I've posted this information before, however I am reposting it because there are new people who join us and they might find it of use.

There are a lot of telemarketers here in the US. While you can add your name to the No Call Registry https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx , charities are not obligated to follow the no-call rule so you will still get them calling. My husband and I have no problems supporting charities but we want to make sure our dollars are used efficiently and effectively by the charity involved. I just got off of the phone with one charity who say they are devoted to finding missing children, however, through this handy-dandy website: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=topten I was able to plug their name into the search box and discover that of the money they raise nearly 90% goes to fundraising (86%) and administrative expenses and about 10% only is spent on the actual projects for which they raise funds. I am able to make an informed evaluation of the charity and I have no hesitation in telling them the reason that we will not support them, quoting the figures from this website. So, I have bookmarked this site and it is really easy to access it when a telemarketer calls and I can check out whether they are a worthwhile charity of not. It might be something you would like to do - because there are a lot of telemarketing charities out there!

I think the worst ones are the Police!! They phone and phone asking for $$$!!

Oh I agree - and they are not even a charity! They do not provide charitable services according to the charities website.

My daughter (when she was a few years younger, around 22) was hired to be a caller for a "charity" once. She worked there two weeks. One Monday afternoon, she showed up for work, and found the place locked and emptied. Seems the "charity" had received enough "donations" and flew the coup. She was less than thrilled she discovered she was hired to scam people along with being scammed herself. I asked her about her calling list, she said most where senior citizens.

Thanks Kathryn for posting this! It reminded me to re-register for the do not call list. And I signed my mom up too!