CEO resigns after critical Bloomberg Markets story

 Betty Lin-Fisher of the Akron Beacon Journal reports that the CEO of InfoCision Management Corp. has resigned after an article critical of the company was published in Bloomberg Markets.

Lin-Fisher writes, “InfoCision made national headlines recently after a lengthy investigation published by Bloomberg Markets magazine.

“A report published in newspapers nationwide, including the Akron Beacon Journal, and a televised segment on The Today Show said that in most cases 75 percent of the money consumers donated to some of the nation’s largest charities through InfoCision campaigns did not stay with the charities, but instead was paid to the telemarketing firm.

“That story also cited a $75,000 settlement by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office this year after allegations were made that InfoCision employees misled people over the phone by giving them false information about how much of their contributions would go to charities. In some cases, paid staffers identified themselves as volunteers as they called potential donors. InfoCision has said that the settlement did not include an admission of wrongdoing.

“InfoCision has said the Bloomberg story was an unfair attack on the company and full of misleading statements. Company officials said that looking at one InfoCision campaign for a specific fundraising purpose was not a fair assessment of how charities do overall. When all forms of fundraising are included, national charities keep 70 to 75 percent of the total donations.”

Read more here. The article was written by senior writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist David Evans. After the story hit on Sept. 12, along with segments on the “Today” show and NPR’s “All Things Considered,” the magazine was flooded with outraged letters and messages.