Our bad. We usued the template for FlyerTalk Cares from 2001 and you are correct, the text did list the Disaster Relief Fund. We have since updated the text on the announcement to go along with the copy we wrote and the headlines - this current effort is designated for the Indian Ocean area and that is the International Response Fund. So, any monies collected during the current drive are going to the International Response Fund which is currently serving the disaster in the Indian Ocean area. Thanks for the question. We'll change the other donation page for the name of the fund when the tech guys get in this morning, but i think the headlines and the copy reads OK.

As for donations directly to any charity. It is my understanding that when you donate to any charity - Red Cross or other - on a direct basis, that while you are able to count that as tax-deductible for the full amount, the charity actually does not receieve the fulkl amount. Obviously it varies whether you donate to the local chapter of a charity that may not get much of a break on the credit card processing fees or a smaller charity organization for the same reasons. Processing fees - not the labor involved, etc. - the amount that credot card companies chanrge any business to accept credit cards for payment can vary from nearly 2 percent to more than 4 percent, depending upon the type of business and volume of charges, etc. For many years these same credit card processing companies always charged more for online transactions because there was "no signature on file" and there was always the "threat" of a lot of charge-backs where credit card holders denied ever making the purchase online since the business/charity actually had to signature of the customer.

To make a long story short, when you donate to any charity using a credit card, the actual amount that the charity is able to use toward their efforts is 2-3 percent less because of these fees, though both methods (FlyerTalk or directly to the charity) are 100% tax-deductible. FlyerTalk is a community and we love to share and give as much as our members do which is why in 2001 we came upon this idea to acutally cover the processing fees so that 100 percent of what you give is usable by the charity.

We collect your donations and run them through our credit card payment system - we use Bank One if you are interested. We don't count these donations on our actual financial transactions. We then print out a list of the donors, their names, amounts, etc. and hand over to The Red Cross along with a certified check for 100% of the amounts pledged. A check has no processing fee so the Red Cross is actually able to count 100% of the donations toward their relief efforts. We fully realize that we are not getting that 100% from the credit card processor because of their fees, but that is our support toward caring and sharing in the FlyerTalk community. FlyerTalk actually doesn't even show up during the process of these donations to Red Cross since the list only contains the names and donor amounts of our members.

At the $12,000+ mark so far raised toward this effort, we're probably in the hole nearly $300, but we'll take that out of the ad revenue we raise as part of the funding of the FlyerTalk operation. We suspect and hope that amount will grow as we're very proud of this community.

Now, we understand that there are many different charities that work in this area and each member has their own personal choice. We simply don't have the manpower to track and manage the individual donation efforts that this would require - similar to why airlines don't have hundreds of charities they work with to donate your miles. We generally think that the Red Cross is an international group that is well-known and generally has a good reputation for their efforts. The interantional effort is important to us as we fully appreciate that FlyerTalk is not and can not be a U.S.-only concept.

We also chose to serve as the conduit for these efforts so that we could measure our community. Most other travel-related Web sites do not have these tyoes of effrots as we do and the ones that do, like Lonely Planet, simply have pass-through links directly to the Red Cross. That's simple and we may convert to that in the future, but it doesn't allow the community, like FlyerTalk, to measure and report the generosity of its community. We are extremely proud of FlyerTalk (we being you, I and thousands of others) and to have reaised $10,000 in just the first 24 hours is something we can all be proud of.

I hope this helps with your questions and thanks for your support of FlyerTalk and the concept of caring.