Financial Reporting System Launched for Charities, Fundraisers

Photo by Wendy Osher.

The Department of the Attorney General has launched a Professional Fundraiser Registration System for paid professional solicitors and professional fundraising counsels that contract with charities.

The online system allows these organizations to register with the Department of the Attorney General and to annually renew their registrations. The Attorney General’s Tax and Charities division partnered with Hawaiʻi Information Consortium to develop the system.

Hawaiʻi Attorney General Douglas Chin made the announcement today saying, “the Professional Fundraiser Registration System will allow donors to make better informed decisions about their charitable giving. It will also help maximize the amount of the donation that is actually received by the charity. The system will simplify the administrative burdens of registering with our office and facilitate compliance with Hawaiʻi law. It will allow the nonprofit sector to better evaluate professional fundraisers offering their services,” he said.

The State joins only a handful of state agencies across the nation that provide for electronic registration and reporting by professional fundraisers and telemarketers for charities.

Attorney General Chin added, “Hawaii continues to be on the forefront of state charities regulation. We will keep using new technologies such as our mobile phone app ‘Hawaii Charity Finder’ to protect donors from charitable solicitation fraud.”

Under Hawaiʻi laws, fundraiser groups that solicit contributions on behalf of a charity in Hawaiʻi are required to register with the Attorney General prior to commencing their services.

They are required to submit with the registration and annual renewal: copies of the contracts with their client charities, surety bonds, copies of legal actions taken against the fundraiser by government agencies, and End of Solicitation Campaign Financial Reports.

According to the Attorney General’s office, the End of Solicitation Campaign Financial Reports inform the public how much money was raised by a fundraiser and how much money the charity ultimately received from donors through charitable solicitation services provided by the fundraiser.

Now that the system is online all of the registration data, contracts, and financial reports are readily available to donors, charities and the public at large at the Attorney General’s website.