Charity Checks: Give the Joy of Giving

Charity Checks' "giving certificates" allow consumers to shop from home, save on taxes and give a present that’s redeemable as a donation to any of 800,000 IRS-qualified charities across the country.

Here’s how it works: Say you decide to order CHARITY CHECKS for ten friends, and you want to give each one a $50 "giving certificate." You get a $500 tax deduction and each of your friends receives $50 to give to his or her favorite cause. In the pilot program, Scott Cook, co-Founder of Intuit (the makers of Quicken software), purchased Charity Checks for his 42 Vice-Presidents. He chose the amount of the donation, but his employees were free to select the cause or charity that benefited from his tax-deductible gift.

A valuable new tool for personal or business philanthropy, CHARITY CHECKS are the brainchild of the husband-and-wife team Victor Dorff, a journalist and educator, and Lisa Sonne, a documentary film producer and magazine writer.

"You give them to the people you care about," says Dorff, "and the recipients give them to the causes they want to help — relief funds, soup kitchens, local symphonies, national literacy programs, hospitals and public television, just to name a few. The giver of a Charity Check receives the tax-deduction, but the receivers enjoy the opportunity to make a contribution of their own choosing."

"Gift certificates can buy goods. Giving Certificates can do good," said Sonne. "Whether a company is sponsoring a classroom of kids or using Charity Checks as employee benefits, and whether an individual is giving them as gifts or using them as part of a personal philanthropy program, people are determining what they care about... and making a difference."