Year-end charity contributions

This turned out to be harder work than I expected. I have some disposable cash during a time of hardship for many, so I decided to make some substantial charitable contributions this year. I was looking for reputable charities that provide help specifically to individuals in need and community arts organizations. I want to be able to donate online without ending up on any mailing or calling lists (paper, email, or phone). And I need some kind of proof of donation for tax purposes.

These requirements turned out to be surprisingly demanding. My overwhelming preference is for sites that take Paypal. This is just the perfect way to donate: you don't have to give them any information about yourself at all, and Paypal keeps a clear record of exactly who you donated to. It's also really fast, since you don't have to waste time filling in all that personal information in online forms (and then looking for ways to make them promise not to USE that personal information). Unfortunately very few charities have added the Paypal option to the usual credit card selections. So I've been looking for sites that have one or more of the following (preferably ALL): anonymous donation checkbox, opt-out checkboxes for email or other followup contact, posted privacy policy, explicit promises on the main page not to share your information with anyone. I will not donate to any site that requires a phone number for any reason except credit card verification; that rules out quite a few of them. I sent email queries about privacy concerns to causes I wanted to donate to that had no optouts or privacy policies. Meals on Wheels gave me an immediate response with strong assurances of privacy and anon donor option. One other charity responded that I could call them and give them all the same information I didn't want to give on the website (WTF?). None of the others even answered. Disappointing.

Here's the list that I have donated to so far:
Intermedia Arts [community arts organization in my neighborhood, in desperate financial straits, takes Paypal!]
Minnesota Emergency Foodshelf Network [local, provides food to the hungry, anonymous donor option]
Feeding America([formerly Second Harvest) [excellent rep, food to the hungry, anon donor option]
Greater Twin Cities United Way [many worthy causes, reliable and discreet, privacy policy, email optout]
Marine Toys for Tots [excellent rep, helps poor families, privacy policy, email optout]
Meals on Wheels [local, provides food and social support to elderly, quick email response to privacy questions]

I am currently trying to get the Paypal option to work on the "People Serving People" site. I think they have a bug in their script. I have sent them info on the problem I am having and hope they will fix it, because I want to donate to organizations that serve homeless families. I have given up on Sharing and Caring Hands. I have contributed to them in the past and found there is no way to stop the monthly mailings begging for more money. Their site offers online donation but no optouts, no Paypal, no privacy policy. So... too bad. It's a worthy cause, but there are others that are more respectful of donor privacy. Sadly, I can't find any privacy options on the HOBT site either.

More year-end financial cleanup

This kind of follows from the previous post about charitable contributions. I noticed that one of the organizations I contributed to online depends on the DMA opt-out site for their own privacy policy. That's the Direct Marketing Associaton opt-out site. The most useful option is the last one, "Other Mail," which includes charitable solicitation. You can opt out of everything on the list at once (although of course the site "recommends" against that).

I'd been meaning to register here for years, but hadn't gotten around to it, so I finally did. I also followed the link from this site to OptOutPrescreen, a similar site that lets you opt out of those annoying unsolicited credit card offers. I checked a few fraud alert sites and they confirm that this is for real. It sounds a little dubious when they ask you for your Social Security Number, but apparently it's on the up and up.

I doubt that either of these registrations will STOP the junk mail, but it may slow it down. To my amazement, the National Do Not Call list actually worked, so maybe this will too.

I especially recommend the Credit Card opt out to my children, thorintatge and ambertatge, as I am tired of receiving pre-approved credit card offers in their names. *ahem*