Best Ways To Help Katrina Victims

The gripping images and stories in the aftermath of Katrina are prompting many people to donate to charities assisting the victims.

Trent Stamp, executive director of Charity Navigator, the nation's largest charity rating service, tells The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm that the best way to help the people in the most need is to donate money rather than goods.

"As much as we would like to donate diapers or clothes or rubber boots," he says, "they're not prepared to receive them right now. The best thing you can do is to write a check or give a gift via your credit card. Don't send cash. We just need to send money. I'm afraid that's all they can handle right now, and that's what they need to make a difference."

And don't wait, Stamp urges: "Donate now, while it's in your consciousness, while we see it on TV. They're going to need the money in the long run. So follow up on your gift. Keep informed. See what happens. In the long-run, they're gonna be rebuilding schools and roads and doing long-term work but, right now, we're talking about saving lives, and they need the money today."

Stamp says that Charity Navigator is a nonprofit organization that evaluates over 4,500 groups on its Web site, charitynavigator.org.

"We don't care what they do," Stamps says. "We only want to know if they're going to spend your money appropriately, in the way that you want. You can go to our site. You'll find a list of charities working for Hurricane Katrina.

"Right now, you can trust American Red Cross, AmeriCares, America's Second Harvest, MercyCorps, and Convoy of Hope. There's another 10 or 12 that are going to spend your money appropriately, who have done this kind of work before."

And that's a key, Stamps stresses: "That's what's really important in a crisis like this. It's not the time for amateurs or people with good intentions, but have never done this kind of disaster relief before. You need a large, serious organization that's done this work before and will spend your money appropriately to make sure they can do the most they can."

What's more, beware of telemarketers, Stamp advises.

"If someone calls you on the phone," he says, "the odds are they don't work for that organization. They are professional fundraisers. They're gonna keep somewhere between 25 and 95 cents of every dollar they collect.

"If you like someone who calls you on the phone for some reason, hang up and call the charity yourself, and you'll ensure that 100 percent of the donation gets to the charity.

Stamp says you are more likely to get scammed if somebody calls you on the phone and wants your credit card.

"Good charities, right now, don't have time to call you," he says. "They're busy. If they call you on the phone, be wary."

If you want to donate your time, know that the work may not be what you imagine, Stamps says.

The Red Cross, for instance, would be "happy to take you. But remember, what's not going to happen is, you're not going to go down and throw sandbags in the water. You're going to open envelopes and work the phones. That's what they need.

"You can help, but it's not going to be the sexy kind of disaster relief work where you're gonna carry bodies out of the water. That's being done by trained professionals. You can help answer the phones, open envelopes and donate blood."

Stamp says a pool of 2 million people who might ordinarily be giving blood in New Orleans now can't, so the difference needs to be made up by the rest of us.