877-897-9953

Troy called. I was excited at first thinking it was Troy from Community, but no, it was a professional fundraiser that called me. Typically with these types of calls, the person talks quite fast and this was no exception. I think he was going to send out some pledge forms and I should mail that back with a donation.

I always say "No" to phone solicitations like this because I get too many requests for donations anyway. There are plenty of local places I can donate to. There are plenty of well-known places I can donate to. And think about it. If you don't like getting these calls but you agree to donate, I guarantee you will get even more calls.

Details. It was to help out animals. That's good. But there were red flags, you know, things that seemed kind of hinky.

I asked for a website and he rattled the URL off but then said they don't take donations on the website. That seemed strange. Most charities, organizations, foundations, etc. are anxious to get funds in whatever way people are willing to donate. Perhaps he was just looking out for himself (a professional fundraiser) rather than the organization he was hired to get money for. Most likely he gets a commission and if the donation comes via the website, well no commission for him. And yet, there were plenty of "Donate Now" opportunities at the website he gave me, so yes they do actually accept donations at the website. I don't think he had the truthiness I would have expected from a good solid charity.

I did look at the website and that seemed a little hinky too. It seemed quite new based on the copyright date - 2011 - and some pages were "Coming Soon." I also found at least one instance of what seemed to be a note to the webmaster that should have been removed before that page went up live on their website.

They supposedly help animals and yet I could not find any place that I could tell them about animals that needed help. There's no details. I could not find their address listed on the website. I could not find them when I Googled them. (I did find similar sounding names, hmmm.)

Lots of photos but probably photos that you could get off the internet or purchase from those kind of services that provide generic photos for your website.

As I mentioned, their name is very, very similar to lots of other groups that showed up on Google. After the small amount of information on the phone, plus looking over their website, I realized that I still didn't know anything about them. Who are they? Not a single person's name. No board members. No staff members. Where are they? There's a map that shows where they are, but that could be a mailbox store or someone's apartment or office. Why no address where I could mail a check?

So, I'm not even going to give them publicity by saying what the name of the group is. Just the phone number. 877-897-9953. If they call you, beware. I do not give them the Colbert Bump.

Try these instead. There's a list over at Charity Navigator of many Animal Charities. You can look through the list, check the scores and websites of the groups and donate there. Or donate to your local animal charity.

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.

855-743-3251

Just a brief posting to let you know another phone number that shows up on my Caller ID. This one, 855-743-3251, was from Ohio. The woman said she's not calling for a donation. However it was one of those, "We'll send out stamps and envelopes and you mail them to the people on your street, okay?"

Autism Disorder Foundation was who she was calling for and of course she was quite pushy. I did find one website that said they spend 36% of total expenses on program services during the year reported. I think that means if you send them a dollar, they will spend 36 cents on the kids.

I did go looking a little bit and found the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism. It has a rating of 3 out of 4 stars at Charity Navigator. So that seems like a better cause if you want to donate to Autism. And so far, they haven't called me on the phone, so that's a plus for them.

Update: See newer posting about Autism Disorder Foundation.

866-896-1811

Yet another public service I'm providing to those who wonder who called them. It showed up as Toll Free 866-896-1811. The woman stated that she was a professional fund raiser calling for Children's Cancer Recovery Foundation. I asked if there was a website and she said yes, but she had the website wrong. I did find the right website by Googling, but it would have been more impressive if she had known more about the organization.

I also found a charity rating for them on Charity Navigator. They had a 1 star rating (29.84) out of a possible 4 star rating system, so judge for yourself.

And if you have some spare time and want to look at some Top Ten Lists, Charity Navigator has some of those also.

However, if you don't want to do any homework but just are feeling charitable, you can always give to the American Red Cross. It's right there on www.colbertnation.com, so you know Stephen has given the American Red Cross the famous Colbert Bump.