilities, said FINA got her through tough times. Urbach "helped me with Family Court issues, helped when my son was sick," Lyons said. "She encouraged me to go to college and I earned two degrees ... I had an illness and she went to the doctor's with me and sent my family to Proctors Theatre to see a show at Christmas." Lyons was behind a state law barring batterers from gaining custody of their children at the encouragement of Urbach.
In a recent interview, Mary Lyall was forthcoming about support received by the Center for Hope, including a $10,000 member item from Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno that paid for missing persons playing cards. A $2,000 gift came from Riding 4 Audrey and the same amount from a golf benefit by a Rockland County family whose son was missing and found dead, she said.
The center is registered with the IRS and the state, but donations don't top $25,000 so tax returns are not filed, Lyall said.
Each year the biggest expense is for Missing Persons Day, paying for out-of-town speakers, she said. Last year, the center donated a $2,500 sonar device to the State Police for trooper-divers searching for missing people.
Linda Singer, founder and of Liza's Legacy Foundation, said in an interview, "We don't give (domestic violence) survivors money. We provide services that they need and help with security deposits."
She acknowledged the group is preparing to file taxes for the first time after meeting the $25,000 threshold, but she declined to provide an accounting of the finances.
"We're listed with the attorney general, our financials and anything we've done is all public information," Singer said.
Martha Lasher-Warner, Liza's mother, has been a strong supporter of the cause. A pin was designed in Liza's memory that the group sells.
Lisa Frisch, executive director of The Legal Project, said Liza's Foundation donated $12,500 to a local organization that works in the domestic violence field.
Riding 4 Audrey generates $5,000-$6,000 a year, organizer Marie Parker said. The ride is the only event and because the organization is small it isn't registered, she said. Besides its contribution to the Lyalls' Center for Hope, the other half raised goes into a Reward/Trust Fund, now at $25,000. If the money isn't used as a reward, it will go to Herron's three children. Parker said she pays $200 a year in taxes on the fund out of pocket.
Last weekend, days before his son's body was recovered, Bill Szostak was reticent to talk about the Joshua Szostak Search Fund. Started by a friend and registered as a nonprofit, the father said, this format is preferable to a reward fund because you can't withdraw money from a reward fund.
The retired Green Island firefighter and former union president said he used the fund to charter a helicopter, buy a digital camera, binoculars and a metal detector and pay for gasoline during the search for his son. He declined to reveal the amount collected at two fundraisers.
The Szostak fund is not registered with the IRS, spokeswoman Diane Besunder said, nor is it on file with the Charities Bureau, Glazer said.
Nonprofits that solicit $25,000 or more in donations must file with the IRS and report to the state on the money raised and spent, the AG's Glazer said. While nonprofit charities under the $25,000 threshold need not file financial forms, they still must register each year with the Charities Bureau, providing their organizational makeup and tax status and swearing that during the past year income was under $25,000, he said.
That state filing is basically the only monitoring of smaller charities in New York.
Sauer urges boards of directors to take seriously their fiduciary role in administering funds and to keep in mind the mission to benefit the public.
Urbach said she keeps her board in the loop: "I report to them even if we buy lollipops to give cancer survivors while they are having chemotherapy." DeMare can be reached at 454-5431 or by e-mail at cdemare@timesunion.com.
Chart 1:To make a complaint about a charity, call a direct hotline -- (212)416-8401 -- or a general number -- (800)771-7755 -- that will eventually get the caller to where they can complain.
Chart 2 REGISTERING A CHARITY: -- An organization is incorporated at the state Department of State.
-- The department sends the Attorney General's Bureau of Charities a list each month with new corporations.
-- The attorney general's office sends information, including forms, to new charities explaining requirements of registering with the bureau.(Some charities, including those affiliated with a religious group, are exempt from registering.)
Source: Attorney General's Office. How to contactFINA Finacu@aol.com 489-3734 Center For Hope Ballston Spa Web address: hope4themissing.org Email:jdlmary@ hope4themissing.org 884-8761 Liza's Legacy Foundation Box 1073, Guilderland NY 12084 Web address: lizaslegacy.org Email: linda@liza's legacy.org Riding 4 Audrey http://www.riding 4audrey.com/ riding2007 sponsors.htm
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