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Public Act 91-0301
HB1180 Enrolled LRB9101697ACmb
AN ACT in relation to solicitation by certain persons.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Solicitation for Charity Act is amended
by changing Sections 1, 9, and 11 and adding Section 7.5 as
follows:
(225 ILCS 460/1) (from Ch. 23, par. 5101)
Sec. 1. The following words and phrases as used in this
Act shall have the following meanings unless a different
meaning is required by the context.
(a) "Charitable organization." Any benevolent,
philanthropic, patriotic, or eleemosynary person or one
purporting to be such which solicits and collects funds for
charitable purposes and includes each local, county, or area
division within this State of such charitable organization,
provided such local, county or area division has authority
and discretion to disburse funds or property otherwise than
by transfer to any parent organization.
(b) "Contribution." The promise or grant of any money or
property of any kind or value, including the promise to pay,
except payments by union members of an organization.
Reference to the dollar amount of "contributions" in this Act
means in the case of promises to pay, or payments for
merchandise or rights of any other description, the value of
the total amount promised to be paid or paid for such
merchandise or rights and not merely that portion of the
purchase price to be applied to a charitable purpose.
Contribution shall not include the proceeds from the sale of
admission tickets by any not-for-profit music or dramatic
arts organization which establishes, by such proof as the
Attorney General may require, that it has received an
exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue
Code and which is organized and operated for the presentation
of live public performances of musical or theatrical works on
a regular basis. For purposes of this subsection, union
member dues and donated services shall not be deemed
contributions.
(c) "Person." Any individual, organization, group,
association, partnership, corporation, trust or any
combination of them.
(d) "Professional fund raiser." Any person who for
compensation or other consideration, conducts, manages, or
carries on any solicitation drive or campaign in this State
or from this State or on behalf of a charitable organization
residing within this State for the purpose of soliciting
contributions for or on behalf of any charitable organization
or any other person, or who engages in the business of, or
holds himself out to persons in this State as independently
engaged in the business of soliciting contributions for such
purposes. A bona fide director, officer, employee or unpaid
volunteer of a charitable organization shall not be deemed a
professional fund raiser unless the person is in a management
position and the majority of the individual's salary or other
compensation is computed on a percentage basis of funds to be
raised, or actually raised.
(e) "Professional fund raising consultant." Any person
who is retained by a charitable organization or trustee for a
fixed fee or rate that is not computed on a percentage of
funds to be raised, or actually raised, under a written
agreement, to only plan, advise, consult, or prepare
materials for a solicitation of contributions in this State,
but who does not manage, conduct or carry on a fundraising
campaign and who does not solicit contributions or employ,
procure, or engage any compensated person to solicit
contributions and who does not at any time have custody or
control of contributions. A volunteer, employee or salaried
officer of a charitable organization or trustee maintaining a
permanent establishment or office in this State is not a
professional fundraising consultant. An attorney, investment
counselor, or banker who advises an individual, corporation
or association to make a charitable contribution is not a
professional fundraising consultant as a result of the
advice.
(f) "Charitable purpose." Any charitable, benevolent,
philanthropic, patriotic, or eleemosynary purpose.
(g) "Charitable Trust" means any relationship whereby
property is held by a person for a charitable purpose.
(h) "Education Program Service" means any activity which
provides information to the public of a nature that is not
commonly known or facts which are not universally regarded as
obvious or as established by common understanding and which
informs the public of what it can or should do about a
particular issue.
(i) "Primary Program Service" means the program service
upon which an organization spends more than 50% of its
program service funds or the program activity which
represents the largest expenditure of funds in the fiscal
period.
(j) "Professional solicitor" means any natural person
who is employed or retained for compensation by a
professional fund raiser to solicit contributions for
charitable purposes from persons in this State or from this
State or on behalf of a charitable organization residing
within this State.
(k) "Program Service Activity" means the actual
charitable program activities of a charitable organization
for which it expends its resources.
(l) "Program Service Expense" means the expenses of
charitable program activity and not management expenses or
fund raising expenses. In determining Program Service
Expense, management and fund raising expenses may not be
included.
(m) "Public Safety Personnel Organization" means any
person who uses any of the words "officer", "police",
"policeman", "policemen", "troopers", "sheriff", "law
enforcement", "fireman", or "firemen", "paramedic", or
similar words in its name or in conjunction with
solicitations, or in the title or name of to place ads or buy
subscriptions in a magazine, newspaper, periodical,
advertisement or ad book, or any other medium of electronic
or print publication, and is not a governmental entity. No
organization may be a Public Safety Personnel Organization
unless 80% or more of its voting members or trustees are
active, retired, or disabled police officers, peace officers,
firemen, fire fighters, emergency medical technicians -
ambulance, emergency medical technicians - intermediate,
emergency medical technicians - paramedic, ambulance drivers,
or other medical assistance or first aid personnel.
(m-5) "Public Safety Personnel" includes police
officers, peace officers, firemen, fire fighters, emergency
medical technicians - ambulance, emergency medical
technicians - intermediate, emergency medical technicians -
paramedic, ambulance drivers, and other medical assistance or
first aid personnel.
(n) "Trustee" means any person, individual, group of
individuals, association, corporation, not for profit
corporation, or other legal entity holding property for or
solicited for any charitable purpose; or any officer,
director, executive director or other controlling persons of
a corporation soliciting or holding property for a charitable
purpose.
(Source: P.A. 86-718; 87-755.)
(225 ILCS 460/7.5 new)
Sec. 7.5. Public Safety Personnel Organization.
(a) Every Public Safety Personnel Organization that
solicits contributions from the public shall, in addition to
other provisions of this Act:
(1) Have as a condition of public solicitation a
provision included in every professional fund raiser
contract providing that the professional fund raiser
shall: (A) maintain and deliver to the organization a
list of the names and addresses of all contributors and
purchasers of merchandise, goods, services, memberships,
and advertisements; (B) deliver the list of the current
year semiannually of each contribution or purchase and
specify the amount of the contribution or purchase and
the date of the transaction; and (C) assign ownership of
the list to the Public Safety Personnel Organization.
The obligation required by this subdivision (1) does
not apply to a professional fund raiser under the
following conditions:
(i) the professional fund raiser does not have
access to information to create and maintain the
list and the Public Safety Personnel Organization
obtained the information to create and maintain the
list under the fund raising campaign by other means;
or
(ii) the Public Safety Personnel Organization
and the professional fund raiser agree to waive the
obligation required by this subdivision (1).
(2) Act in accordance with Section 17-2 of the
Criminal Code of 1961, and violation of this Section
shall also be subject to separate civil remedy hereunder.
(b) Any professional fund raiser who willfully violates
the provisions of this Section may in addition to other
remedies be subject to a fine of $2,000 for each violation,
forfeiture of all solicitation fees, and enjoined from
operating and soliciting the public.
(c) This Section does not apply to a contract that is in
effect on the effective date of this amendatory Act of the
91st General Assembly (unless the contract is extended,
renewed, or revised on or after the effective date of this
amendatory Act of the 91st General Assembly, in which case
this Section applies to the contract on and after the date on
which the extension, renewal, or revision takes place).
(225 ILCS 460/9) (from Ch. 23, par. 5109)
Sec. 9. (a) An action for violation of this Act may be
prosecuted by the Attorney General in the name of the people
of the State, and in any such action, the Attorney General
shall exercise all the powers and perform all duties which
the State's Attorney would otherwise be authorized to
exercise or to perform therein.
(b) This Act shall not be construed to limit or restrict
the exercise of the powers or the performance of the duties
of the Attorney General which he otherwise is authorized to
exercise or perform under any other provision of law by
statute or otherwise.
(c) Whenever the Attorney General shall have reason to
believe that any charitable organization, professional fund
raiser, or professional solicitor is operating in violation
of the provisions of this Act, or if any of the principal
officers of any charitable organization has refused or
failed, after notice, to produce any records of such
organization or there is employed or is about to be employed
in any solicitation or collection of contributions for a
charitable organization any device, scheme, or artifice to
defraud or for obtaining money or property by means of any
false pretense, representation or promise, or any false
statement has been made in any application, registration or
statement required to be filed pursuant to this Act, in
addition to any other action authorized by law, he may bring
in the circuit court an action in the name, and on behalf of
the people of the State of Illinois against such charitable
organization and any other person who has participated or is
about to participate in such solicitation or collection by
employing such device, scheme, artifice, false representation
or promise, to enjoin such charitable organization or other
person from continuing such solicitation or collection or
engaging therein or doing any acts in furtherance thereof, or
to cancel any registration statement previously filed with
the Attorney General.
In connection with such proposed action the Attorney
General is authorized to take proof in the manner provided in
Section 2-1003 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
(d) Upon a showing by the Attorney General in an
application for an injunction that any person engaged in the
solicitation or collection of funds for charitable purposes,
either as an individual or as a member of a copartnership, or
as an officer of a corporation or as an agent for some other
person, or copartnership or corporation, has been convicted
in this State or elsewhere of a felony or of a misdemeanor
where such felony or misdemeanor involved the
misappropriation, misapplication or misuse of the money or
property of another, he may enjoin such persons from engaging
in any solicitation or collection of funds for charitable
purposes.
(e) The Attorney General may exercise the authority
granted in this Section against any charitable organization
or person which or who operates under the guise or pretense
of being an organization exempted by the provisions of
Section 3 and is not in fact an organization entitled to such
an exemption.
(f) In any action brought under the provisions of this
Act, the Attorney General is entitled to recover costs for
the use of this State.
(g) Any person who knowingly violates this Section may
be enjoined from such conduct, removed from office, enjoined
from acting for charity and subject to punitive damages as
deemed appropriate by the circuit court.
(h) Any person who violates this Section shall not be
entitled to keep or receive monies, fees, salaries,
commissions or any compensation, as a result of the
solicitations or fund raising campaigns, and at the request
of the Attorney General such monies, fees, salaries,
commissions or any compensation shall be forfeited and
subject to distribution to charitable use as a court of
equity determines.
(i) The Attorney General may publish an annual report of
all charitable organizations based on information contained
in reports filed hereunder stating the amount of money each
organization received through solicitation and the amount of
money which was expended on program service activity and the
percentage of the solicited assets that were expended on
charitable activity.
(j) The Attorney General shall cancel the registration
of any organization, professional fund raiser, or
professional solicitor who violates the provisions of this
Section.
(k) Any person who solicits financial contributions or
the sale of merchandise, goods, services, memberships, or
advertisements in violation of the prohibitions of subsection
(d-1) of Section 11 of this Act, or commits false
personation, use of title, or solicitation as defined by
Section 17-2 of the Criminal Code of 1961 shall, in addition
to any other penalties provided for by law, be subject to
civil remedy by cause of action brought by the Attorney
General or a Public Safety Personnel Organization affected by
the violation.
In addition to equitable relief, a successful claimant or
the Attorney General shall recover damages of triple the
amount collected as a result of solicitations made in
violation of this Act, plus reasonable attorney's fees and
costs.
A plaintiff in any suit filed under this Section shall
serve a copy of all pleadings on the Attorney General and the
State's Attorney for the county in which the suit is filed.
(Source: P.A. 87-755.)
(225 ILCS 460/11) (from Ch. 23, par. 5111)
Sec. 11. (a) No person shall for the purpose of
soliciting contributions from persons in this State, use the
name of any other person, except that of an officer, director
or trustee of the charitable organization by or for which
contributions are solicited, without the written consent of
such other persons.
(b) A person shall be deemed to have used the name of
another person for the purpose of soliciting contributions if
such latter person's name is listed on any stationery,
advertisement, brochure or correspondence in or by which a
contribution is solicited by or on behalf of a charitable
organization or his name is listed or referred to in
connection with a request for a contribution as one who has
contributed to, sponsored or endorsed the charitable
organization or its activities.
(c) Nothing contained in this Section shall prevent the
publication of names of contributors without their written
consents, in an annual or other periodic report issued by a
charitable organization for the purpose of reporting on its
operations and affairs to its membership or for the purpose
of reporting contributions to contributors.
(d) No charitable organization or professional fund
raiser soliciting contributions shall use a name, symbol, or
statement so closely related or similar to that used by
another charitable organization or governmental agency that
the use thereof would tend to confuse or mislead the public.
(d-1) No Public Safety Personnel Organization may by
words in its name or in its solicitations claim to be
representing, acting on behalf of, assisting, or affiliated
with the public safety personnel of a particular municipal,
regional, or other geographical area, unless: (1) 80% or more
of the organization's voting members and trustees are persons
who are actively employed or retired or disabled from
employment within the particular municipal, regional, or
other geographical area stated in the name or solicitation;
(2) all of these members are vested with the right to vote in
the election of the managing or controlling officers of the
organization either directly or through delegates; and (3)
the organization includes in any solicitation the actual
number of active, retired, or disabled police officers, peace
officers, firemen, fire fighters, emergency medical
technicians - ambulance, emergency medical technicians -
intermediate, emergency medical technicians - paramedic,
ambulance drivers, or other medical assistance or first aid
personnel who are members of the organization who are
actively employed, retired, or disabled from employment
within the particular municipal, regional, or other
geographical area referenced in the solicitation.
(d-2) No person or organization may have a name or use a
name using the words "officer", "police", "policeman",
"policemen", "trooper", "sheriff", "law enforcement officer",
"deputy", "chief of police", or similar words therein unless
80% or more of its trustees and voting members are active,
retired, or disabled law enforcement personnel.
(d-3) No person or organization may have a name or use a
name using the words "fireman", "firemen", "fire fighter",
"fire chief", "paramedic", or similar words therein unless
80% or more of its trustees and voting members are active,
retired or disabled fire fighters, firemen, emergency medical
technicians - ambulance, emergency medical technicians -
intermediate, emergency medical technicians - paramedic,
ambulance drivers, or other medical assistance or first aid
personnel.
(d-4) No person by words in a Public Safety Personnel
Organization name or in solicitations made therefor shall
state he or she or his or her organization is assisting or
affiliated with a local, municipal, regional, or other
governmental body or geographical area unless 80% of its
trustees and voting members are active, retired, or disabled
police officers, law enforcement officials, firemen, fire
fighters, emergency medical technicians - ambulance,
emergency medical technicians - intermediate, emergency
medical technicians - paramedic, ambulance drivers, or other
medical assistance or first aid personnel of the local,
municipal, regional, or other geographical area so named or
stated. Nothing in this Act shall prohibit a Public Safety
Personnel Organization from stating the actual number of
members it has in any geographical area.
(e) Any person or organization that who willfully
violates the provisions of this Section is guilty of a Class
A misdemeanor. Any person or organization that willfully
violates the provisions of this Section may in addition to
other remedies be subject to a fine of $2,000 for each
violation, shall be subject to forfeiture of all solicitation
fees, and shall be enjoined from operating as a fund raiser
and soliciting the public for fundraising purposes.
(Source: Laws 1963, p. 2082.)
Section 10. The Criminal Code of 1961 is amended by
changing Section 17-2 as follows:
(720 ILCS 5/17-2) (from Ch. 38, par. 17-2)
Sec. 17-2. False personation; use of title;
solicitation; certain entities. Impersonating Veteran, Member
of Police, Fraternal or Veterans' Organization, or
Representative of Charitable Organization - Use of Words
"Chicago Police" etc. - Sentence.
(a) A person commits a false personation when he or she
falsely represents himself or herself to be a member or
representative of any veterans' or public safety personnel
organization police, fraternal or veteran's organization,
including the Illinois Police Association, or a
representative of any charitable organization, or when any
person exhibits or uses in any manner any decal, badge or
insignia of any charitable, public safety personnel, or
veterans' police organization when not authorized to do so by
the such charitable, public safety personnel, or veterans'
police organization. "Public safety personnel organization"
has the meaning ascribed to that term in Section 1 of the
Solicitation for Charity Act.
(a-5) A person commits a false personation when he or
she falsely represents himself or herself to be a veteran in
seeking employment or public office. In this subsection,
"veteran" means a person who has served in the Armed Services
or Reserved Forces of the United States.
(b) No person shall use the words "Chicago Police,"
"Chicago Police Department," "Chicago Patrolman," "Chicago
Sergeant," "Chicago Lieutenant," "Chicago Peace Officer" or
any other words to the same effect in the title of any
organization, magazine, or other publication without the
express approval of the Chicago Police Board.
(c) (Blank). No person may solicit advertisements to
appear in any firefighters', law enforcement or police
officers' magazine, journal or other publication without
first having obtained a current certificate of qualification
from the Illinois Attorney General. Upon the presentation of
proof that the applicant does in fact represent a legitimate
and bona fide firefighters', law enforcement or police
officers' publication, the Attorney General may issue to the
applicant a certificate of qualification to solicit
advertisements on behalf of such publication. The Attorney
General shall prescribe forms and promulgate rules governing
the making of applications and the certification of persons
under this subsection.
(c-1) No person may claim or represent that he or she is
acting on behalf of any police department, chief of a police
department, fire department, chief of a fire department,
sheriff's department, or sheriff when soliciting financial
contributions or selling or delivering or offering to sell or
deliver any merchandise, goods, services, memberships, or
advertisements unless the chief of the police department,
fire department, and the corporate or municipal authority
thereof, or the sheriff has first entered into a written
agreement with the person or with an organization with which
the person is affiliated and the agreement permits the
activity.
(c-2) No person, when soliciting financial contributions
or selling or delivering or offering to sell or deliver any
merchandise, goods, services, memberships, or advertisements
may claim or represent that he or she is representing or
acting on behalf of any nongovernmental organization by any
name which includes "officer", "peace officer", "police",
"law enforcement", "trooper", "sheriff", "deputy", "deputy
sheriff", "State police", or any other word or words which
would reasonably be understood to imply that the organization
is composed of law enforcement personnel unless the person is
actually representing or acting on behalf of the
nongovernmental organization, and the nongovernmental
organization is controlled by and governed by a membership of
and represents a group or association of active duty peace
officers, retired peace officers, or injured peace officers
and before commencing the solicitation or the sale or the
offers to sell any merchandise, goods, services, memberships,
or advertisements, a written contract between the soliciting
or selling person and the nongovernmental organization has
been entered into.
(c-3) No person may solicit financial contributions or
sell or deliver or offer to sell or deliver any merchandise,
goods, services, memberships, or advertisements on behalf of
a police, sheriff, or other law enforcement department unless
that person is actually representing or acting on behalf of
the department or governmental organization and has entered
into a written contract with the police chief, or head of the
law enforcement department, and the corporate or municipal
authority thereof, or the sheriff, which specifies and states
clearly and fully the purposes for which the proceeds of the
solicitation, contribution, or sale will be used.
(c-4) No person, when soliciting financial contributions
or selling or delivering or offering to sell or deliver any
merchandise, goods, services, memberships, or advertisements,
may claim or represent that he or she is representing or
acting on behalf of any nongovernmental organization by any
name which includes the term "fireman", "fire fighter",
"paramedic", or any other word or words which would
reasonably be understood to imply that the organization is
composed of fire fighter or paramedic personnel unless the
person is actually representing or acting on behalf of the
nongovernmental organization, and the nongovernmental
organization is controlled by and governed by a membership of
and represents a group or association of active duty,
retired, or injured fire fighters (for the purposes of this
Section, "fire fighter" has the meaning ascribed to that term
in Section 2 of the Illinois Fire Protection Training Act) or
active duty, retired, or injured emergency medical
technicians - ambulance, emergency medical technicians -
intermediate, emergency medical technicians - paramedic,
ambulance drivers, or other medical assistance or first aid
personnel, and before commencing the solicitation or the sale
or delivery or the offers to sell or deliver any merchandise,
goods, services, memberships, or advertisements, a written
contract between the soliciting or selling person and the
nongovernmental organization has been entered into.
(c-5) No person may solicit financial contributions or
sell or deliver or offer to sell or deliver any merchandise,
goods, services, memberships, or advertisements on behalf of
a department or departments of fire fighters unless that
person is actually representing or acting on behalf of the
department or departments and has entered into a written
contract with the department chief and corporate or municipal
authority thereof which specifies and states clearly and
fully the purposes for which the proceeds of the
solicitation, contribution, or sale will be used.
(d) Sentence. False personation, unapproved use of a
name or title, or solicitation in violation of subsections
(a), and (b), and (b-1) of this Section is a Class C
misdemeanor. False personation in violation of subsection
(a-5) is a Class A misdemeanor. Engaging in any activity in
violation of subsection (c-1), (c-2), (c-3), (c-4), or (c-5)
of this Section is a Class 4 felony. Solicitation in
violation of subsection (c) of this Section is a Class A
misdemeanor. A second or subsequent conviction for a
violation of subsection (c) of this Section committed after
the first conviction is a Class 4 felony.
(Source: P.A. 89-324, eff. 8-13-95.)
Section 95. Severability. The provisions of this Act
are severable under Section 1.31 of the Statute on Statutes.
Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.
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