Want to help real charities? Try this direct, safe method
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Never give money by phone.
Every few months, I have to write this warning again. Because every few months, the phone calls start coming again from flimsy charities.
The most recent local calls claim to raise money for the Breast Cancer Society, a recently coined name for an organization run from a private home address in Mesa, Ariz.
Remember, whenever a phone rings, most of the money raised from well-meaning donors goes to the company doing the calling.
Sometimes, the callers pretend to be from a veterans' charity. Or they're calling on behalf of "fallen police officers." Or they might be using some name that sounds vaguely like that of a respected charity.
This time, the caller is trading on our goodwill toward the Dallas-based Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, not to mention the American Cancer Society.
Sharon Roberts, spokeswoman for the Komen Foundation and its Race for the Cure, said that people with the Komen organization have never heard of a Breast Cancer Society.
The name appears to be a new campaign for an older and more notorious phone charity, the Cancer Fund of America.
The Web site for the Breast Cancer Society was registered in September by a Cancer Fund director. Both organizations claim to provide "supplies and care products" -- bedpans and toiletries -- to terminal cancer patients.
Watchdog agencies have not compiled reports yet on the Breast Cancer Society. But last year, New Jersey-based CharityNavigator.org found that more than two-thirds of $15 million given to the Cancer Fund went to phone businesses.
Charity Navigator gave the Cancer Fund its lowest possible score, 0.0, and has dropped it from a 1-star rating to a zero-star rating.
A zero-star rating means "Exceptionally poor -- Performs far below industry standards and below nearly all charities in its cause."
According to the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving report, the Cancer Fund fails to meet seven of the bureau's 20 standards for charities and also deals poorly with complaints.
Kansas City Star columnist Mike Hendricks checked out the Cancer Fund last year after he got a similar sales call.
He found that the charity had made one gift to a Kansas hospice: four box fans.
An Ohio newspaper reported that the charity's "support" for cancer patients amounted to giving out Little Debbie snack cakes.
Other states with tougher laws than Texas' have fined the Cancer Fund. In December, the state of Washington published a report listing the "worst" fundraising organizations.
The list included a Nevada company that raises money for the Cancer Fund, the Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Children's Wish Foundation International, another frequent caller which has a name similar to better "wish" charities such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Look, there's an easy way to make sure your money goes where you want.
Mail it directly to a charity.
If you want to support an agency such as the local American Red Cross -- a four-star charity that recently ran a limited local phone campaign -- don't send money to the address you get from the phone seller. Look up the address on the Web or in the phone book, and mail your contribution directly to the charity.
If you have clothes or household goods to give away, take them to a charity resale shop. Those shops with callers offering to "have a truck on your street" are run by for-profit thrift stores that give a token gift to charity.
If you want to support police widows and orphans, ask a local officer about a benevolent fund. Don't give money to some vague state association.
And if you think Texas should have tougher laws regulating charities -- you're right.
Online: Better Business Bureau, give.org
Bud Kennedy's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 817-390-7538
