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Give Online:
We have made it easy for you to make an online donation directly
to nearly every charity in this website.
For each charity you want to support, simply click on the “Donate
Now” link on their page within this website. This link will
take you to that charity’s online donation page on its
website. You will then be able to make a donation to that charity
using a credit card or Telecheck..
Charitable Choices will not receive any part of your donation.
We will not receive any of your personal information. Indeed,
we will not know if you make a donation or not. This is a free
service for visitors to our website and for the charities
that are part of this website.
How will your donation be processed?
Most charities use a donation processing service operated by Network
for Good, which is a charitable organization begun by three technology
companies including AOL. It charges a minimal fee to cover the costs
of processing a credit card or online check transaction. The fees
are: 3% of total donations for credit card donations and $10 per
transaction for online check donations or $5 per donation for online
check transactions with more than one donation. These fees are deducted
before funds are distributed to the nonprofit. In other words, the
charity pays these fees, not you. Again, none of this comes to Charitable
Choices.
Send a check directly to the charities:
You can send a donation to the charities you want to support, using
the addresses we provide on this website. All of your money goes
to the charity.
We would appreciate you using our form
when you send in your donation so the charity knows how you learned
about its work and got its address. However, we receive no
part of your donation! Please send your donation directly
to the charity, not to us.
Form for mailing a donation
Give through the Combined Federal Campaign:
Federal and military employees can give to these charities through
the Combined Federal Campaign. When you receive your pledge card
at work, you simply write in the 4-digit CFC numbers of the charities
you wish to support. We tell you each charity's number. You can
support several charities.
Why give through the CFC?
Give through United Way:
If you work for a company with a United Way campaign, you may be able
to support all or many of the charities on this website through United
Way. The advantage of doing so is that you can often have your gift deducted
from your paycheck. Giving $5 a week becomes a $260 gift!
Each United Way sets its own policies about allowing people to give to
non-United Way members. It also decides the percentage it will charge
to process your gift.
In the Washington, DC area:
You can give to any charity on this website by writing in its name
and address. The National Capital Area United Way also publishes a list
of more than 1100 "campaign partners" that employees can support.
In California:
For many United Ways in this state (including those in LA, San Diego
and San Francisco), you can give to any charity in the country. The
charity must be recognized as a "501(c)(3)" charity by the
IRS. This means that donations to the charity are tax deductible. All
the charities on this website meet this standard.
You often must ask for a "donor option" form to do this. Most
United Ways do not encourage giving to non-member charities. The person
running the campaign in your workplace may not even know about this
option. You may have to call United Way and ask for the office that
runs its workplace campaigns.
To give to a charity through donor option, write in its name and address
(which you will find on this website).
In Other States:
You will need to ask your local United Way whether it allows you to
give to non-member charities. This is often called "donor option."
You should contact the office within United Way responsible for running
its workplace campaigns. If it allows donor option gifts, write in the
charity's name and address.
When giving to a United Way member agency, keep in mind that if
you specify that a specific member agency should benefit
from your donation, this often does not result in that agency receiving
more money. A member agency gets an allocation of money from United Way
each year. Your desire to support a specific member agency will make a
difference only if that agency receives designations that
exceed its allocation. This seldom happens.
The National Capital Area United Way, however, no longer allocates money
to its members. Whichever charities an employee designates receives the
donation.
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