Category Evaluated:
Business and Economy:Organizations:Public Interest Groups:
Charities
The following sites, concerned with charity, philanthropy, and benevolent
activities of nonprofit organizations, were selected for evaluation from
the above identified Yahoo site. A descriptive abstract is provided along
with a rating designation in three areas: credibility establishment, site
effectiveness, and ease of use/presentation.
Each site will be given one of the following ratings for each area:
Fair:
Poor:
Bad:
Indeterminable:
indicates the site owner provided
additional information
Nonprofit Organizations
Effectiveness:
Ease of Use/Presentation:
Christian Relief Services, founded in 1985 by Eugene Kirzek as a non-denominational charitable organization out of Virginia, provides emergency assistance (food, medicine, and clothing) through a world relief program and two U.S. programs. Substantive content on their programs is found through the sub-document "Where we Work" from a brief, link-filled graphical, home page. From there one may select a geographic area (from a map) or a topical area. These links give overviews of the problems faced and their response. The site attempts to engage users through a simple quiz and a fill-in form where additional information may be requested. A simple pie chart showing use of funds is mislabeled under "You can help". The site does provide value-added information such as contact agencies in all 50 states for domestic violence. Presentation is fair, the map images may take time to load. With programs in the U.S. the intended audience is U.S. citizens, primarily Christians.
Effectiveness:
Ease of Use/Presentation:
Endeavor has conducted charitable auctions for over thirty years. Through this site Endeavor claims to have conducted the first charitable auction in North America to appear on the Net. The site is accessible but the auction is complete. All apparent links contained within the document are deactivated (4/13/96). This Internet auction along with another event raised $500,000. This site has little currently to review but would be interesting to visit while an auction is in progress.
Effectiveness:
Ease of Use/Presentation:
The Family Giving Tree is five year old local charity in the California Bay Area active primarily in the Christmas season. It's purpose is to collect and distribute donated gifts to needy families. The site is an appealingly simple no-frills document. It provides comprehensive information on how its program operates, it's sponsorships procedure, a substantial list of recipient social service agencies, and a task list for volunteers. Governance and fiscal information is lacking but perhaps less relevant. Libbie and Jennifer's phone numbers are provided in three places with encouragement to contact them. A mail-to link is also provided. The site's intended audience is people in the Bay area who wish to donate gifts of time or gift packages during Christmas.
Effectiveness:
Ease of Use/Presentation:
Feed the Children is a five year old UK registered charity organization focusing on international child-centered relief efforts involving the direct delivery of aid. Efforts are concentrated in the European sphere. This site is one intended to stimulate interest. It has good presentation, easy to follow, uncluttered, and has effective use of small images. It is limited in content presenting information in bullet form and brief paragraphs. The most substantive information is found the "Where We are Working Now" section. It promotes one fund-raising event. It provides voice and fax telephone numbers, a street address, and an e-mail address (no mail-to tag) for requesting additional information. It's intended audience is primarily people in the UK but it is of universal appeal.
Effectiveness:
Ease of Use/Presentation:
F.E.A.T., based in Washington D.C. mobilizes and coordinates resources of the franchise community to help people and businesses prepare for and respond to disasters. The organization is supported by donations made by such franchises as KFC and Thrifty Rent-A-Car. The Web site currently has limited content. Everything is presented in short bullets. It gives a set of goals, one being to generate positive PR for participants, and future plans. No program content is offered. An extensive form is provided for organizations to join the team, in one of several funding categories. A guest book for responses is another form. The intended audience is the franchise community but with plans for a page of links to the home page of participating organizations and a page of press releases and stories, the intended audience will also be the general public. The site is easy to use but does not stand out.
Effectiveness:
Ease of Use/Presentation:
Hope and Homes for Children is a UK registered charity founded by a former UN commander of British forces in Croatia. It's purpose is to provide homes for children orphaned by war. The Web site contains background information and a link to an old newsletter. It has images of a completed home and of their current project in Sarajevo along with brief descriptions. Of note is a page of links to maps, factbooks, and images related to the war in the former Yugoslavia along with links to factbooks on other areas of conflict. The document is explicitly asking for donations from the public providing a street address, fax and voice numbers as well as an e-mail address. Governance and fiscal information is absent. Presentation is good. Images take time to load.
Effectiveness:
Ease of Use/Presentation:
Karen's Climb Foundation, began as a memorial and incorporated in 1989, is a New Hampshire charity concerned with cystic fibrosis. It's purpose is to help and be an advocate for families stricken by CF. It also identifies promoting public awareness as one its goals. This Web does that. It is a simple content-rich site using few graphics. It provides solid information on the foundation, its operations, and source and use of funds. Its services are well described. Personal stores of Karen and others can be found in links. There is a page containing links to cystic fibrosis internet resources including newsgroups. It's focus is New Hampshire as it is linked from the NH First Community Directory and aids primarily people in that state. An e-mail address is given with urging to get involved in it's primary fund raising event.
Effectiveness:
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As one of 81 chapters, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Suffolk County (Long Island, NY) fulfills the special wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses. It's Web document begins with a substantial effort in providing background and credentials including reference to the National Charities Information Bureau. None-the-less, governance and fiscal accountability information is not addressed. The document is not content rich but does address it's objective well, which is to facilitate giving and volunteer responses. The process of wish granting is described along with a couple of personal stories. For donations a form intended for mailing is provided. An extensive volunteer application is one of the WEB documents. The site also contains a brief questionnaire. The document is in large print throughout making easy reading. It's orientation is to a regional public audience due to its focus on the volunteer effort and ill children in the county.
Effectiveness:
Ease of Use/Presentation:
This Meals-On-Wheels site is actually the home page of Senior Adult Services of San Diego. Their objective is to provide help, autonomy, and security for the elderly. Meal-On-Wheels and ElderCare are two of major programs in a network of services. The site is extensive and content rich. The home page contains eye-catching icon links to different aspects of their programs including Meals-On-Wheels, an annual report, and a financial summary. Program information is formatted as FAQs detailing the extent of services, volunteer responsibilities, how to volunteer, and how to make monetary contributions. An e-mail address is provided but phone contact is encouraged. Except for one outside link, the site totally focuses on their services with the intended audience being the residents of the San Diego vicinity.
Effectiveness:
Ease of Use/Presentation:
"How creative innovation and a working partnership between Honeysuckle White
and O'Connor Kenny Swain - Fed thousands of needy folks, Did good things
for communities, And made cash registers ring. To help Honeysuckle
White Turkey succeed against an established national market leader ..."
The actual link on Yahoo, More to Share, does not work and it's description, " - A nationwide program to help charities across the country feed families and individuals during the Thanksgiving holidays", is misleading. O'Conner Kenny Swain (OKC) is a full-service advertising agency who was employed by Honeysuckle White in 1995 to promote their product, turkey. "More to Share" is the promotional campaign they developed. Benevolence was a means of creating good will for Honeysuckle White. OKC's success with the campaign is the sole focus of the document. This link is included to illustrate the potential for deception in charitable causes found on the Internet and a categorization error in Yahoo. It is not to imply that the campaign was not a very positive way to meet their objectives.
Effectiveness:
Ease of Use/Presentation:
The National Benevolent Association, founded in 1887 in St. Louis, is the Division of Social and Health Services of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The NBA provides residential programs and services to older adults, youth, families, and persons with mental, physical, or developmental disabilities through eighty residential programs, day care centers, counseling services, and other service program areas. Their Web site has a very nice presentation using frames that allows one to move around very easily. The site went on the Web in mid-March and currently is limited in content. The purpose of the site is to promote general awareness of their programs with the general public. Currently the site contains limited identification information in the form of a FAQ about NBA and it's programs. It stresses it's ranking as a highly efficient social service charity, mentions it's governing board, and the soundness of it's fiscal position. Full contact information is provided. In one frame the user may browse through the names and addresses of all it's agencies in three groupings. Additional plans for the site are substantial including information on volunteer opportunities, programming software for managed care, and protected interoffice communications.
Effectiveness:
Ease of Use/Presentation:
New Eyes For The Needy, Inc. is a volunteer nonprofit redistribution agency for eye glasses. It collects used glasses and other material, reconditions and redistributes the eye wear around the world to those in need. New Eyes has been operating since 1932, works out of New Jersey, and is endorsed by the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness among others. The web site does an excellent job of presenting the organization, describing its objectives, detailing how it operates, and providing all the needed information for a visitor to respond. Governance and fiscal information is not provided. It is content rich in promoting the efforts of the organization. No links to outside resources are presented. The links are not solidly structured but make reasonable sense. The intended audience is the U.S. general public who may have glasses and jewelry to donate.
Effectiveness:
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New York Cares is a seven year old New York City volunteer service organization that partners volunteers with community organizations in need of their skills. Using a staff of planners NYCares develops projects with organizations and leverages volunteer and material resources to execute those projects. Volunteers stay associated with NYCares. It's home page displays a large catching logo, telephone numbers, an e-mail address (which bounces), and links to four sub-documents. The Introduction-Program Description link provides comprehensive information on it's operation, it's purpose, and approach. Four annual city-wide projects are described. It groups it's projects into four categories describing volunteer opportunities in each. A section on how they are different from other volunteer agencies is interesting. No fiscal information is offered but their board of directors is listed. The other two sections, calendar and Upcoming events are both very out-dated. A contact acknowledged this saying the site had not been changed since August 95 and was being completely redone to engage visitors more. The intended audience is the general public in New York City.
Effectiveness:
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Operation Christmas Child, a registered charity in the UK, is a year round operation to aid children affected by war. Efforts are currently focused in Eastern Europe. It's name-sake program collects shoeboxes, filled with presents, and distributes them to children in ten countries. Their web site, sluggish to load, has a simple structure with a set of seven links on the home page (and found at the end of every page) that go one level down. Pages are short, images are few. The main content concerns the "Shoebox" program. Governance and fiscal information is absent. The site does not appear current; program information describes plans for 1995 including a home that should be completed in September 1995. There is no facilitation for response except for an telephone numbers provided on the home page. The intended audience appears to be the Christian community in Great Britain.
Effectiveness:
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The Ronald McDonald House of New York City provides a temporary home to families who have traveled to the city for pediatric cancer treatment for their children. It is primarily funded by McDonald franchisees but does schedule fund-raising events to support operations. The purpose of the site is to inform and motivate volunteer and charitable interest in the House, on the part of New Yorkers, and the internet community at large. It is an announcement and follow up mechanism for those who have an interest in sponsoring a direct benefit event for the families and kids at the House. The site is unofficial, maintained and controlled by a volunteer, and residing on the server of his company (off his personal home page). It has been in existence since February 1996. This site does not have substantial content but appears effective to the stated purpose. It consists of a description of the program and followed by a set of 24 picture images of a recent party that takes time to load. There is a section announcing upcoming events and extensive forms for sponsorship and requesting additional information.
Effectiveness:
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Santa Claus Anonymous, started in 1987 in the greater Boston area, raises funds for innovative youth programs involving educational, social and character development. Volunteers of the Youth Involvement Committee foster relationships with directors and young leaders of the beneficiaries. Funds are raised primarily through two yearly premier events. The Web site strongly promotes these events. The home page is somewhat cluttered with links to a fairly extensive site. There is an interesting page containing Santa's Workshops Around The World. Governance information is not provided although there is an extensive list of contacts, including the president, with responsibilities and mail-to tags to facilitate response in different areas of interest. The charity's beneficiaries are listed along with the amount of money they each received. The youth involvement page contains dated information on youth activities. The site's use of graphics to present charts and other information is enhancing. It contains good content but the type of content that requires maintenance. The intended audience is the general public of the Boston area but if maintained it could also be an event calendar for the youth.
Effectiveness:
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Second Harvest of Santa Clara and San Mateo (CA) counties (the Silicon Valley) collects and distributes food to 391 charities in the area. It's Web page is of much broader scope. It provides a "Portrait of Hunger" (facts and figures) locally and nationally, as well as information on how to organize a food drive. A challenge is issued nationally to high-tech firms from valley corporations to match a successful food drive. The site was in a state of disarray with several links inoperable and some giving strange results; pages were out of date. The site owner said the site had just been tampered with and needed reconstruction. The site is extensive and when functioning, a good resource. It's intended audience is the local area but it clearly reaches out.
Effectiveness:
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The Starlight Foundation, with headquarters in Los Angles, is an international charity that grants special wishes to seriously ill children and provides entertainment and recreation activities for hospitalized pediatric patients. The home page is eye-catching with a link to their current promotional event, an Alaskan Cruise with the stars, and a link to an information page. The home page contains contact information but there is no e-mail address for the headquarters office. The information page identifies what the foundation is trying to do and where, plus gives basic volunteer information. Links to New York and Denver chapters provide additional content about the program. Governance and fiscal information is lacking. With a black, star filled, background the presentation is pleasing with the intended audience apparently being the general public who like the idea of associating with the stars in LA.
Effectiveness:
Ease of Use/Presentation:
Old Colony United Way supports 45 agencies and services in southeastern Massachusetts. This site is extensive, well organized, and has a professional look. It's home page is straight forward with well labeled links and complete contact information. It's basic facts page is legalistic containing governance and organizational information. It does lack a mission statement and goals assuming familiarity. A large document describes the agency review process and several of the supported agency's programs. The most noteworthy aspect of this site is the number of forms available. There is personal commitment page, a reader response/request form, and a nomination form for the most treasured volunteer award. The intended audience is general public of southeastern Massachusetts.
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Ratings explanation page
vargas@cwu.edu