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SALT LAKE CITY — With summer just around the corner, some people might be tempted to clean out the closet. A local nonprofit, the Friends of MS Charities, says the cure for multiple sclerosis could be hanging in your closet.

The KSL Investigators recently obtained a flyer soliciting used items from the charity and called the donation line. During the call, Friends of MS said 80 percent of donations go to fight multiple sclerosis.

Individuals can set up free curbside donation pickup with the charity. The nonprofit even leaves a tax receipt at the doorstep. The whole process is swift and nearly seamless.

Donors might feel the halo effect — the warm glow of helping to fight a debilitating disease afflicting over 2 million people. But a dig into tax filings, state records and a Better Business review told a different story.

"This charity gives very little to the National MS Society — very little," said Jane Driggs, president of the Better Business Bureau of Utah.

"I have friends who have family members with MS," Driggs said. "It breaks my heart that people think they are actually giving to an organization that gives a large percentage to find a cure."

Still, Friends of MS board member Robert Clark said the charity's slogan — "The cure for multiple sclerosis could be in your closet!" — is valid.

"I hope so," Clark said. "My wife wakes up every day saying, 'Maybe today they'll find something. Maybe they'll be able to help me today — or at least the people after us.'"

Clark's wife has multiple sclerosis.

2013, 2012 IRS Filings: $2.379 million raised, $8,500 given to programs

The 2013 IRS filings show Friends of MS gave $6,000 to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. In 2012, it gave $2,500. In those two years, the charity raised just north of $2.379 million dollars.

"A terrible amount," Driggs said, referring to the organization's donations.

Clark said he is extremely proud of how the charity fulfills its mission of helping people with MS.

Every dollar we raise is going to help people here, that work here What monies we have in addition to that, we give. –Robert Clark, Friends of MS

"Every dollar we raise is going to help people here, that work here," he said. "What monies we have in addition to that, we give."

Clark went on to explain that the charity employs a dozen people with disabilities in addition to the money it gives to MS causes.

But Driggs said funding programs is the mission of charities.

"It's not how much money you're making or losing, it's how much you are actually spending on the programs — that is what a (nonprofit) board is supposed to do," she said.

Clark showed the KSL Investigators an accounting record and said over a 15-year period, Friends of MS Charities gave $1.8 million to National Multiple Sclerosis Society. In recent years, Clark said donations slowed and the charity had to dip into cash reserves.

In 2014, Clark said the charity gave $17,000 to National MS Society and $10,000 to another MS cause. (IRS documents for 2014 are not yet available to independently verify this information.)

Check out Charity Navigator's ratings on Friends of MS at www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=13564#.VT7PkWbfRW9

The nonprofit charity and for-profit business partnership

The Friends of MS charity turns donated household goods into dollars with the help of for-profit Savers thrift stores.

After picking up donated, tax-deductible items from front yards and unloading the charity's 47 donation bins along the Wasatch Front, Friends of MS sells the goods to Savers.

Clark says the charity has 600 pickups per day.

"This has greatly reduced in the last three, four years," he said. "Our pound-per-pickup, we monitor that. That's dropped significantly as well."

Savers is the largest privately held thrift store in North America, with annual revenues exceeding $1 billion.

"They are the sole buyer of our product," Clark said. "Everything we get, we bring to their stores."

Whether it's household items or well-worn T-shirts, the charity receives 48 cents a pound for goods as part of a negotiated three-year contract.

The Friends of MS and Savers relationship began in 1990, according to Savers' director of communications, Sara Gaugl.

"Savers purchases hundreds of thousands of pounds in donated goods from each charity with which we work," Gaugl wrote in an email response to KSL.

She said about three-quarters of all donated goods cannot be resold, making it "impossible for Savers to pay its charity partners on an item-by-item basis."

Landfills and alliances

To stock the shelves, Savers relies on over 140 nonprofit alliances. When asked if Friends of MS's rate of giving to programs was a cause of concern for Savers, Gaugl wrote, "Savers is not positioned to oversee our charity partner's operations.

"All charities are different, and it is difficult to apply a single standard for all charities as to the percentage of funds raised and disbursed, as opposed to funding core operational costs," Gaugl added. "The funding Savers provides is unrestricted, which allows our partners to use these funds in a manner they deem best of support their mission."

By using the thrift store model, Gaugl said Savers stores diverted 650 million pounds of unwanted items from entering landfills.

"We lead the industry in textile reuse and recycling, with over 90 percent of all clothing items received," Gaugl said. "If items do not sell on our retail floor, we sort and sell them in bulk to partners in developing nations."

Savers pays for trucks, home mailers for Friends of MS

The relationship between Friends of MS and Savers does not end on the weight scale. Savers assisted the 501(c)3 nonprofit in acquiring donated items.

"We just finished a program with them, doing mailers rather than phone calls," Clark said. "For the last two years they've been running this trial program. They paid for two trucks and a couple computers and a couple cellphones. They paid for the mailers, but that concluded. Now we're back to everything is on our bill."

What's in a name?

The State of Utah issued Friends of MS Charities a new charity permit last year. On the form Friends of MS Charities claimed the Utah Chapter of National Multiple Sclerosis Society as its "parent foundation."

KSL Investigators contacted the Utah Chapter of the National MS Society and administrators there said there is no affiliation with the Utah group.

Friends of MS said it inadvertently included information from the 1990s on the permit. Friends of MS also confirmed to KSL the two charities are two separate entities. In a later telephone call with KSL, Friends of MS said it was in the process with the state of Utah to fix the permit documentation.

'This obviously could be a death knell to us'

"I was shocked," Driggs said, when she started looking into Friends of MS. "One, that amount is so small: $6,000, (a) teeny amount. And that it's going to the National MS Society in New York. They are collecting goods here in Utah. Why in the world would you not give it here?"

Clark says the Friends of MS is weathering a rough patch of charitable giving, driven in part by increased competition for clothing, rising transportation costs, and fewer landlines for the charity to call and solicit donations. Clark said the negative Better Business Bureau report late last fall blindsided him.

"There's been organizations and other charities in the past that have done it for self-gain," Clark said. "That puts a black mark on all of us.

"Obviously, this could be a death knell for us. It could be a great flourishing thing for us. The main thing is education and helping people realize we're not a bad organization. We're not out there scamming people or doing things with their funds."

Where to check out charities

So, what is the best way to find out how much of your donation is going to the cause? It's pretty simple.

There are websites you can go to, put in the name of the charity, and the site will tell you. Here are a few:

The Division of Consumer Protection - Utah Charity Offices, www.consumerprotection.utah.gov/consumerinfo/lists.html?list=CH

Charity Navigator, www.charitynavigator.org

Charity Navigator: Top 10 Best Practices of Savvy Donors, www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=419#.VT6pnU1OWUk

Better Business Bureau of Utah, www.bbb.org/utah

Better Business Bureau: Basic Giving Tips, www.give.org/for-donors/about-specific-giving-guidance/basic-giving-tips

Better Business Bureau: Wise Giving Alliance, www.give.org

IRS: How to check if organization is a tax-exempt charity, apps.irs.gov/app/eos/mainSearch.do;jsessionid=GPqEy2Id5vKJO3m4jiz87g__?mainSearchChoice=pub78&dispatchMethod=selectSearch

Email: tkoos@ksl.com

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