CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A week after Mecklenburg County's stay at home order went into effect, a well-known national non-profit solicited donations outside a busy Charlotte grocery store, failing to take proper safety precautions at all times.
While fundraisers said a portion of their proceeds went to coronavirus relief, only five cents of every dollar went to that effort.
Through a partnership with Global Giving, DARE America reports 95% of the money collected in fundraising goes to programming and training of officers for the drug prevention organization as well as overhead costs, while the remaining 5% goes to COVID-19 relief.
‘’In the last two weeks, we have donated approximately $20,000,” DARE America Chief Operating Officer Richard Mahan said. “We see it as a positive approach to fundraising, where it’s not just saying help us support us, we’re also trying to support our local communities.”
Mahan said that was the intent of two employees’ fundraising efforts outside the Food Lion on Eastway Drive Thursday. As others walked by wearing masks, at times, Jeff Padilla’s mask only covered his chin as he solicited donations on behalf of DARE.
“Our goal is to help the kids,” he told WCNC Charlotte. “Portions go to coronavirus relief.”
Relying solely on private donations to operate, Mahan said, just like any other entity, the organization has to make sure it survives. He said long after this health crisis, opioids, vaping and suicide prevention in schools will remain just as important as ever.
At the same time, he acknowledged DARE’s duty to fundraise responsibly. He said the organization recently started working to pull its 200 fundraisers across the country off the streets.
“Perhaps the word didn’t get out entirely to everybody,” Mahan said.
“Knowing that our community has a stay at home order, as the chief operating officer, would you have preferred that they not be out there?” WCNC asked.
“I probably would have preferred it,” Mahan replied.
At the least, he said they should’ve been wearing gloves and keeping a six-foot distance. While the men were wearing gloves, they were closer than six feet with another person at times.
Nonetheless, Mahan said it won’t be an issue moving forward.
“They will be getting off the street too,” he said.
According to Mahan, before fundraising outside any business, the organization always gets a manager’s blessing. However, a Food Lion spokesperson said the organization did not get its approval in this case. Even if DARE did obtain the company's blessing, Food Lion stopped solicitations weeks ago.
"Although Food Lion typically allows non-profit organizations to solicit in front of our stores as part of our commitment to caring for our communities, all solicitations at all Food Lion stores within our 10-state footprint were officially canceled from mid-March through the end of April." Food Lion LLC External Communications Director Emma Inman said. 'We took this action out of an abundance of caution to minimize potential community spread of the coronavirus following guidance from local, state and national health care authorities. Our records do not indicate that the DARE solicitation was permitted, nor are we showing that we even received an application requesting that they be allowed to solicit outside of this store during this time."
Despite what Food Lion said, DARE said the organization received approval from a Food Lion manager on March 27 with a witness present.
According to Mahan, DARE also alerts local law enforcement before descending on a community. Records show the organization sent a courtesy letter to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in April 2019.
A spokesperson from Food Lion provided the following statement:
"We have a process where all of these requests must come through the corporate Community Relations team. Verbal approval cannot be granted at the store level. Written permission is required and it follows a written application process which is managed through Community Relations based on our solicitation policy. We also do not permit solicitation on Thursdays."
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