Links to Live By When Giving

Online web offers information that helps avoid scams and select best charities

John Batteiger / SF Chronicle 10jun01

It has taken several years for consumers to get comfortable with e- commerce. The new frontier is e-charity. Philanthropic Web sites today occupy a little-known corner of the Internet, but they are steadily growing in number and importance. If a secure Internet connection is safe enough to pay a bill or buy a CD, why not use it to make a donation to the charity of your choice?

Go online to evaluate a charity's mission and its financial statement. Look for a new charity. Donate money or donate time, all with a few mouse and keyboard clicks.

Most importantly, though, use the Internet to make sure you're not getting scammed. Give, but give wisely.

www.give.org

Give.org is the online home of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, formed in March by the merger of two respected watchdog groups: the National Charities Information Bureau and the Philanthropic Advisory Service of the Council of Better Business Bureaus Foundation.

Give.org provides summaries of 166 national charitable organizations. The list includes familiar names such as the American Red Cross, Easter Seals and Habitat for Humanity. Some smaller groups are on the list, too, including San Francisco's Ecobridge and Covenant House of New York.

Organizations are evaluated according to 23 accountability standards, and the Wise Giving Alliance is quick to note that it doesn't endorse any of the organizations on its list. In fact, more than a few fail to meet all 23 standards.

Ten years ago, the information on this site would have been inaccessible to all but the most determined consumer advocate. Give.org makes it easy to find - - and it's free.

Individual reports list an organization's program, management (including the salary of its chief executive), fund-raising methods, tax status and financial reports.

www.unitedway.org

The organization that pioneered workplace charitable giving is on the Web as well. Enter your home ZIP code and you're automatically linked to your local United Way site, where you can make a donation online (with a credit card via a secure connection) and read about the agencies your money supports.

www.guidestar.org

Looking for background information on a nonprofit organization, or a selection of agencies working for a common cause? GuideStar is a mammoth database of more than 700,000 tax-exempt, nonprofit agencies in the United States. Information on this site comes from the forms that agencies file with the Internal Revenue Service. None of the agencies is evaluated, as on the Give.org site, but the financial and management information culled from the IRS forms provides a solid basis of facts, not hype.

Searching is simple and fast. Type the name of an organization for a quick search, or click on the Advanced Search button to search by topic, keyword or locality.

GuideStar itself is operated by a nonprofit agency, and the Web site is free of advertising or solicitations. Its purpose, as stated on the site, is to promote philanthropy. The Web, it says, "is the most efficient and cost- effective means for disseminating this quantity of information."

www.volunteermatch.org

VolunteerMatch uses the power of the Internet to help people nationwide find volunteer opportunities posted by local nonprofit organizations and public agencies. Click into VolunteerMatch's online database to search thousands of one-time and continuing opportunities by ZIP code, category and date, then sign up automatically by e-mail. The site claims to have made more than 426,000 volunteer-agency matches.

VolunteerMatch is a project of ImpactOnline Inc., a nonprofit organization working to develop public-interest Internet applications.

www.helping.org

Helping.org combines the GuideStar and VolunteerMatch databases mentioned above for an all-in-one site that allows you to help charitable agencies in several ways, such as donating money online or signing up to volunteer time or services at a local organization.

Helping.org is a nonprofit agency and doesn't charge for its service. All donations are completed through a secure server, and donor information is used only to complete the transaction. Donations made through Helping.org are fully tax deductible because every charity in its database qualifies under IRS rules for tax deductions.

www.ncrp.org/interest/links.htm

The nonprofit National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy promotes charitable giving that benefits low-income communities, people of color, gay, lesbian and transgender populations, and other groups facing discrimination. Its links page connects to dozens of smaller charities that don't get as much attention as the bigger organizations.

www.ftc.gov/conline/edcams/giving/index.html

Here's a simple and direct page from the Federal Trade Commission's Web site with 10 tips to consider before giving in to a solicitation for money. Among them: Ask for written information. Ask for identification. Watch out for similar-sounding names. Be skeptical if someone thanks you for a pledge you don't remember making. Be cautious of charities that offer to send a courier for your donation.

www.ftc.gov/bcb/conline/pubs/alerts/badgealt.htm

The FTC posted this page as a consumer alert in response to numerous complaints about scam solicitations from people claiming to represent public safety organizations. Remember: Simply having the words "police" or "firefighter" in an organization's name doesn't mean police or firefighters are members of the group or benefit from a charitable donation.

www.charitywatch.org

The American Institute of Philanthropy is a watchdog service that evaluates about 400 major U.S. charities and gives each a grade of A+ to F. More than 100 of the top-rated organizations are listed on the AIP Web site, but for complete information you have to pay $35 per year for a quarterly Charity Rating Guide. A sample copy is available by mail for $3.

www.irs.ustreas.gov/bus_info/eo/eosearch.html

Want to find out if a charitable organization is exempt from federal taxes and how much of your contribution is tax deductible? This page is an electronic version of an IRS publication and can be viewed in its entirety or searched by an organization's name.

http://dir.yahoo.com/society_and_culture/issues_and_causes/philanthropy/

No list of web links can match the raw database power of an Internet search engine. Check out the variety of links in the Philanthropy section of Yahoo's Web site -- all 1,742 of them. Subcategories include Community Service and Volunteerism (844 links), Corporate (54), Nonprofit Resources (185), Organizations (592) and Online Charity and Fundraising Malls (27).

Online charity malls? A new frontier, indeed.