866-498-7690

I had to ask twice for her to repeat who she was calling for. Finally she slowed down so I could catch it. Kids Wish Network. Just a short introductory statement and then she asked if I knew any sick kids. When I told her no, she then asked if she could mail something out for me to read and then make a donation. I told her no.

(Cold calls like that are troublesome. Is she really who she says she is? Is it a legitimate organization? How well do they do what they say they are going to do? And would she then ask for lots of information about that sick kid???)

So, she said thanks and hung up. I checked online and found this about Kids Wish Network over at Charity Navigator. Their overall score is 38.30 and they have 1 out of 4 stars. I like Charity Navigator. At the bottom of the screen they list similar charities. I found that there are three Make-A-Wish groups with scores of 61.10, 67.90 and 58.51. So that seems like a better place to send a donation.

Program Expenses for Make-A-Wish of Missouri, for example, are about three fourths of the money. That's making wise use of people's donations. At Kids Wish, it's only around the halfway mark. Half of the money Kids Wish brings in goes to pay for fundraising. So if you were to send Kids Wish Network $10, you would be paying $5 out of your donation for them to call you at home.

I also looked at Make-A-Wish website here and saw that on their front page under Fraud Alert, they let you know that they do not participate in telemarketing. That's way cool.

Judge for yourself. But now at least you know who is calling when Caller ID lists 866-498-7690.

And just to be totally fair, if you look at Charity Navigator enough times, you may get a pop up dialog box asking if you want to donate just a tiny bit to help them help us all in sorting through all the charities asking for your money.