by Page Ivey, Associated Press
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) - After more than a month with a cloud over its efforts to raise money for the families of New York firefighters killed Sept. 11, a South Carolina group says it feels vindicated by a report from the secretary of state’s office.
Secretary of State Jim Miles, whose office regulates charities in South Carolina, said Monday that the Spartanburg County Fire Chiefs Association and its professional fund-raiser Soundtastic Inc. did not violate state law by using half the proceeds of Christmas CD sales to finance production and other costs.
Company founder, former Spartanburg County firefighter Don Cranfill, blamed media reports for negative publicity about the fund-raising effort.
“It has broken all of our hearts that gave with good intentions that irresponsible reporting cast this shadow,” Cranfill said.
Fire chiefs association Chairman Phill Jolley said the group wanted to raise money to help the 343 families of New York firefighters killed in the terrorists attacks. But, he said, the group also wanted to create a “keepsake so that we as a nation never forget the sacrifice.”
The $5 Soundtastic keeps from the sale of each CD goes to finance production, marketing and sales of the CDs. Jolley estimated that more than 100,000 CDs have been sold and the group still has “a fair amount of funds to collect” from fire departments around the nation. The CDs are sold for $10 by fire departments and $13.95 online.
The group also sells posters and accepts cash donations. Between 75 percent and 80 percent of poster sales and all of the cash donations are going to the widows and orphans fund, which got $1 million at Christmas.
Miles said Monday that he was disappointed about the overall percentage given to the victims’ families, but he said the group was working within the law.
“The FDNY Christmas Gift Fund is the perfect example of why we at the secretary of state’s office have worked so hard to urge citizens to contact us before they write the check,” Miles said. “Unfortunately, South Carolina law does not require that our charitable organizations give at least 75 percent to the cause as I would recommend.”
Miles and the state attorney general’s office said states cannot require charities to give a certain percent of their proceeds to the cause they claim to be raising money for.
Miles, who is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, launched a formal investigation into the firefighter CD last month.
Cranfill said he didn’t know what the final production costs would be, but “we thought we could do it for $5 a CD.”
That money helped pay for 15,000 free CDs for New York firefighters, Cranfill said. It also paid for a phone bank and Web site to take orders.
Firefighters were blindsided by the negative publicity, said Croft Fire Chief Lewis J. Hayes.
“We were very proud of the program,’' Hayes said. ``I guess what hurt me and my guys the most was that our sincerity was questioned.”
The fire chiefs’ group will not receive any money from the sales and all performance royalties were donated.
Cranfill arranged most of the music and wrote the “The Nation’s Prayer,” which is read by Hub Blankenship Sr. of Spartanburg with a background mix of “The Holly and the Ivy” and “Silent Night.”
“It really doesn’t upset me because I know that’s just the way things work,” Marty Richards, former president of the Association of Fund-raising Professionals, said last month. “It’s pretty standard a certain portion goes to pay for the event.”