Do not donate to this charity, they will spam you forever! I made the mistake of donating to CARE…read moreover 8 years ago and they are still sending me junk mail despite multiple requests to be removed from their mailing list. These are unethical business practices and... not a very good charity anyway. Avoid!

Warning: this is lengthy because I can't believe what I was seeing. Anyway, here it comes…read more.. This is the first review for CARE? The charity that sends me endless pictures of starving African and Central American babies? It's hard to imagine but I'm reviewing CARE because I'm really unhappy with what they've been sending me lately. I've given them a significant amount of money over the years and I've always thought that they did a good job. I noticed that maybe 5 years ago, the appeals for help sounded less involved. Like the person writing the letters hadn't actually been to those places where help is really, seriously needed. I think it was when their president changed, but I have no reason to think that any CARE president actually wrote the letters and I assumed that they lost a talented writer. It didn't stop me from contributing to what seemed to be a worthy cause. That all changed the other day. On the back of the latest appeal for contributions was something new. A page of legalese state-mandated warnings. It seems that CARE has retained the services of a company called MDS Communications Corporation to help them with their fundraising. And if you want to find out what's in it for MDS, you'll have to write to your Secretary of State because they couldn't be bothered putting that information on the page. Okay, who are these MDS people? Is MDS a non-profit corporation? Their website says that's where they "came from" but it doesn't say anything about them being non-profit. And what's their mission? They provide "services to pro-life organizations, conservative political causes, Christian ministries and relief organizations." Okay, got it. So when I send money to help starving African babies, a cut goes to a bunch of profit-seeking businessmen who support pro-life conservative causes. In the words of Sarah Palin (or maybe Tina Fey), "You Betcha!" *wink* And the most amazing part is this. Now that there's a professional fundraising organization helping, when did I get this emergency appeal letter which was dated December 18th? I got it in the mail on January 2nd! Pop quiz: When are people most likely to contribute? At the end of the year because that's when their accountants tell them that they can afford to give a little more. January 2nd is NOT at the end of the year! They blew this so badly that it makes me wonder what they really do at MDS and why CARE is involved with them. I won't send CARE a penny until MDS is gone along with CARE's president, Helene Gayle. Under her watch, things have gone in a direction that I don't care for and I won't be a part of it any more. I'm giving CARE two stars and not one because I think that much of the money that CARE actually receives will go to help people. No more than two stars because there are so many other charities that haven't contracted with companies like MDS. I could be mistaken about any of this and I'd like to be wrong about all of it, but take a look: CARE: http://www.care.org/ MDS web site: http://www.mdscom.com/ CARE doesn't mention MDS and MDS doesn't mention CARE, but here's a report (PDF format) from the State of Vermont's Attorney General's Office of how much money actually went to various charities after the fundraisers took their cut. In this report, CARE is sometimes "CARE" and sometimes "Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere": http://www.atg.state.vt.us/upload/1228938816_Data_from_Paid_Fundraiders.pdf And here's a link to the Colorado Secretary of State's Annual Report on Charitable Solicitations (PDF format): http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/charities/2008_annual_report.pdf Table 3 shows how MDS treated CARE, table 2 shows how MDS treats their clients overall. It's an ugly report and it makes you realize that for many charities and many fundraisers, the money doesn't go where you think it will. The point is that I don't like where CARE has gone and I hope it will return to what it used to be. Hopefully a few more people will review CARE because I'm sure that there are many opinions about this. And I hope the other reviewers will be real Yelpers and not someone with a new account who hasn't been here before. Quick update (9/21/13): Many of the links in this review don't work any more and it isn't a web page that I maintain. I haven't contributed to CARE in years and don't pay much attention to them when there are far better charities out there. If you've got a few extra dollars and you like to give back, just search for "charity navigator" and find an ethical charity that supports a cause you believe in.