Felons got access to donors' information

PITTSBURGH, March 21 (UPI) -- Addresses, phone and credit card numbers of donors have been exposed to convicted felons working in call centers in violation of Pennsylvania law, records show.

Outreach Associates Inc., which allegedly hires phone solicitors with criminal backgrounds to raise money for popular organizations, violates Pennsylvania's 1990 Solicitation of Funds for Charitable Purposes Act, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Sunday.

"This shouldn't have happened. It was wrong. The statute was out there although Outreach operated apparently for decades without anybody saying anything. Ignorance is no excuse," said company president Dennis McCarthy.

McCarthy, who has been with Outreach for 11 months, said he was "erroneously advised" by the company's previous legal team that people found to have committed offenses more than seven years earlier, or committed crimes that were not work-related, could be hired, the Post-Gazette said.

At least 22 fundraisers who have worked with Outreach Associates since 2006 are former felons with convictions for drug offenses, sexual assaults, conspiracy, arson, burglary, gun possession, and retail theft.

"We don't want people with those kinds of felony convictions to be asking for money and obtaining personal information" because of the chance of using it for "potentially illicit purposes," said Tracy McCurdy, director of the Pennsylvania Department of State's Bureau of Charitable Organizations.