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General Assembly Committee Bill No. 6217
January Session, 2021
LCO No. 4314
Referred to Committee on GENERAL LAW
Introduced by:
(GL)
AN ACT INCREASING TRANSPARENCY FOR CHARI TABLE
ORGANIZATIONS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 21a-190a of the general statutes is repealed and the 1
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective January 1, 2022): 2
As used in sections 21a-190a to 21a-190l, inclusive: 3
(1) "Charitable organization" means any person who is or holds 4
himself or herself out to be established for any benevolent, educational, 5
philanthropic, humane, scientific, patriotic, social welfare or advocacy, 6
public health, environmental conservation, civic or eleemosynary 7
purpose, or for the benefit of law enforcement officers, firefighters or 8
other persons who protect the public safety. 9
(2) "Person" means an individual, corporation, limited liability 10
company, association, partnership, trust, foundation or any other entity 11
however styled. 12
(3) "Solicit" and "solicitation" mean any request directly or indirectly 13
for money, credit, property, financial assistance or other thing of any 14
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kind or value on the plea or representation that such money, credit, 15
property, financial assistance or other thing of any kind or value is to be 16
used for a charitable purpose or benefit a charitable organization. 17
"Solicit" and "solicitation" [shall include] includes, but [shall] is not [be] 18
limited to, the following methods of requesting or securing such money, 19
credit, property, financial assistance or other thing of value: (A) Any oral 20
or written request; (B) any announcement to the press, over the radio or 21
television or by telephone or telegraph concerning an appeal or 22
campaign by or for any charitable organization or purpose; (C) the 23
distribution, circulation, posting or publishing of any handbill, written 24
advertisement or other publication; (D) the sale of, offer or attempt to 25
sell, any advertisement, advertising space, book, card, tag, coupon, 26
device, magazine, membership, merchandise, subscription, flower, 27
ticket, candy, cookies or other tangible item in connection with an 28
appeal made for any charitable organization or purpose, or where the 29
name of any charitable organization is used or referred to in any such 30
appeal as an inducement or reason for making any such sale, or when 31
or where in connection with any such sale, any statement is made that 32
the whole or any part of the proceeds from any such sale is to be used 33
for any charitable purpose or benefit any charitable organization. A 34
solicitation shall be deemed to have taken place whether or not the 35
person making the same receives any contribution. 36
(4) "Charitable purpose" means any benevolent, educational, 37
philanthropic, humane, scientific, patriotic, social welfare or advocacy, 38
public health, environmental conservation, civic or eleemosynary 39
objective. 40
(5) "Contribution" means the grant, promise or pledge of money, 41
credit, property, financial assistance or other thing of any kind or value 42
in response to a solicitation. "Contribution" [shall] does not include bona 43
fide fees, dues or assessments paid by members, provided membership 44
is not conferred solely as consideration for making a contribution in 45
response to a solicitation. 46
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(6) "Fund-raising counsel" means a person who for compensation 47
plans, manages, advises or consults with respect to the solicitation in 48
this state of contributions by a charitable organization, but who does not 49
solicit contributions and who does not directly or indirectly employ, 50
procure or engage any person compensated to solicit contributions. A 51
bona fide nontemporary salaried officer or employee of a charitable 52
organization shall not be deemed to be a fund-raising counsel. 53
(7) "Paid solicitor" means a person who for any consideration, other 54
than any nonmonetary gift of nominal value awarded to a volunteer 55
solicitor as an incentive or token of appreciation, performs for a 56
charitable organization any service in connection with which 57
contributions are solicited by such person or by any person he directly 58
or indirectly employs, procures or engages to solicit for such 59
compensation. A bona fide nontemporary salaried officer or employee 60
of a charitable organization shall not be deemed to be a paid solicitor. 61
(8) "Commercial coventurer" means a person who for profit is 62
regularly and primarily engaged in trade or commerce in this state other 63
than in connection with the raising of funds for charitable organizations 64
or purposes and who conducts a charitable sales promotion. 65
(9) "Charitable sales promotion" means an advertising or sales 66
campaign, conducted by a commercial coventurer, which represents 67
that the purchase or use of goods or services offered by the commercial 68
coventurer are to benefit a charitable organization or purpose. 69
(10) "Department" means the Department of Consumer Protection. 70
(11) "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Consumer 71
Protection. 72
(12) "Membership" means that which entitles a person to the 73
privileges, professional standing, honors or other direct benefit of the 74
organization and the rights to vote, elect officers and hold office in the 75
organization. 76
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(13) "Parent organization" means that part of a charitable 77
organization which supervises and exercises control over the 78
solicitation and expenditure activities of one or more chapters, branches 79
or affiliates. 80
(14) "Gross revenue" means income of any kind from all sources, 81
without deduction of any costs or expenses, including all amounts 82
received as the result of any solicitation by a paid solicitor. 83
Sec. 2. Section 21a-190b of the general statutes is repealed and the 84
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective January 1, 2022): 85
(a) Every charitable organization not exempted by section 21a-190d 86
shall annually register with the department prior to conducting any 87
solicitation or prior to having any solicitation conducted on its behalf by 88
others. Application for registration shall be in a form prescribed by the 89
commissioner and shall include a nonrefundable application fee of fifty 90
dollars. Such application shall include: (1) A registration statement, (2) 91
an annual financial report for such organization for the preceding fiscal 92
year that is prepared in accordance with the provisions of subsection (a) 93
of section 21a-190c, and (3) an audited financial statement as required 94
by subsection (b) of section 21a-190c. An authorized officer of the 95
organization shall certify that the statements therein are true and correct 96
to the best of their knowledge. A chapter, branch or affiliate in this state 97
of a registered parent organization shall not be required to register 98
provided the parent organization files a consolidated annual 99
registration for itself and its chapter, branch or affiliate. Each charitable 100
organization shall annually renew its registration not later than eleven 101
months after the end of such organization's fiscal year. 102
(b) In the event the department determines that the application for 103
registration does not contain the documents required in subsection (a) 104
of this section or is not in accordance with the regulations adopted by 105
the commissioner pursuant to this chapter, the department shall notify 106
the charitable organization of such noncompliance not later than ten 107
days after the department's receipt of such application for registration. 108
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Any such charitable organization may request a hearing on its 109
noncompliant status in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54. 110
(c) In addition to the application fee required pursuant to subsection 111
(a) of this section, a charitable organization shall pay a late fee of twenty-112
five dollars for each month, or part thereof, that such application for 113
registration is late. The commissioner may, upon written request and for 114
good cause shown, waive or reduce any late fee under this section. 115
(d) In the event that a charitable organization fails to register in 116
accordance with the provisions of this section, such organization shall 117
include in its application for registration an annual financial report for 118
each of the previous years in which such organization was required to 119
file an application for registration or an annual financial report. 120
(e) Any charitable organization registered in accordance with this 121
section on September 30, 2005, shall be deemed to be registered 122
pursuant to this section until the last day of the fifth month after the 123
close of the fiscal year in effect on September 30, 2005. 124
(f) A charitable organization registered in accordance with this 125
section shall (1) when engaging in solicitation, or upon request from any 126
person, disclose its registration number and the percentage of funds 127
collected by such organization in the prior calendar year that directly 128
funded the charitable purpose of such organization, and (2) display its 129
registration number in a conspicuous manner on any printed 130
advertisement. 131
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 January 1, 2022 21a-190a
Sec. 2 January 1, 2022 21a-190b
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Statement of Purpose:
To require charitable organizations to disclose their registration
numbers and certain financial information when soliciting funds.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]
Co-Sponsors: REP. ACKERT, 8th Dist.; REP. RUTIGLIANO, 123rd Dist.
H.B. 6217