Imagine that charities could mail you their solicitations at practically no cost. How do you think that would affect your already too large volume of solicitations? On the Internet, anybody can send out thousands of email solicitations for very little money. High expense is the major factor that keeps our charity mail volume from being even larger than it already is. Even a charity with a very simple mailing must still buy paper and envelopes, hire a printer and mail house and pay ever-increasing postage fees.

Would you ever agree to allow an organization to install a hidden camera in your home so that it could monitor whether you looked at its mailing and each of its pieces, and to know what material you looked at before and after you opened their solicitations? Of course not-you would never agree to allow your privacy to be invaded in this way. But on the Internet people often unknowingly allow organizations to monitor what they look at.

Many AIP members tell us they do not like their privacy invaded by charities that sell or exchange their names, addresses and contribution history with other nonprofits or businesses. On the Internet it is possible to have your personal information, including credit card and social security numbers, sold to marketers at lightening speeds. It is a frightening thought but it is a real possibility that criminals can hack into a charity's on-line donor database, if it is not adequately protected, and have your personal financial information stolen and quickly distributed around the world.

To help you donate online both effectively and safely, AIP provides the following pointers:

1. Know your charity. On-line or off-line never give to a charity that you know nothing about. Look for a mission statement, a clear description of program accomplishments and a list of the board of directors. Do not assume a web address with a ".org" rather than a ".com" ending is a non-profit organization. Anyone can purchase a ".org" web address. To determine if a group has tax-exempt status, go to the Internal Revenue Services web site. AIP's web site also has more links to other government regulators, databases of charity financial information and other resources for charitable giving.

2. Obtain contact information. Make sure that you have the option to contact the charity on-line (through a working email address) and off-line (through a phone number and a mailing address). It may be necessary to contact the charity off-line if the Internet or the charity's web site is not functioning properly. Insist upon seeing a physical address to discourage scammers, who may set up a flashy web site, raise a lot of money and disappear into the anonymity of cyberspace. Also, it is better to support groups with a physical address in the United States. Foreign groups that solicit in the U.S. are subject to our laws and regulations but it is very difficult for a U.S. regulator to enforce a court injunction against a group operating outside of the country.

3. Look for date of information. Some charities do not change the information on their web site for months or even years. Find out when the information on a web page was last updated. Do not base giving decisions on outdated information that may no longer be accurate. Without verification of the date of the web page, you run the risk of supporting an organization that has changed its purpose, programs or is no longer in existence.

4. Give safely. Only donate on charity sites that utilize encryption technology to scramble your personal and credit card information, before it is transmitted on the Internet. You can tell if the form that asks for your personal and credit card information is secure by seeing if there is an "s" after the "http" (e.g. "https") that precedes the Internet address or URL in the browser window on the top of the web page. Also look for a padlock or unbroken key symbol at the bottom of the web page. If a charity keeps donors' personal information on an on-line network, find out if it utilizes firewalls or other technology to protect it from hackers. Also, make sure whatever technology a charity uses to protect your information from theft is up-to-date, since hackers may know how to defeat older security software.

5. Give directly. Why hand over a chunk of your contribution to a third party web site when you can give directly through a charity's own site? A wonderful aspect of the Internet is its ability to conveniently locate charities through search engines. If the charity that you want to support does not offer online giving, you can give through Network for Good or JustGive which charge a 4.75% transaction fee, and 3% fee, respectively. Stay away from sites that seek to earn interest on your donation by delaying its transmission to the charity. One way these sites can hold your contribution is by claiming that they have to receive a fixed amount, such as $100, before they can send the money. If the site allows you to give to hundreds of thousands of charities, your $25 donation may sit in its bank account for awhile.

6. Protect your privacy. Look for a privacy policy and read it. If you don't, you may learn too late that the privacy policy does not safeguard your privacy. Before disclosing personal information, especially your credit card number, find out how the site plans to use your information and if it plans to sell it or exchange it. It is not adequate protection for the charity to agree to not sell your information, if its vendor operating the site does not also agree to respect your privacy. Make sure that the charity gives you an "opt in" or at least an "opt out" option. An "opt in" option puts the burden on the charity to obtain your permission before using your personal information for other purposes. An "opt out" puts the burden on you to notify the charity if you don't want your information used for other purposes.

If you are concerned about charities being able to follow where you travel on their sites and how often you visit them, find out if they are placing "cookies" in your computer. Cookies are bits of information put on your hard disk that can reveal your identity and places visited to the charity.

7. Keep paper records. Print a copy of your final confirmation screen or an email confirmation of your donation. If you do not receive a confirmation notice, immediately notify the charity to see if it received your contribution. It is a good idea to hold on to a hard copy receipt in case your computer crashes at tax time.

8. Don't respond to spam solicitations. Spam is the junk mail of the on-line world. It is worse because it costs nearly nothing to send and can be very difficult to identify where it is coming from. Spam solicitations may contain links to web sites of scammers that look like those of legitimate charities. Do not forward to friends chain email solicitations. These chain letters may contain old or unreliable information. Also do not believe an email that promises a donation will be made to a charity every time it is passed on. Be wary of email from unfamiliar sources that asks you to reply if you do not want to receive their email. They may be trying to see if your email address is active so they can sell it to others and flood you with even more spam.

9. Don't be intimidated by online giving. On-line giving has the potential for enormous good by saving billions of dollars in fundraising costs and allowing charities to more efficiently communicate with donors. If your favorite charities take adequate precautions, giving to them on-line should be no more risky than handing a waiter in a restaurant your credit card. By following these tips you can minimize the chance of potential problems and have a safe and secure on-line giving experience.