Washington, DC - July 13, 2004 -- The BBB Wise Giving Alliance today unveiled a ground-breaking new tool - an Online Charity Reporting and Evaluation System - that will permit the charity monitoring organization to automatically evaluate charity data and dramatically expand the volume of its national charity reports, providing much-requested information on issues of relevance to potential donors.

H. Art Taylor, President and CEO of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance (the Alliance), announced the innovation at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

"Verifying a charity's accountability is the most significant challenge facing today's donors as they respond to appeals from a growing number of organizations but have trouble telling whether their donation will be used appropriately," Taylor said, "We're seeking to expand our capacity to assist these donors, our primary constituency, while also strengthening ethics within the charitable community."

Alliance charity evaluations are based on 20 voluntary Standards for Charity Accountability that were revised in 2003 after an open development process that included input from donors, charities, government regulators, accountants and philanthropic experts.

These comprehensive standards address charity governance, effectiveness, finances, fund raising, donor privacy, and other aspects of charity operations. The Alliance reports on national charities that meet its standards (on average, about two-thirds meet standards), as well as those that do not meet one or more standards (about one-third of evaluated national charities).

The new system performs three core functions:

1. streamlines the information collected from charities by using a specially designed online form,
2. makes an initial analysis of the charity's responses to specific questions to determine if the charity meets or does not meet the Standards for Charity Accountability, and
3. automatically generates a draft report on the subject charity that is reviewed by Alliance staff and forwarded to the subject charity prior to distribution.

"Rather than gathering and submitting hundreds of pages of paper documents, as is currently done for some of the Alliance's national charity evaluations, a charity will access an online form and complete a series of items, most of which are questions requiring a yes/no or numerical response," explained Taylor, "While much of the information submitted by charities will be automatically assessed by the system, the system will alert Alliance staff to problem areas, such as self dealing and appeal accuracy, that require individual scrutiny and possibly further clarification from the reporting charity."

Staff will review portions of information reported online against three basic documents that will be requested from each charity: audited financial statements, IRS Form 990 and the organization's annual report. The Alliance said it will encourage participating charities to attach these items electronically to the charity's completed online questionnaire.

With expected efficiencies resulting from the new technology, the Alliance anticipates a boost to its charity report volume from about 500 to several thousand national charity reports. The first of its kind by any charity monitoring organization, the Online Charity Reporting and Evaluation System is expected to become operational in August.

"We will be inviting national charities across the country to phone in, learn how the system works, and offer their comments at a webcast demonstration meeting to be held in the coming weeks," Taylor said, "It is our hope that this new tool will prove helpful to every charity interested in demonstrating its commitment to accountability."

The Alliance will be sharing the technology with local Better Business Bureaus to assist their reporting efforts on local and regional charities.

"Through this expanded effort, we intend national and local BBB charity reporting to remain at the front line of charity accountability," Taylor said.

Note to Editors: Additional information about the Online Charity Reporting and Evaluation System is available at the BBB Wise Giving Alliance Web site at www.give.org. The site also provides Alliance national charity reports on more than 450 nationally soliciting organizations, donor giving advice, information on the new charity seal program, as well as the text of the 20 Standards for Charity Accountability.