How a Charity Fundraiser Kept 99.72% of Donations For Themselves

More than 84,700 Americans thought they were helping to save lives by donating their old cars. They responded to emotional ads promising their vehicle donation would fund free breast cancer screenings. Between 2017 and 2022, this generated over $45.5 million.

But a recent legal complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from across the country alleges this was a carefully constructed deception. Of the millions raised by the for-profit fundraiser Kars-R-Us.com, Inc., a pro rata calculation shows a mere 0.28% (just $126,815) actually went toward providing breast cancer screenings. The rest was largely consumed by the fundraising machine itself.

Anatomy of the Scheme

A federal court filing lays out the mechanics of the operation, alleging a years-long pattern of misrepresentation designed to maximize revenue with little regard for the truth.

• The Pitch: Kars-R-Us, run by co-owners Michael Irwin and Lisa Frank, blanketed national and local TV and radio networks (including Univision, Telemundo, CBS, and Fox) with ads in both English and Spanish. The message was direct: donate your car to the United Breast Cancer Foundation (UBCF) to “save a life” and “help pay for all the exams”.
• The Financial Split: The vast majority of proceeds never reached the charity. From 2017 to 2022, of the $45.5 million Kars-R-Us raised on behalf of UBCF, $34.9 million was paid to Kars-R-Us and its vendors. Irwin and Frank personally pocketed more than $4 million from the operation. Contracts stipulated that the charity, UBCF, would receive only 10-20% of the funds raised.
• The Willful Blindness: According to the complaint, the defendants knew or should have known their claims were deceptive. Publicly available IRS Form 990s for UBCF consistently showed minuscule spending on breast screenings. For example, in 2022, UBCF raised over $57 million in total revenue but spent only $70,029 (about 0.12%) on its breast screening program.
• The Ignored Warnings: The complaint alleges the defendants disregarded numerous red flags. These included media reports dating back to 2013 identifying UBCF as one of the nation’s “50 worst charities” , an “F” rating from Charity Watch , and a 2021 FTC lawsuit against a different fundraiser making similar deceptive claims for UBCF.
• The Profit Motive: When UBCF’s own CEO informed defendant Michael Irwin in a March 2021 email that a specific ad’s claim that a “free exam…saved her life” had no exact testimonial to back it up, Irwin insisted on continuing to run it. The reason, according to the filing? The ad generated “well in excess of $100,000 every month”. Irwin allegedly told UBCF’s CEO in 2019 that “he just needs the [breast cancer] disease to make money”.

A System Betrayed

The impact of this alleged scheme ripples far beyond the individual donors. It strikes at the core of the public’s trust in charitable giving and exposes a critical vulnerability in the system.

The Financial Diversion

The primary consequence at play here was a massive redirection of charitable funds away from the intended cause and into the pockets of a for-profit fundraiser. While donors believed they were funding medical services, they were instead bankrolling a lucrative business that returned only 10-20 cents on the dollar to its charity client.

This financial loss is twofold: donors’ contributions were wasted, and legitimate charitable vehicle donation programs lost the opportunity to receive those funds and put them to actual use.

The Erosion of Trust

The scammy operation capitalized on the public’s desire to help those affected by a devastating disease. By allegedly creating a façade of life-saving work, the defendants not only deceived donors but also damaged the credibility of the charitable sector as a whole. When a fundraising campaign for a cancer charity is exposed as a revenue-generating machine for its operators, it creates cynicism that can suppress donations to the many legitimate organizations that rely on public generosity.

Accountability on Trial

The official response is the lawsuit filed jointly by the FTC and 18 states, which seeks to permanently halt the defendants’ deceptive practices and force them to return their ill-gotten gains. But the case reveals a deeper systemic issue. For-profit fundraisers can operate as middlemen with a primary incentive to maximize their own revenue, not the charity’s impact.

The FTC states that even after learning of the investigation, Kars R Us did “little to nothing to improve their charity vetting practices” and continue to focus on claims that generate high returns rather than their accuracy.

Meaningful accountability would require more than just punishing these specific actors; it demands a critical look at a system that allows professional fundraisers to retain up to 90% of charitable donations while making unsubstantiated, life-or-death promises to the public.

The FTC has a press release about this fake fundraising scam: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/09/ftc-19-states-act-stop-deceptive-cancer-charity-fundraising-scheme