Charities and Donations

Independent Charities of America

Mission:
To Screen and Certify America's Best Charities and present them to givers in fund drives at work and on the web.

Home of America's Best Charities:
Look for the charities that proudly display the ICA Seal of Excellence.

Independent Charities of America (ICA) is an IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit association of America's best charities. Our purpose is to represent charities that meet the highest standards of public accountability and program effectiveness and to facilitate gifts to those charities from contributors in fund drives conducted at work and on the web.

ICA was founded in 1988 by a group of volunteers led by James J. Casimir, then the National Director of Appeals for the Internal Revenue Service and now an executive with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLP. The current President of the all volunteer, unpaid Board of Directors is Nancy Caldwell Mead, formerly National Director, Scholarship America ("Dollars For Scholars").

ICA is substantially different from the United Way other "federated groups" in both its philosophy and operation. For example, it is inclusive in its membership policies and welcomes charities of all types, providing they meet ICA's eligibility standards. It has the lowest operating overhead and member fees or assessments of any federated group, by far. It has a history of creating innovative giving mechanisms, such as its GiveDirect online workplace giving system, which it offers free to companies.

The Online Future

By 2000 ICA and the affinity federations recognized just how fast technology was changing the world of workplace fund raising. Many corporations were abandoning the old paper brochure and paper pledge card mechanism in favor of online campaigns hosted on company intranets or on web sites hosted by commercial third parties. At the same time, companies were expanding donor choice in their campaigns, sometimes allowing employees to choose any IRS-registered charity at all.

Online fund drives are less expensive to produce, but they also often raise less money. That is partly because charities are unskilled in "merchandizing" their case for giving on the web. Web-based fund drives have the potential to be much more involving than their static print-based counterparts, but few live up to that potential because their content is, in fact, often boring.

• Catholic charities

Independent Charities of America
21 Tamal Vista Blvd., Ste. 209
Corte Madera, CA 94925
800.477.0733

website: www.independentcharities.org

Also see:
• Boat Donations