On 2/20/2013 8:44 AM, James Silverton wrote:
> On 2/20/2013 7:26 AM, Nancy Young wrote:
>> On 2/19/2013 9:54 PM, Dave Smith wrote:
>>
>>> I must be jaded but I think that most of it has become about making
>>> money for the companies contracted to do the fund raising than about
>>> raising money for the charity.
>>
>> That's not jaded, that's a fact. The fund raising companies can legally
>> keep just about the whole amount. You have to donate directly to the
>> charity if you want to make sure you're not paying some scammy business.

> There is an organization called Charity Watch that tracks the amount
> that actually goes to the real work of charities and publishes the
> results in a newsletter three times a year. I think the survey is quite
> reliable. An interesting thing is that putative Native American
> charities are a class that often get bad marks.

It's important to check that, too. But what I'm talking about,
the money never gets TO the charity. Those fundraising companies
keep the lion's share, and the charities know about it. They're
just happy they get anything without having to work for it.

nancy