With the holiday season upon us it is worth a reminder - Beware Of Charity Scams!!!!

We have all heard the horror stories over and over about charitable people being taken advantage of by the evil charity scamming organizations during the holiday season. Charity Navigator's article published after the Katrina disaster remains apropos and is worth reading. A summary of the main points are:

1. Do not respond to solicitations over email.
2. Be attentive to unsolicited emails and attachments.
3. Be skeptical of Hurricane Rita and Katrina websites.
4. Be leery of people that contact you online and claim to be victims of this summer's hurricanes.

Charity Navigator has a great tool for rating charities, both locally and nationally. The methodology for rating the more than 4000 charities in their database can be found at this website. According to Charity Navigator, of the 22 local Sacramento charities rated, two organizations have earned the coveted four-star rating - Friends of the River and Planning and Conservation League Foundation.

Pierre Cutler
The Sacramento Executive