Best Ways To Help Katrina Victims

What's Needed Most, Groups To Give To, And Avoiding Scams

(CBS)  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.