THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17,2009

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17,2009

Make a list,

check it twice

Tis the season for giving. It also is the season for getting

ripped off, if we’re not careful. We’re all familiar

enough — too familiar, actually — with parking lot predators waiting to steal our stuff with scammers who are active all the year but really seem to come out of the woodwork when the yule log is lit. •

We re not quite so familiar with getting fleeced by what are normally considered charitable organizations. If we are a little more aware this season, perhaps we should thank our latest spotlighted couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi.

As we reported two weeks ago, the White House-crashing Salahis finally got around to filling out the paperwork so their Journey for the Cure could be registered with the state as a charitable solicitor.

According to that paperwork, the Journey raised $19,098 m 2008 and donated a grand total of $710 to charity — $690 to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and $20 to the U S. Navy Memorial Fund.

By our calculation, that makes the Journey’s charitable donation a somewhat less-than-miniscule three percent of donations. By any reasonable measure, if you gave to Journey for the Cure you were, indeed, taken for a ride.

Tis the season for giving, and we encourage everyone to participate. Before opening our checkbooks, we might want to check out five tips provided by Virginia State Police to help protect ourselves by ensuring our donations go to those organizations in need and not to scams. (See story on Page A3.) Also check out ww'w.charitynavigator.org. The free Web service gives charities an overall rating based on how much they spend on the programs they claim to support, how much they spend on their own administrative expenses, and how big a bite their fundraising expenses consume.

In the ideal world, the first is pretty high, the last two, pretty low. «

Despite the questionable credentials of Journey for the Cure, its principal beneficiary, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, is legit enough. It has an overall rating of 53.93, and spends a reasonably decent 74.3 percent of its income on programs. Administrative expenses are 9.1 percent, and fundraising expenses are 16.4 percent. Cjorrent-president and CEO John E. Walter makes $343,056 annually.

The Society has reasonable numbers, but they are not off the chart. The National Cancer Coalition, for example, spends 97.4 percent of the money it raises on programs, though it is entirely likely that the Coalition doesn’t raise anywhere near the sums that the Society does, and, thus, doesn’t have the same expenses.

Nevertheless, “since its founding in 1949, the Society has invested more than $600 million in research specifically targeting blood cancers,” the Web site notes.

Better to give than to receive? Usually. But it is important to check the Web to make sure that the charitable journey on which we are about to embark doesn’t involve getting railroaded.