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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Stacy Palmer

Aired December 16, 2001 - 09:15   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Americans are incredibly generous people. More than $1 billion has been raised since the 9/11 attacks, but much less has actually reached those who can use it.

Joining us now from Washington is Stacy Palmer, the managing editor of the "Chronicle of Philanthropy," is going to give us an update on giving at a time of tragedy and a time of economic downturn.

Thanks for being with us.

STACY PALMER, "CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY": Good to be here.

O'BRIEN: In a way, from a charitable standpoint, it's the best of times and the worst of times. You have a terrible economy right now that is putting a lot of people out of work, causing a lot of concerns with those who have jobs; and yet there is this galvanizing influence of the War on Terror, the September 11 attacks, which would prompt a lot of people to give. So how is it all shaking out?

PALMER: You're right. It absolutely is a mix of things. And right now charities are doing fairly well. They're very worried about what's going to happen. But they're doing OK. They're raising about as much as they were last year.

But they're very nervous that the economy, which is always the biggest factor in charitable giving, is really going to cause problems. And many of them had seen slowing down in giving before September 11. So right now...

O'BRIEN: It's equal to last year, you say?

PALMER: It's at about the same pace. But what they're very worried about is whether they're really going to be able to recover from some of the slowdowns that happened in September and October. A lot of charities weren't actively soliciting. They thought it would be the wrong thing to do. And a lot of donor's minds weren't on giving to other causes. So there wasn't a lot of giving in those months.

So now they need to recover in the month of December from what happened in the fall.

O'BRIEN: All right, as it turns out the Red Cross was actively soliciting donations, and that turned out to be the wrong thing to do. That whole scandal, if you will, has that left an aftertaste with people that maybe has them thinking twice about giving?

PALMER: I think it has in some people's minds, and at least it's meaning that they're asking a lot more questions before they give. And I think they're giving a lot more locally, rather than to national organizations because they were very concerned about what happened to their donations. I still hear a lot of concern among donors about what happened to the money they gave to the Red Cross.

O'BRIEN: Well, set the record straight. The Red Cross did reverse itself, and that fund which people contributed to hoping to help folks affected by what we're seeing here live right now -- the World Trade Center attacks -- that fund is earmarked for those people, and not going to be held for other tragedies, correct?

PALMER: Right, and I think the Red Cross has gotten the word out that it has changed its position. They're running advertisements everywhere. It's hard to miss them.

So I think that that is reassuring a lot of donors. But it made people think twice about when they give, maybe they need to know a little bit more. And that's a good thing, for all charities to be able to answer and say "here's where your money's going to go." So in the end, it may all be positive. But at least it's meaning that people might be thinking twice about their gifts.

O'BRIEN: All right, a person sitting home right now who feels good enough about their financial situation to want to take out their checkbook right now. How will they know what charity to give to? Is there a place they can go to to evaluate what are good charities and where their money will be most used and most efficiently used?

PALMER: Sure. There are a couple of watchdog organizations and there are some Web sites you can go to. There's one that's called guidestar.org where you can look at the financial information on every charity in the country. And there's the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance. They're also online. And it's good to check it out, make sure that the money is actually going to the charitable purposes you care about.

And you can always ask the charity, just how much of my money is actually going to make it into charitable programs, and not go into overhead like fund-raising costs or those kinds of things. That's what you care about.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's just take a quick look at that Web site -- one of the web sites you brought up guidestar.org. There it is. It's one of the places, and you can search through there and take a look at various charities and what they do, and how much of their money is spent, in fact, on their stated goals.

We appreciate your time and your interest in our program. Stacy Palmer, the managing editor of the "Chronicle of Philanthropy," appreciate it.

PALMER: Thank you.

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