BW Online | December 15, 2000 | Clicking for Charity

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DECEMBER 15, 2000

CLICKS & MISSES
BY FRANCESCA DI MEGLIO

Clicking for Charity
Humanitarian sites help spread the holiday cheer by enabling you to make donations while working through your gift list

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Yes, we should remember the sick, hungry, and poor all year long, but the holiday season has a particular way of reminding us, as if the scent of turkey and evergreen trees made us suddenly recall our better nature.

The really good folks who devote their lives to running charitable organizations have picked up on how our purse strings are looser when we start humming carols and spinning dreidels. They also know we're more generous when someone makes it convenient for us to give. So, they have turned to the Web. Three sites worth thinking about this holiday season show the best of this trend: World Vision (www.worldvision.org), Save the Children (www.savethechildren.org), and the Hunger Site (www.thehungersite.org).

VACCINATION OR VISION. World Vision says it's an "international Christian humanitarian organization" active in 88 countries and that it raises 9,000 metric tons of food for the poor each month. Visitors to its site can donate money in their own name or as a gift for someone else. The bonus is that you can control exactly how your money is allotted. By clicking on the gift catalog, visitors can choose to spend $20 for a child in India to be vaccinated or $120,000 "to realize a vision" for the Tanzanian village of Ruvu Remiti. (They don't explain exactly what they mean, which they'll probably have to do to get that kind of dough).

If the donation you make is in the name of a friend, World Vision sends him or her a card explaining what the money makes possible. You can also buy a $3 ornament to go with the card -- your friend gets the star-shaped trinket as a keepsake, and three more dollars are raised for the poor.

I tested the waters by buying a vaccination for $20 and having a card sent to a friend of mine. However, I wasn't sure if my purchase had been processed, so I immediately e-mailed World Vision. I never received a reply, and my friend has not received my card yet, more than three weeks after I sent the gift. I assume that this is just a holiday backlog, although it's not clear whether the site's efficiency quite keeps up with its good intentions.

But I know the organization keeps up with current events. Right now, the site is asking visitors to help raise $80,000 for Palestinian families embroiled in conflict in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.

BUYING SOME CHEER. Of the three sites' homepages, Save the Children's is the most captivating, scoring major sympathy points with a large photo of a cute child. Pushing the convenience factor, the group gives busy visitors the opportunity to purchase gifts like piggy banks, jewelry, scarves, cards, and wrapping paper. They cost some $12 to $30 on average, and Save the Children usually donates at least half of the profits.

The bad news: No portion of your purchase is tax deductible. But as far as I can tell, donors don't find it a problem. After all, buyers can cross a few people off their shopping list while helping a needy child, though the site doesn't specify exactly what the money is actually funding. Like World Vision, Save the Children also puts its signature on timely causes such as the West Bank/Gaza crisis. The creators have also made a special page for the Africa AIDS Orphan Project, which helps children who have lost their parents to the epidemic.

Of course, Save the Children's flagship sponsor-a-child program is available through the site. Sponsors can mull over photographs and short blurbs about needy children targeted for financial help. The cost: $24 a month to sponsor a child in Appalachia, Latin America, Africa, or Asia. You can pick the kid's nationality, age, and gender, and choose between finalists. In my case, I was shown two children, both young Bolivian boys.

CAUSES GALORE. The Hunger Site has the most organized Web presence of the three. Its homepage has a smart layout: Tabs for the Rainforest, Kids AIDS, Child Survival, Breast Cancer, and Landmine sites run across the top of the screen. Donors can go directly to the cause that interests them most. Combining people's desire to give as well as deck the halls, the Hunger Site offers visitors the chance to purchase bay-leaf wreaths with red peppers festively dangling from a straw bow. According to the site, buying one wreath pays for 25 cups of food.

This site also takes the convenience factor furthest. Apart from selling gifts bearing the Hunger Site logo, the group has teamed up with a long list of retailers including Amazon.com, Nordstrom, Lands' End, and PETsMart.com. For every dollar visitors spend after jumping from the Hunger Site directly to one of its partner sites, 20 minutes of care will be provided for a child with AIDS (1,800 children are infected with AIDS every day, the site reminds us). Now, my happiness is tripled: I can donate funds, knock someone off the holiday shopping list, and know that my money is helping a needy child. Giving can't be any easier than that.

For people who want to offer the needy more than money, these Web sites should go one step further and give additional information on how people can roll up their sleeves and get involved personally. But with technology, charity really can start at home -- right in front of your computer.