Internet Proves an Able Fund-Raiser

The Internet has topped its load as a communications vehicle this month. Not only did it provide an often more reliable alternative to downed wireless phones and land lines for getting in touch after the terrorist attacks, it has proven itself as an adept fund-raising tool.

A Web site sponsored by six U.S. firms collected nearly $58 million in donations to help with recovery efforts from last week's attacks in New York and Washington.

The Web site, American Liberty Partnership, reports raising $57.7 million for nearly 30 charitable groups. Recipients include the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, and the New York State World Trade Center Relief Fund.

Partners in the American Liberty Project are Amazon.com, AOL Time Warner, Cisco Systems, eBay, Microsoft, and Yahoo.

The donations from the public and businesses are intended to help with rebuilding, and to assist charitable organizations in offering medical and financial help. The site also features updates on the relief effort.

Partners Rally

Several of the American Liberty Project partners and other firms are routing contributions through their Web sites. Through a link on its site, Amazon.com has raised $11 million for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.

The electronic bill-paying site Paypal has raised $1 million, and Yahoo's competing PayDirect e-payment service has brought in $6 million for established relief organizations.

AOL members have contributed $6 million through links on the Internet service's sites.

And Ebay has opened a charitable auction site to benefit victims of the attacks. Its stated challenge: to raise $100 million in the 100 days that Auction for America will operate.

Upon its launch on Monday, the charity auction listed some 5000 items, including electronics equipment and jewelry, according to an eBay representative. Cash donations are also accepted.

The Red Cross and other well-known organizations accept donations via their Web sites. Established charity collection site Helping.org also provides links to several relief organizations among the more than 600,000 other national nonprofits listed on its site.

Caution Urged

Relief organizations continue to caution would-be contributors to be careful about where they click. Several scams to take advantage of people's generosity have been identified online. E-mail solicitations in particular are suspect, unless they link to established organizations such as the American Red Cross and United Way of New York.

Also, some e-mail that contains legitimate charity links may actually be spam from purveyors who are gathering e-mail addresses for future use. When you click on a link in a spammer's e-mail message, the sender confirms your e-mail address is valid, says Tom Geller, executive director of the SpamCon Foundation, which works against unsolicited e-mail.

Already, there have also been reports of some false charities established to collect money in the wake of the tragedy.