This being the season of compassion, charitable organizations are out in full cry, making their annual pitches for deserving causes of one kind or another. Rare is the mailbox (or telephone) that doesn't produce at least one plea for money each day.
If you're wondering how to respond to these requests, here's some unsolicited advice: Be generous, but be smart - and selective - about where your check for $10 or $50 or $100 goes."Americans are starting to realize," says the American Institute of Philanthropy, "that many charities are not spending enough of their contributions on real charitable programs.
"Some charities spend as much as 99 percent of your donation on fund-raising and general administration. Misleading mail, telemarketing and financial reports often hide the real story."
The institute, headed by Daniel Borochoff, an authority on accounting gimmicks, has published a rating guide on 300 popular charities, covering everything from cancer and gun control to hunger, homelessness and alcohol abuse.
"You have a right to know how a charity spends your money," he says. His rating guide is available by sending a check for $3 to the AIP at 4579 Laclede Ave., Suite K3, St. Louis, Mo. 63108.
Included in the guide is a list of the 10 "least neediest charities," those that continue to pursue donors, even though they already have enough money to operate for years.
Available without charge are tips on how to deal with charity telemarketers. Send a stamped, self-addressed business-size envelope to Holiday Giving, Council of Better Business Bureaus, 4200 Wilson Blvd., Suite 800, Arlington, Va. 22203.
Vigilance is necessary because charitable giving is a major industry, with contributions to worthy and not-so-worthy causes of well over $100 billion a year.
Surveys show that donors are increasingly skeptical about charities that pay fat salaries to their chief executives, hire professional fund-raisers and claim to be doing great things for humanity.
So many charities are soliciting money that fund-raising groups, including the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy, have issued a donor bill of rights requiring that financial statements be easily available and that potential donors be given "prompt, truthful and forthright answers" to the questions they ask.
Americans, even those with modest incomes, tend to be generous givers to charity, but that can change in a hurry if donors think someone is taking advantage of them.
Contributions to United Way campaigns declined last year after a series of stories about national president William Aramony, who earned $463,000 a year in salary and other compensation and had a luxurious lifestyle that included expensive travel allowances and access to condominiums in New York and Miami before he was ousted.
"People were very upset about that," says Robert Bothwell, who runs the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.