Real charities – not the semi/il-legal outifts you describe are very strict about how much money can be spent on anything other than aid. The figure is usually less than 10%.

The other points are equally moronic. It’s like writing an article called “Why I don’t Trust Cars”, and then focussing on the dodgy deathtrap you can buy in Albania, instead of a real represenation about what’s out there, and the laws in place to protect people.

A list of NYC’s homeless shelters are available on the internet. Not much use, since I really doubt that homeless people had internet access, and to use it at the library required a card… which required a home address. So I printed the list, wrote “They can help you much more than I can. God bless” on the back (it was true- broke college student here). My theory was if they really wanted help, they’d go. If they didn’t, I knew they were faking. It would help the people who really needed it and wouldn’t benefit the panhandlers.

Once I gave the list to a girl and her boyfriend, who were both really grateful, and I never saw them again, so I assume they were telling the truth. Another time I gave the list to a man who reappeared at the exact same corner a few days later. Now, I knew he spoke English and could read and write (his sign, and I spoke to him myself), and was mobile (he disappeared from the corner every night). Voila: panhandler.

It’s a comfort that this blog’s readers seem too smart to give up on charitable giving due to a few bad organizations out there. Like most other comments have emphasized, you just have to do your homework before making a donation. I treat charitable giving just like any other financial decision I’d make: I try to be a smart consumer and do an appropriate amount of research before writing a check–just like I’d research purchasing a car or trading stocks.

Here in Indianapolis, they are making efforts to educate residents that donations for the homeless should only be made to HOMELESS SHELTERS! That helps real homeless people and cuts down on druggies and pan handlers on the street. Then you also know it is going towards the homeless, not “taking a risk” that it might go towards drugs or booze. What a horrible article you wrote. So one-sided and hypocritical.

Without getting into what that money may or may not be used to purchase, such largesse promotes a predatory level of competitiveness among beggars for prime spots and regular donors, with violence that has been known to lead to serious injury or even death. That’s a few dollars in spare change to you, but it’s an entire world to someone else — and they’ll go to desperate measures to protect that income stream.

If you don’t have a problem with promoting street begging as a means of survival, you need to do some serious self-reflection.

Just search “LA Times Charity Database”

Don’t donate before you consult this chart so you can look up the charity and their track record.