24 Hour MISSING CHILD HELPLINE 1-800-LOOKOUT • (425) 771-SEEK

HOW MUCH OF YOUR DONATION ACTUALLY GOES TO HELP FIND MISSING KIDS?

Do you want to see more of your dollars allocated to finding missing children and less to the cost of fundraising? Well, the answer is that you give ‘directly’; bypass the 3rd party altogether.

We can do more with your dollars for the sake of the missing children when you give directly to the organization. Therefore, we welcome and encourage you to make a direct fully 100% tax-deductible donation by either direct mail or online via PayPal by clicking on the “Donate” logo below.

Every dollar given directly goes into the program of child search and improves the cost allocation percentages at the end of the year. Your direct donation whether $50,000.00, or $25.00 improves the annual overall allocation to ‘program.’ So, please consider how giving large or small becomes more for the children when you give directly.

Because most folks don’t think to give anything to missing children recovery (on their own) until they are called and asked, the fundraising cost is increased, but it can be reduced with your direct gift. Because we need to issue alerts about missing children, inform the public where to turn for help and ask for their voluntary help, we will always have the cost of outsourcing to good communicators on our behalf. HOWEVER, the more direct giving there is, the less we will pay out to the cost of outreach communications and fundraising. It is a simple answer and an easy equation you can help us with. Simply stated, give online or by mail.

What the Reports Cannot Say About Use of Your Contribution:

OPERATION LOOKOUT® National Center For Missing Youth must annually submit IRS Form 990 as a snapshot of one moment in our history, and the requirements of nonprofit accounting rules may sometimes skew the picture that this single snapshot presents. For example, nonprofit accounting standards require that we declare the entire amount paid to an outsourced company as ‘fundraising’ costs when funds are raised and the company is paid via a ‘revenue-share’ structure. That is even though there may be a Public Education or Public Service function provided during community outreach such as our contact to you.

Comparing multiple years provides additional information to give the contextual information necessary. Based on the Federal Exempt Organization Information Return Form 990, it is important to use financial ratios carefully, and in context.

What the IRS 990 Report may not always reflect is that a cost-saving educational or program service element may have been incorporated into the phone or direct mail contact with you. Among other messages, the company speaking on our behalf can point the public to more resources such as our 24/7 Helpline for Emergencies and Sightings, or our Website if needed. They may also ask you to take some action to help us accomplish our charitable mission. This may not be accurately reflected in the annual IRS 990 or other reports because this detail cannot always be inserted as part of the Cost Allocation Formula due to payment to the service provider being based on the amount of funds raised for our budget.

What Better Way is there to Reach You Just One Time? The costs of brand marketing, public education, seeking volunteers and fundraising, as separate activities in most cases, are very expensive ventures. A call center is required by OPERATION LOOKOUT to perform several tasks in one contact with you over the phone instead of through more frequent -- more costly TV, in-person visits, door-to-door sales, cause-related marketing, direct mail, print ads or radio promotions.

Our Independent CPA must calculate “fundraising and program” costs for campaigns according to strict accounting guidelines. This means that costs, including “Call-to-Action” outreach and fundraising combined, can appear to be high. However, fulfilling multiple duties via one routine contact actually reduces our costs because they include our programmatic and outreach messages as well, whether paid via percentage, cost per call or by man-hour. Looking at the 990 report with different expenses grouped and combined, as they are required to be, can mislead the contributor to erroneous conclusions that we pay too much of their donation for these important services performed by a professional company. It implies no other task is performed-which is not true and correct.

Rather, donations are stretched to cover greater territory and important information about missing, runaway and abducted children under age eighteen at the time of their disappearance, and help us to fulfill more--rather than less--public service message. We are continually improving our methods of service and outreach, reaching more than a million people annually with the important messages: ‘Where to Turn for Help’, ‘Who Needs Help’, and ‘How to Give Help’. The budget is stretched and the duties are performed no differently than if we used our own staff to make contacts with the public the expense is relatively the same, them or us performing the duties.

Use Financial Ratios to Look at our Performance Over Time. In some instances, accounting rules require that we combine volunteer recruitment, calls to action and public education making them appear as a ‘fundraising’ expense. Public outreach, volunteer recruitment and calls to action are key components of our programs service message and without the help of outside call centers and fundraising firms, we would not be able to reach people like you who are interested in helping us. Bottom line, all this said, we are deeply appreciative of the rules and regulations that protect the public’s heartfelt giving. More so, we appreciate you for stepping up, sharing from your heart, and giving a hand to someone less fortunate than yourself.