Private self-regulation via information exchange preceded state charitable solicitation law

Evidence

Although the vast increase in solicitations may pose new and more demanding questions, the basic problems have been actively recognized by the business community for more than twenty years. In July of 1935 the National Better Business Bureau offered its members a plan of solicitation control “Whereby they might avoid making contributions to useless and fraudulent charities.” 9 The Bureau furnished forms to its members which they in turn gave to any “charitable” solicitor with instructions to fill out the form and mail it to the Bureau. The Bureau evaluated the information together with that obtained by independent investigation and sent a report to the member concerned. In the first year of operation seventy per cent of the reports rendered were unfavorable to the charity concerned. 1 0 However public attention was not really focused on solicitations until recent hearings before a New York legislative committee. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 1310

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to private-judges and reputation-based self-regulation material read in law merchant; private information verification as an alternative to state licensing. — connects to: Disclosure regulation relies on informed donors and press scrutiny for deterrence. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 1346