http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:11:51 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/02/18/142606.php#comment-749356 This sounds more like an ad than a review. It seems inappropiate to me to review a fundraising organization as a Web site. The more important issues would be about the effectiveness of the effort and I would expect a review of a fundraising organization to rely on more research than using the "references" they give themselves (snopes). While CharityUSA.com seems to be a shadowy private, for-profit organization that doesn't even identify the people behind it at their corportate Web site, just a quick Web search turned up a <a href="http://www.secstate.wa.gov/charities/search_detail_cfr.aspx?cfr_id=20823">filing with the State of Washington</a>. This report provides a bit of financial information for the company's 2007 fiscal year. For that fiscal year, the company reported "raising" $11,280,900 of which $1,724,030 or 16% went to charity. Of the $1.7 million given to charity, $498,735 came from cash contributions, which CharityUSA passes through to charities. The remaining $1,225,295 given to charities came from advertising revenues and sales commissions. That's less than 12% of the %10.7 million in revenues from those sources. As the company notes in this report, they pass through 100% of "sponsor advertising" to their partner charities. They also use this "fact" repeatedly on their Web sites to pitch their "service." They do not provide a breakdown of revenues in the Washington State report, but clearly if they are passing through 100% of advertising revenues and only donated $1.2 million total in 2007, the vast majority of their revenues are in sales commissions and the vast majority of those revenues are going into the company's coffers, not to charity. I don't think there's anything illegal here, but I feel that the company misrepresents itself and its accomplishments. Their FAQs say, for example, that "GreaterGood.org is an independent charitable organization" when it's not a charitable organization in any sense of the word (and therefore conveniently not subject to the state disclosure laws charities must follow). It's a company that hit upon a clever way to make money from Web advertising and affiliate programs. It probably does no harm - since they are clever enough to pass through actual cash donations - but I don't think it is the altruistic organization many seem to think it is. It's no different than any company who says if you do X, we will donate Y - with Y not amounting to much. 749356@blogcritics.org Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:11:51 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/02/18/142606.php#comment-720097 Thanks Mike; you have helped me help them. Hearty barks and meows to you~ 720097@blogcritics.org Wed, 21 May 2008 13:59:43 EDT