Would you buy air time to collect money for a good cause [details inside]?

I saw an ‘ad’ this evening in which they asked to donate money for a judicial battle they are (or want to) having to get a decisive answer about whether the doctors were in the wrong about a young boy’s cause of death.
It sounded as though they are a small, private organisation (not a Red Cross, or RSPCA, etc.).
Obviously, to buy time in the ads must be expensive, and it aired on a relatively small channel (Discovery Channel, which isn’t small really, but they don’t have high numbers of viewers, as compared to the public and private channels here).
Thus, I can not imagine that they will collect much money, keeping in mind the costs for the ad (time).
Wouldn’t it be better to keep the money that you have in your pockets and find other ways of collecting? maybe they do that too, but still wouldn’t it be wiser?
Does anybody know how fund raising (on television, for small private causes) works?