I can say NO to charities and not feel bad about it!

Over the Christmas holidays, I got call after call from this or that charity
asking for my support.  Every one of them had a good story and a good
pitch, and most of them I had given to before.  I hate saying no, but I had
to wait for a full paycheck before I could actually send out any money. 
Then I had a crazy idea.  Everyone knows that charities are totally honest,
right?  Yeah, sure.

Here's an interesting table of facts, with links.  And this is just the
charities that I got contacted by the Secretary of State's office has
information on every charity allowed to call people in Washington.

Name of Charity	Fed EIN	% to Programs	Last year filed with SOS	Amount I saved by not sending them a check
Law Enforcement Education Program	38-3385175	9%	June 30, 2005	$10.00
Children's Charitable Foundation	30-0193229	6%	December 31, 2004	$20.00
Cancer Fund of America Support Services	42-1568866	7%	December 31, 2004	$25.00
Firefighters Assistance Fund	20-0484684	5%	Jun 30, 2005	$10.00

Here's a blog post with a
similar bend. 

If you're thinking "what about the programs" let me say that my
wife and I saved up the money to attend the Farestart
Grand Opening on February 1st.  According to the Secretary of State
website, they put 75% of their donations to programs. 
How much?  You don't want to know.

So, now I feel better about saying NO on the phone when charities call. 
All I have to do is ask for their Federal EIN, look them up while they are on
the phone, and if they are not based in Washington and send at least 50% of
their donations to programs, I don't ever want to hear from them again.

Update, got another note in the mail from this one:

CHILDRENS CANCER FUND OF AMERICA INC

7435 E MAIN STREET BLDG 1

MESA AZ 85207

480 218-6062

Reports submitted to Washington Secretary of State end Dec 31, 2005.

Federal EIN: 20-1226416

They only send 15% to programs. So I wrote them a note asking them to take my name off their contact list.