STAND. COM. REP. 2664

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 2839

S.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2839, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SOLICITATION OF FUNDS FOR CHARITABLE PURPOSES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to transfer from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to the Department of the Attorney General the duty to oversee the registration of charitable organizations and their professional solicitors and professional fundraising counsel that intend to solicit funds from the public.

Specifically, this bill prohibits a professional solicitor or professional fundraising counsel from contracting with a charitable organization unless the professional solicitor or professional fundraising counsel is registered with the Attorney General.

Furthermore, this bill prohibits a professional solicitor or professional fundraising counsel from engaging in solicitation or fundraising activities until the contract between the professional solicitor or professional fundraising counsel and the charitable organization is filed with the Attorney General.

This measure also gives the Attorney General the power to revoke, suspend, or refuse the registration of any charitable organization, professional solicitor, or professional fundraising counsel for violations of the registration law.

This measure also requires a professional solicitor to file a financial report for the solicitation campaign with the Attorney General.

Additionally, this measure raises registration fees, renewal fees, and bond amounts for professional solicitors and professional fundraising counsel. This bill also creates a special fund to be used by the Attorney General to oversee the solicitation of funds for charitable purposes, and exempts the special fund from its pro rata estimate of central service expenses.

Your Committee finds that the present law is aimed at protecting the public from charitable organizations and their professional solicitors and professional fundraising counsel. However, recent media attention indicates that charitable organizations themselves are sometimes taken advantage of by a few professional fundraisers. This bill is necessary to provide some measure of protection to these charitable organizations.

Your Committee has amended this measure by conforming other sections of the law to reflect regulatory oversight by the Attorney General rather than the Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Furthermore, your Committee has added provisions to the bill to transfer the rights, powers, functions, duties, appropriations, and other property from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to the Department of the Attorney General and to ensure that present rules and policies remain in force until replaced. Your Committee has also made technical nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2839, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2839, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair