§ 24 — Registration by professional fund-raising counsel, commercial co-venturer, or professional solicitor; annual financial report

Section 24. (a) No person shall act as a professional fund-raising counsel, commercial co-venturer or professional solicitor for a charitable organization required to have a certificate of registration pursuant to the provisions of section nineteen, unless first having registered with the division. Applications for such registration shall be in writing under oath in the form prescribed by the division and shall contain such information as the division may require. The application for registration by a professional solicitor, professional fund-raising counsel or commercial co-venturer shall be accompanied by an annual fee as follows: (i) professional solicitor, $1,000; (ii) professional fundraising counsel, $400; (iii) commercial co-venturer, $200. A partnership or corporation which is a professional fund-raising counsel, commercial co-venturer or professional solicitor may register for and pay a single fee on behalf of all its members, officers, agents and employees. (b) Commercial co-venturers and professional solicitors shall, at the time of making application, file with and have approved by the division a bond in which the applicant shall be the principal obligor in the sum of $25,000 with one or more sureties satisfactory to the division whose liability in the aggregate shall at least equal said sum. Said bond shall run to the division for the use of the commonwealth and to any charitable organization which may have a cause of action against the obligor of said bond for any malfeasance or misfeasance in the conduct of solicitation activities. A partnership or corporation which is a commercial co-venturer or professional solicitor may file a consolidated bond on behalf of all its members, officers and employees. The aggregate liability of the surety for all breaches of the conditions of the bond shall, in no event, exceed the sum of said bond. A professional solicitor shall conduct solicitations only by or through persons who are covered (i) by a consolidated bond under which the professional solicitor is the principal obligor, or (ii) by a bond under which the person is both the principal obligor and independently registered with the division as a professional solicitor under clause (a). (c) For each calendar year, commercial co-venturers and professional solicitors shall file with the division on a form prescribed by the division a financial report stating, for each contract or agreement with a charitable organization, the name of the charitable organization, the gross receipts collected pursuant to that contract or agreement, the amounts paid to the charitable organization to be utilized exclusively for the charitable purposes described in the solicitation, the amounts paid to the commercial co-venturer and the professional solicitor; all additional expenses not otherwise stated; and such other information as the director may require. This report shall be co-signed by representatives of the charitable organizations for whom solicitation was conducted. (d) Each completed registration shall be valid for a period of one calendar year or a part thereof and may be renewed for additional one-year periods upon written application under oath in the form prescribed by the division and containing such information as it may require, the filing of all contracts or agreements as required by section twenty-two, the bond, where applicable, and the fee prescribed by this section.