Remember my post on October 6th, where I questioned whether Media Matters was violating the Maryland Solicitations Act? Here's a recap. I found out that Media Matters was listed as a non-profit with the State of Maryland. The results of my search contained a disclaimer saying that they have not completed all their necessary registration requirements. According to their statutes, Media Matters cannot solicit citizens in Maryland until such requirements have been met. I proposed the following questions.

This raises some important questions.

1) Is Media Matters in violation of the law if it solicits and receives donations in the State of Maryland?

2) Are Media Matters emails to citizens in Maryland that request donations considered a violation of the Maryland Solicitation Act? Media Matters sends weekly summary emails (I have seen a copy of such emails.) to those who register on their website. At the end of these emails (Note: The email address listed below is a substitute for a legitimate email address.), they include the following:

This mail was sent by Media Matters for America to 'johndoe@emailaddress.com'. Please visit us at http://mediamatters.org/
You can help support our work; become a volunteer media monitor, or donate to Media Matters for America.

The "donate" link takes you directly
to their website page where you can contribute.

3) If they are not in full compliance, is the SOS of Maryland obligated to investigate any possible violations?

Last week, I emailed the Maryland Secretary of State's office responsible for investigating questions about charity registration. An investigator of that agency responded to my questions today. The following is the content of the email correspondence I had with the investigator.

My email to them verbatim:

To who it may concern:

I am inquiring about a particular charity and its compliance with your state laws.

I did a search for Media Matters for America and discovered this 501(c)(3) organization has applied to register under the Maryland Solicitation Act, but they have not submitted all the paperwork necessary to be in full compliance.

1) Could you please tell me what documents you require for them to be able to accept donations?

2) Could you please tell me if this organization is in violation of the Maryland Solicitations Act if they are soliciting for donations via email to citizens who reside in the State of Maryland?

3) Could you please tell me how your agency handles situations such as this, if the organization is in violation of the act?

Thank you in advance for your assisance with this matter.

CB

Here is the verbatim response from the MD SOS.

The organization needs to submit their board of directors list with alternative business addresses in order to complete registration with our office. An organization should not be soliciting without first completing its initial registration. Solicitations for charitable contributions sent via email to Maryland residents count as soliciting charitable contributions in the State of Maryland.

I cannot say for sure what exactly we would do with the organization if it were in violation of the Maryland Solicitations Act. It depends on the situation and all facts involved. We would want to solve whatever the problem may be though.

Michael P. Schlein
Investigator
Office of the Secretary of State
State House
Annapolis, MD 21401

So, it appears that Media Matters INDEED may be in violation of the Maryland Solicitations Act. Until they submit the appropriate documents mentioned above, they would be violating the MD law by sending emails to citizens of Maryland which contain solicitations from the recipient. It seems that way, unless they are sending a completely different email newsletter to citizens in Maryland, which I'm sure they would be able to prove. Right?