Neil Winget: Feel charitable, not vulnerable when giving

As we approach Thanksgiving and the holiday season, you will be receiving more and more solicitations from real charities and bogus ones. How to give, when and to who are questions you need to ask now before the deluge starts.

You should always temper your enthusiasm to help your fellow man with caution and more than a little skepticism, especially when it comes to direct mail or telephone solicitations. Charitable organizations, and other organizations for that matter, will and do trade or sell lists of their donors or customers. This is a common practice, and it is legal. People who are generous givers and perhaps non-discriminatory could find themselves buried under an avalanche of mail, all asking for a donation.

If you are the kind of person who finds it hard to say “no,” you need to set a budget for charitable giving and stick to it. Here are some suggestions on how to conduct yourself in the philanthropic marketplace:

• Be proactive, and if you are in a mind to support a charity, research it well ahead of time. One way to do this is with the BBB’s quarterly publication, “Wise Giving Guide.” This booklet lets you see how various charities stack up against the BBB’s standards. There is a nominal fee of $2 for this booklet. It is available through the BBB office.

• Before even considering a donation, ask for written information about its program and finances. For instance, the BBB expects a charity should give at least 55 percent of its collections to the charity and use no more than 45 percent for administrative costs. In many cases where a charity hires a marketing agency or telemarketer to raise funds, they only get twenty cents out of every dollar.

• Did you know you can check a charity’s 990 report online by going to www.guidestar.org? This is a good way to find out what it’s really doing with its money. It takes some time, but it’s time well spent.

• Above all, be wary of charities that use “sound alike names” of well-known charities. It is either attempting to convince you that it is that charity or somehow affiliated with it. It’s all a way to lull the donor into a feeling of confidence. For instance, an organization billing itself as “Cancer Fund of America” has nothing to do with the American Cancer Society. Another red flag is the phrase, “You gave a little last year, could you give more this year?” Many such statements are designed to confuse and make the recipient of the call feel guilty for not cooperating.

Sadly, there are many organizations that play these kinds of tricks on unsuspecting donors. In all too many cases, the actual charity, if there actually is one, gets very little after the bill is paid to the marketers and promoters.

One last comment: Remember, you can give to a charity any time of the year, not just when you are asked to do so. Keep this in mind if you feel yourself being high-pressured or fast-talked into making a donation to an organization that you know little about.

Neil Winget is the president of the Better Business Bureau serving West Central Ohio. The BBB may be found on the Internet at www.lima.bbb.org.