The National Do Not Call Registry (NDNCR) prevents the vast majority of telemarketers from contacting the people who register their phone number with the NDNCR. However, with that said, not all organizations are included on the NDNCR block list. This includes companies with which you have an existing business relationship, as well as charities, religious groups, polls, and politicians.

Although most people may not consider a charity call or survey different than a normal telemarketing call, the Do Not Call Registry does see the difference. Federal telemarketing laws do not cover nonprofits because survey researchers and companies that make customer service calls do not sell a product or service or request a contribution.

Even though these specific organizations are exempt from the National Registry, you can still try to get them to stop calling you by requesting that they put you on their internal do-not-call list. Unfortunately, since these nonprofits are exempt from the NDNCR, they are not required to maintain an internal or organization-specific no-call list.

So if a charity ignores your request and calls you back, there’s really nothing you can do about it. The best way to avoid the call would be to simply ignore the call when the number shows up on the caller ID. However, you should still request to be included on their uncalled list, as most nonprofits will keep one to be courteous.

However, it is important to note that if a non-profit organization attempts to contact you through a for-profit marketer, it must maintain an internal do-not-call list to which you can request that your phone number be added. However, while they must have the company-specific do-not-call list, they are still exempt from the National Registry and can call you until you specifically ask them not to.

Even though you can’t file a complaint with the Do Not Call Registry when nonprofits call you, you can still prevent telemarketers from complaining in their own way to others who share your frustrations.