225 ILCS 460/15

(225 ILCS 460/15) (from Ch. 23, par. 5115)

Sec. 15. (a) Trustees of charitable trusts, organizations and corporations have a duty to supervise fund raising activities to ensure that contributions are adequately protected and devoted to the proper purpose and that statements or representations made during solicitations to the public are true and correct.

(b) If any person, including a charitable organization, a professional fund raiser or a professional solicitor, in conducting a fund raising campaign for a charitable organization or for charitable or ostensibly charitable purposes:

(1) Represents that tickets for a show or goods or services shall be made available to children, disadvantaged persons or for a like charitable purpose, and that such will be distributed by the persons soliciting or the organization, the tickets shall be held in trust for the use as a charitable trust and adequate records and accounting for same maintained.

(2) Disseminates an educational message or materials to the public with or in the course of fund raising activities and allocates the costs between fund raising and education programs, he shall prepare and maintain written worksheets of how the allocation is made and the reasoning behind the allocation.

(3) Sells or offers for sale advertising space in a publication or ad book or periodical, he shall maintain adequate records for all ads sold and written document receipts shall provide the name of the organization involved, the publication's name, and its proposed date of publication, as well as the number of copies proposed to be printed or a reasonable estimate.

(4) Engages in the dissemination of education program services as a part of or in physical conjunction with its solicitation of charitable contributions, it shall record and report all expenses incurred as fund raising unless it allocates the expenses between fund raising and other functions pursuant to professional accounting standards and provisions as promulgated and set forth by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants or the Financial Accounting Standards Board from time to time in their official publications. For purposes of making all such allocations, the factors and considerations utilized must be reduced to writing.

(5) Engages in any public solicitation and therein purports to relate the purpose or purposes for which the funds are solicited, such shall then be fully and accurately identified to the prospective donor. If a charitable organization whose purposes include the rendering of noneducational program services intends to expend or budget more than 50% of its program service expenditures for informing or educating the public and the funds being solicited will be used for such purpose, the donor at his or her request must be told that a primary use of the program funds will be for public education.

(6) Collects and takes control or possession of contributions made for a charitable purpose or to a charitable organization, they owe a fiduciary duty to the public to deal with the said contributions in an appropriate fiduciary manner, to keep complete books and records for at least 3 years, to keep records in a comprehensive manner to permit accurate reporting and auditing as required by law, and to not commingle funds with noncharitable funds and to be able to account for the funds, and will be subject to surcharge for any funds not accounted for or wasted, in addition to other remedies available at equity. A presumption shall exist that expenditures not properly documented and disclosed by records were not properly spent.

(c) Any person who violates this Section may be enjoined from continuing to act on behalf of the charity for a period of up to 5 years and if the violation is intentional or willful they shall not be entitled to keep or receive fees, salaries, commissions or any compensation as a result of or on account of the solicitations or fund raising campaigns. At the request of the Attorney General a court shall order that the fees, salaries, commissions, or compensation shall be forfeited and used for a charitable use as the court determines.

(Source: P.A. 87-755.)