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American Morning

Making Charity Count

Aired December 19, 2002 - 09:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It's the season for giving and every day brings new appeals for your money. The Salvation Army has even gone online this year. But before you play Santa for your favorite charity, there are some things you should know to make sure your donation adds up. That's why we have Lauren Young here. She's here from Smart Money magazine with some tips for us. Happy holidays.
LAUREN YOUNG, "SMART MONEY" MAGAZINE: Happy holidays, Paula.

ZAHN: I was stunned to see that 80 percent of all Americans give money to charity.

YOUNG: You know, and the people who give, tend to be the people who are in the lower income bracket, too. They give more. They give the $25-checks, are much more active than the $10,000 and $1-million checks.

ZAHN: Very interesting.

YOUNG: Absolutely.

ZAHN: So walk us through what they need to know, before they earmark money to go to these organizations.

YOUNG: Well, there's really three things you need to look at. You want to look at how much money a charity spends on programming, how much money it spends on -- puts in the bank, basically, and also how much money it spends on fundraising.

And why is it important? You don't want them going out and doing more direct mail solicitations with your donation, right...

ZAHN: Sure.

YOUNG: ... which is the most annoying thing I find when I get my mailbox stuffed with these solicitations. I've already given. So you want to just make sure that your money is being used for programming.

ZAHN: And is it pretty easy to get the answers to those questions?

YOUNG: It is. I mean, you do have to do a little research. The best place to go is online. There's three great websites out there to find this information. One is called charitynavigator.org, one is guidestar. You can go to "org" or "com" -- it doesn't matter for either of these. And then the Better Business Bureau also has a website, which is give.org.

ZAHN: And we'll come back. And we got those up on the screen now, if someone wants to jot those down. And we're going to leave that up, while I ask you the next...

YOUNG: Great.

ZAHN: ... question. In your December issue, you actually rank the largest 100 nonprofits looking at fundraising and administrative costs, as well as programs, and I'd like you now to walk through some of what you found.

YOUNG: Right. Well, you know, you really want to look and make sure that programming is where the money is being used. And the New York Police and Fire Widows and Children's Fund -- I had to look at it, because I can never say it right...

ZAHN: That's a long one.

YOUNG: ... they're in the human services area and, definitely, they were boosted by September 11th. They had to do no fundraising, because the money just came pouring in. So they did very well in our survey. Now, two of the laggers in our survey. One is the Art Institute of Chicago, and the reason why they don't do well is their administrative costs are very high because they run a grade school, but that costs money to run. And also, the Nature Conservancy, their administrative costs are very high because they purchase land and they have to save up lots and lots of money to buy the land. By the way, these rankings are on our website at smartmoney.com. So if you want to go and check out those 100-largest charities, you can go there and find this out.

ZAHN: And then you also gave a list of the different websites you can go online to get this information about what percentage of...

YOUNG: And it's all there...

ZAHN: ... the money goes to...

YOUNG: ... on the website.

ZAHN: ...administrative costs.

YOUNG: You can find all that information right there.

ZAHN: What if you call directly to be sure?

YOUNG: That's actually a great idea. You should call directly. You should also read the annual report. That's really important. But when you call directly, ask about their privacy policy. That's really important, because what happens is, if you get to one cancer organization -- and I don't mean to say anything mean about the cancer industry and they do great work -- but they may share your list and your name with other cancer organizations. So again, your mailbox is going to be filled with lots of different things that you don't necessarily want. ZAHN: What about the trend of people giving money, in your name, to charity? Is there anything we need to know about?

YOUNG: I think that's a great trend. I mean, ideally, it would be good if you tell people the organizations that you care about. Recently, a friend wanted to give a wedding present to another friend and she was, you know, wanted to give it to some hiking organization. I said why don't you ask him and just find out what they actually care about, what issues are important. (inaudible) and you get a tax deduction. So if you give money to somebody, to an organization, you get a tax break.

ZAHN: That was very helpful, as people are trying to figure out what to do before year's end here. Lauren Young.

YOUNG: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Have a great holiday. Nice to see you again.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 19, 2002 - 09:38   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It's the season for giving and every day brings new appeals for your money. The Salvation Army has even gone online this year. But before you play Santa for your favorite charity, there are some things you should know to make sure your donation adds up. That's why we have Lauren Young here. She's here from Smart Money magazine with some tips for us. Happy holidays.
LAUREN YOUNG, "SMART MONEY" MAGAZINE: Happy holidays, Paula.

ZAHN: I was stunned to see that 80 percent of all Americans give money to charity.

YOUNG: You know, and the people who give, tend to be the people who are in the lower income bracket, too. They give more. They give the $25-checks, are much more active than the $10,000 and $1-million checks.

ZAHN: Very interesting.

YOUNG: Absolutely.

ZAHN: So walk us through what they need to know, before they earmark money to go to these organizations.

YOUNG: Well, there's really three things you need to look at. You want to look at how much money a charity spends on programming, how much money it spends on -- puts in the bank, basically, and also how much money it spends on fundraising.

And why is it important? You don't want them going out and doing more direct mail solicitations with your donation, right...

ZAHN: Sure.

YOUNG: ... which is the most annoying thing I find when I get my mailbox stuffed with these solicitations. I've already given. So you want to just make sure that your money is being used for programming.

ZAHN: And is it pretty easy to get the answers to those questions?

YOUNG: It is. I mean, you do have to do a little research. The best place to go is online. There's three great websites out there to find this information. One is called charitynavigator.org, one is guidestar. You can go to "org" or "com" -- it doesn't matter for either of these. And then the Better Business Bureau also has a website, which is give.org.

ZAHN: And we'll come back. And we got those up on the screen now, if someone wants to jot those down. And we're going to leave that up, while I ask you the next...

YOUNG: Great.

ZAHN: ... question. In your December issue, you actually rank the largest 100 nonprofits looking at fundraising and administrative costs, as well as programs, and I'd like you now to walk through some of what you found.

YOUNG: Right. Well, you know, you really want to look and make sure that programming is where the money is being used. And the New York Police and Fire Widows and Children's Fund -- I had to look at it, because I can never say it right...

ZAHN: That's a long one.

YOUNG: ... they're in the human services area and, definitely, they were boosted by September 11th. They had to do no fundraising, because the money just came pouring in. So they did very well in our survey. Now, two of the laggers in our survey. One is the Art Institute of Chicago, and the reason why they don't do well is their administrative costs are very high because they run a grade school, but that costs money to run. And also, the Nature Conservancy, their administrative costs are very high because they purchase land and they have to save up lots and lots of money to buy the land. By the way, these rankings are on our website at smartmoney.com. So if you want to go and check out those 100-largest charities, you can go there and find this out.

ZAHN: And then you also gave a list of the different websites you can go online to get this information about what percentage of...

YOUNG: And it's all there...

ZAHN: ... the money goes to...

YOUNG: ... on the website.

ZAHN: ...administrative costs.

YOUNG: You can find all that information right there.

ZAHN: What if you call directly to be sure?

YOUNG: That's actually a great idea. You should call directly. You should also read the annual report. That's really important. But when you call directly, ask about their privacy policy. That's really important, because what happens is, if you get to one cancer organization -- and I don't mean to say anything mean about the cancer industry and they do great work -- but they may share your list and your name with other cancer organizations. So again, your mailbox is going to be filled with lots of different things that you don't necessarily want. ZAHN: What about the trend of people giving money, in your name, to charity? Is there anything we need to know about?

YOUNG: I think that's a great trend. I mean, ideally, it would be good if you tell people the organizations that you care about. Recently, a friend wanted to give a wedding present to another friend and she was, you know, wanted to give it to some hiking organization. I said why don't you ask him and just find out what they actually care about, what issues are important. (inaudible) and you get a tax deduction. So if you give money to somebody, to an organization, you get a tax break.

ZAHN: That was very helpful, as people are trying to figure out what to do before year's end here. Lauren Young.

YOUNG: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Have a great holiday. Nice to see you again.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com