Zeal TN Inc. presents itself as a purpose-driven company that connects young job seekers with meaningful nonprofit work, but recent reporting reveals a disconnect between this messaging and its actual business model. The company recruits aggressively for entry-level roles, often advertised under vague, service-oriented titles, and then places hires into high-pressure, commission-based fundraising jobs for charities. While the work is framed as advocacy or mission-driven outreach, much of it involves street-level canvassing and sales tactics that critics argue exploit workers’ desire to do good.
Former employees and labor advocates describe Zeal TN Inc. as part of a broader “Devilcorp” network—firms that use the nonprofit label to mask high turnover, poor labor conditions, and opaque management structures. These organizations often serve as third-party fundraising contractors for nonprofits, raising ethical concerns about how donor dollars are spent and how fundraising labor is treated. The blurred line between nonprofit impact and sales-driven incentives raises questions about accountability, both for the firms and the nonprofits that contract with them.
Nashville Scene contacted CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, for comment on how some for-profit fundraisers may exploit workers while also preying on the generosity of unsuspecting donors.
“‘It is, unfortunately, extremely common for for-profit professional fundraising companies to keep the majority of the donations they raise on behalf of their charity clients,’ says Laurie Styron, CEO and executive director of CharityWatch, an independent charity watchdog.”
“When people donate in response to a telemarketing call or a direct mail letter, they run a high risk of wasting most of their donations on middleman fundraisers.”
“Styron says donors should avoid high-pressure tactics that promote impulsive giving. ‘Donating in response to a telemarketing call or direct mail letter is a no-go if you value your privacy and want your donation actually to accomplish something.’”
“Charities and their fundraisers often rent, sell, exchange or share their donor lists. Styron therefore advises checking a charity’s privacy policy before donating to avoid receiving an avalanche of fundraising letters and telemarketing calls after making a single donation to one organization.”
“‘Donate directly to a charity versus through a middleman company if you want to avoid a big chunk of your donation going to a for-profit company,’ she says.”
Whether conducted via in-person canvassing, telemarketing calls, or with direct mail letters, exploitative fundraising practices in the nonprofit sector are a long-standing issue, with deceptive fundraising firms often pocketing the vast majority of donor contributions while giving only a small fraction to the charities they claim to support. These schemes typically involve for-profit fundraising companies who sign contracts with nonprofit organizations and then use high-pressure tactics to solicit donations from the public, sometimes misrepresenting how the funds will be used. The issue has drawn increasing scrutiny from regulators due to its potential to erode public trust in charitable giving.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general have taken action against several such operations over the years. In 2015, the FTC and regulators from all 50 states filed charges against four cancer charities, including Cancer Fund of America, and Breast Cancer Society, alleging they misled donors and spent as little as 3% of donations on actual charitable programs. In another case, Associated Community Services (ACS), a major fundraising company, was permanently banned from charitable solicitation in a 2021 FTC settlement after being accused of deceptive practices and funneling donations into exorbitant fees.
Another recent example involves Richard L. Zeitlin, a Las Vegas–based professional fundraiser who pled guilty in September 2024 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud after raising funds for causes like veterans, breast cancer, and missing children, then keeping up to 90% of donations in fees. In December 2024, he was sentenced to 10 years (121 months) in prison.
These enforcement efforts underscore how vulnerable the nonprofit sector can be to manipulation when oversight is weak and fundraising is outsourced to firms motivated more by commissions than causes.
CharityWatch CEO, Laurie Styron, has long warned donors of how for-profit telemarketers that raise money for charities often thrive without technically breaking laws. As Styron put it to The New York Times:
“It’s actually so easy to conduct highly exploitative and harmful activities as a charity fund‑raiser, without breaking the law at all… They were free to mislead callers by implication…” This highlights how for-profit fundraising companies exploiting generosity for profit remains alarmingly common and often underregulated.
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