There are MANY Americans living at home with Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias, as well as younger folks who are mentally impaired. I have Always suspected that THEY were the ones getting Fleeced.
I know that You are a Good person, and am sorry you were involved in this.
]]>REMEMBER: Ignoring Robocalls, while sometimes necessary, gets us Nowhere! They make MILLIONS of calls daily, and if even 1% pick up and 1% of Those Donate (sounds about right) they make Money!
On the one hand, using Filipinos Does decrease their overhead, but it does NOT employ Native Americans, and if they steal most of the money anyhow, why GIVE??
]]>When I first was employed with National Relief Charities, I was so excited to help out with fund-raising for Native Americans. I have a personal interest as my relative is Native American and was raised on one of the reservations that this company claims to assist. That reservation is Pine Ridge in South Dakota.
In training, they have us read different spiels for the different organizations they are incorporated. National Relief Charities is an umbrella company and there are twelve other company names under that one umbrella-yet they are all one in the same organization.
Since this is a telemarketing/fundraising organization, we are paid a salary as well as bonuses ( extra pay, a free microwave, a free trip, a day off from work), based on how much money we can raise that day. We are expected to raise $1,000.00 a day. (one thousand U.S. dollars a day) Now, that might sound a bit much, but to raise $600.00 a day for anyone was normal, and I’m not much of a sales person.
I found some of these spiels really far-fetched. I’ve been to Pine Ridge reservation myself and I know that these Native Americans do not have to walk 1/4 mile to get drinking water. But THAT was one thing that we were taught to say in order to get that extra $10.00 to provide water bottles to the Native Americans to drink! Whether the Native Americans actually got the water bottles, I do not know.
Also, their spiel for the ‘diabetic Native Americans’ package in order to provide lotions and a care package for them specifically. Again, one of the many umbrella organizations under the one corporation of National Relief Charities. It sounded a bit outlandish to prey on the Native Americans who suffered with diabetes, but it would have been an excellent gift if in fact it were given again, I do not know. There were NEVER any videos shown to us employees of these deliveries of care packages or groceries or animal care or back packs for the poor school children…etc. Perhaps NRC should take yearly videos of exactly what they do with their multitudes of millions of dollars we have earned their organization and share it with the world.
When I topped my first $1,000.00 my boss congratulated me and feeling proud of that accomplishment, I went into the break room only to be let down by two women who laughed and said, “You don’t actually think National Relief Charities has a mobile van that goes out and rescues ‘abandoned’ animals on the reservations do you??” I was dumbfounded. I thought, these two women have been working (scamming) for this company for two years and were quite successful at fund raising and here they are mocking the very thing they work earnestly for; and saying it’s all a scam. Where is their conscience?? What am I doing? That was my question. Am I a scammer too? I want to see proof of this mobile rescue van, I want to know exactly how they rescue these poor abandoned animals that NRC claims are on the reservation and they rescue and adopt out. I want to know who or where these animals are sheltered until NRC adopts them out. Now I’m at loss, because I wonder about the old woman that just gave the organization $500.00 and when I read the spiel about how scared they are and if she would give more money for a new blanket for the ‘abandoned’ dog and for a toy to comfort them, she gave another $100.00 from her credit card. $600.00 she gave thinking it’s to help out an abandoned dog, I love dogs and would have wanted to help out also if I was on that end of the phone…but the laughs of my co-workers who mocked saying “Do you really think NRC has a mobile van that goes to reservations and rescues dogs?” haunts me. Even to this day. I can’t call the woman back because NRC has inbound calling only, so we don’t have a phone number to the donors. On an average, we take 700 phone calls.
I was sad, disheartened. All this manipulation for what? Who’s getting the $15-$20 million dollars a year anyways? Is this really all a scam? What about all the millions of dollars their 500 employees in Manila, in the Philippines is making? This Sherman. Texas office has only 35 employees and a couple of them are part time yet we are making over $15 million a year! Where is all the money really going? And do the Native Americans know what kind of things we are saying to their discredit to earn all these millions of dollars?
Out of curiosity, I asked my manager one day when she came by to check on my lower than usual income that I was making. I asked her, “Why doesn’t National Relief Charities employee the Native Americans that live on the reservations to do this fundraising? And added, you would be giving opportunity to many who do in fact no have transportation into the bigger cities for a job?” She was dismayed, and said, “That’s not possible.” I said, “National Relief Charities might even have an office that would be free to run with no overhead if it’s on the reservation.” She didn’t want to hear anymore and walked away. Of course, she would lose her job if that ever happened, and what Proud Native American would lie and use deception to get money from innocent heartfelt people?
That’s another thing about this evil company, and if anyone declares that my using the word ‘evil’ to describe the nature of this company, then with tears in my eyes right now, I challenge them to PROVE ME WRONG on this! National Relief Charities again is one of many different companies under different names. They bombard people with tons of mailings every month, acting as though they are all very different companies. Of course, as an employee, we are not to indulge the receivers; our donors, that they are in fact giving to the same organization. But, getting back to my pint of how I can now call this organization, NRC, ‘evil’ is because of this. National Relief Charities has the employees to call those people who have donated to them in the past. Mainly, these people that I have personally called were between the ages of 80 to 100 years of age! THAT is NRC’s primary donors. Many of these people are so old we had to shout on the phone just to get them to hear us because they were hard of hearing. Some seem to have mental disorders and would go with our coaxing to give spiel, some were not there at all mentally so we would send the brochures, one lady who gave me her credit card number began crying on the phone because our spiel of how hard those poor Indians have it on the forgotten reservations! We are told to share how the Native Americans have no money, no food, and a box of corn flakes cost $12.00 on the reservation! My co-worker shared in the break room how she spoke to an elderly man who asked if we could send his money back because he had spent $1,200.00 on National Relief Charities and now he was getting evicted and has to go live with his brother!
THAT is why I call National Relief Charities EVIL. They do not take into account how these elderly 80-100 year old “victims” donors are doing when many live off of a small social security check every month and suffer the consequences of National Relief Charities GREED!!! Lord help me! But this ha been boiling up inside me for some time and it breaks my heart to know how many elderly people NRC (National Relief Charities has taken advantage of and for the 20 or so years that this government has allowed it to stay in business SCAMMING people daily! And their office in Manila Philippines who employees 500 people who make cold calls to the USA and wherever else, I do not know, to take into their lair a new group of victims to ensnare in their greed! And why doesn’t the Sherman, Texas National Relief Charities indulge us with how many millions of dollars that their affiliate office makes each year; considering they are contacting U.S. citizens who are giving to this operation. If our 35 employees; some which were part time could raise $15-$20 million a year I can only imagine how many millions of dollars that their Philippines office is making a year! And for over 20 years??
Think of that if this company has been in business for over 20 years, and we can figure-if the income’s not been posted, how many millions they have made, why it must be at least a billion dollars! You should also know that when I was employed with this organization, they told me they NEVER bought food for the Native Americans. They always had big corporations like Kraft or Del Monte…etc, provide the food and National Relief Charities provided a truck to haul the goods. Now, where’s all the money going?? Is the supposed dog supplies or children’s backpacks paid for by National Relief Charities, another branch of the dozen they umbrella; or do corporations provide these things for free also and NRC just deliver them too? But my doubt goes back to my relative stating that in the years of working directly on the reservations and one relative living on one reservation, that neither of my relatives have ever heard of NRC or any such charity. I also am affected by the statement that my manager told me was that none of the Native Americans pictures that they use in their brochures have their real names listed. Now, that may be for personal reasons, but to me personally, if a person has a statement to share of the good of a company, then why not be legitimate and referrance their real name??
Another of my relatives worked directly with both the Red Bud and Pine Ridge reservations, in fact worked right there on these reservations for years.
After a few weeks as an employee of National Relief Charities, I decided to contact this relative and question whether they were familiar with this company who claims to help out these two reservations as they claim. My relative who is quite familiar with the Red Bud and Pine Ridge reservations said they had NEVER heard of them before; even though the company claims to have a ‘soup kitchen’ right on the reservation!
]]>WARNING!!
High pressure donation solicitation; very desperate and usually they do not transmit their calling ID.
Caller: American Indian Relief Council Call Type: Non-profit Organization
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