Consumer Watch: Charity Starts at Your Home PC

Watchdog Web sites can help you make the most of your charitable donations.

Anne Kandra is a contributing editor for PC World. You can send her e-mail at consumerwatch@pcworld.com. To read previously published Consumer Watch columns, click here.

When hurricanes Katrina and Rita churned through the central Gulf Coast states this past fall, people responded quickly and generously: Within days, the Red Cross and other relief agencies had received millions of dollars in donations, many of them made through the charities' Web sites.

But disasters like Katrina, last winter's tsunami in Asia, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks attract pernicious and opportunistic criminals who exploit tragedy to harvest cash and identities by creating Web sites that look like legitimate charities and sending emotional e-mail messages as they phish for victims.

If you exercise some caution, though, these crooks shouldn't scare you away from using the Internet to donate funds when disaster strikes or to contribute regularly to an ongoing cause that you support. Here are some online resources and tips to help you find legitimate and effective charities, and avoid getting scammed.

Choosing a Charity

Suppose you're interested in supporting a specific cause, such as helping hurricane victims build new homes. Or maybe you want to contribute in the name of a friend or relative--to the local animal shelter, say, on behalf of your aunt who takes in stray cats. How do you home in on which nonprofits best fit the bill?

A good place to start your research is at Charity Navigator, an easy-to-use site with detailed information on more than 4200 nonprofit charitable organizations in the United States. Charity Navigator gives charities star ratings based on how well their financial performance compares to ideal practices, as determined by philanthropy experts (four stars is best). You can search for charities by name, location, category (for example, animals or human services), scope (local, national, or international), or star rating, among other criteria.

Depending on the cause, your search could turn up dozens of candidates. But not all charities play by the same rules. Some spend more on overhead and administration than on actually helping the needy. If you're responding to a particular disaster, check to see whether you can target your contribution to that cause.

If you find a star rating too general an assessment, Charity Navigator also offers detailed figures on each charity's revenue, expenses, and operating efficiencies, as well as peer comparisons (matching the organization against similar nonprofit agencies), the charity's size as measured by its total expenses, and even the CEO's salary.

Interested in delving even more deeply into a charity's financials? GuideStar maintains lists of all nonprofit charities currently registered in the United States, together with PDFs of their annual IRS 990 tax returns (required of all nonreligious nonprofit organizations in the United States). You'll need to register (it's free) to see some of Guidestar's data.

Before donating, spend some time at a charity's Web site and learn as much as you can about it, just as you would at an online store.

Bad Guys in Disguise

Start by double-checking the charity's name: Fraudsters are known to create copycat sites with names that closely mirror legitimate ones, such as Heart Association of America instead of American Heart Association. Phishing is a problem for legitimate charities: Scammers set up sites to look like those of legitimate charities, and then steal visitors' personal data and credit card numbers.

The best defense against these crooks is to recognize their tactics. Beware of e-mail messages from charities you've never heard of, especially if they contain urgent-sounding pleas for money. Don't enter a site via an e-mail link; instead, type the URL yourself, or link to it from a trusted site like Charity Navigator. Don't share any personal information, much less a credit card number, with any group until you've checked it out at Guidestar or another watchdog site. If you suspect a scam attempt, you can file a report at the FTC's Web site.

While you're exploring a charity's site, look for a concise mission statement describing the organization's goals and principles, as well as for specific information on how it strives to meet those goals. You should also be able to find regular updates about work the group has done, demonstrating to donors that their contributions are being put to worthwhile use.

Make sure that the site lists contact information, including a physical address, a phone number, and an e-mail address. It's a good idea to contact the organization directly, if only to confirm that the addresses aren't bogus. Any organization that accepts donations, financial or otherwise, should be responsive to questions or requests for more information. If the site accepts online donations, make sure it uses encryption (look for the closed-lock icon or for "https" in the site's URL).

Check Privacy Policy

Finally, look for a privacy statement posted on the site. If you don't find one, call or e-mail to ask who's collecting your personal information and how it will be used. Though most charities share their donor lists with other nonprofits, they should offer you the chance to opt out.

Any charity listed in Guidestar is likely to be legitimate. For confirmation, check the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance site, which posts reports on individual charities, news and alerts of reported scams, complaint forms, and a wealth of tips and advice for donors.

Of course, if you really want to play it safe--and take advantage of some convenient features while you're at it--you can donate to a specific charity through a third-party site such as Network for Good. This site has data on hundreds of charities, helps direct you to the most reputable ones in areas of interest to you, and lets you donate securely in just a few clicks.

Network for Good offers a vast collection of tips and resources, too, including tax information, calculators for figuring out appropriate donation amounts, personal profiles for setting up lists of your favorite charities and sharing them with friends and family, plus donation histories to keep track of your contributions, recurring donations, and more. (Charity Navigator has a similar set of features.)

You can use the site to find volunteer opportunities in your area, send gift baskets with contributions, and link to additional resources such as Mycause.com and Greatergood.com--shopping sites that contribute a percentage of each transaction to the charity of your choice.

Giving online is a quick, efficient way to help others in need. Follow our guidelines to ensure that your contribution gets to its intended destination properly.