IT'S BEEN NEARLY A YEAR since an investigation revealed widespread abuses by charities that use telemarketers to raise money. Yet few people have heard of the study or its results.

In June 2013 the Tampa Tribune published a detailed exposé that began, “The worst charity in America operates from a metal warehouse in Holiday, (Florida). ” The article reported that the Kids Wish Network used telemarketers to raise millions of dollars, ostensibly to help dying children. Only three cents of every dollar actually reached the children.

THE WOMAN SAT on a rolled-out sleeping bag beneath the protective awning of an office building, just barely out of the cold winter rain. Her hair, brown and curly, seemed bouncy in a way that she did not. She was perhaps 30, dressed in jeans and a pretty, if frayed, pink fleece jacket. She might have been a backpacker ready to embark on a weekend camping trip—except that she wasn’t. An array of plastic bottles holding water and GatorAde sat next to her on the sidewalk. As I watched from the window of my dry, warm car, she rooted through a large backpack and pulled out an extra pair of socks.