New York State charities that hired telemarketing firms for fund raising last year received less than 40 percent of the money collected, The Buffalo News reports, citing a new study by the state Attorney General’s office.

On average, nonprofit organizations that used professional telemarketers got 39.5 cents of every dollar raised, with the contractors keeping the remainder, according to the report issued November 16 by the state’s attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo. Charities received less than 30 percent of the total in half of all campaigns.