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"  Charity Checks&amp;#039; &amp;quot;giving certificates&amp;quot; allow consumers to shop from home, save on taxes and give a present that&amp;#039;s redeemable as a donation to any of 800,000 IRS-qualified charities across the country. Here&amp;#039;s how it works: Say you decide to order CHARITY CHECKS for ten friends, and you want to give each one a $50 &amp;quot;giving certificate.&amp;quot; You get a $500 tax deduction and each of your friends receives $50 to give to his or her favorite cause. In the pilot program, Scott Cook, co-Founder of Intuit (the makers of Quicken software), purchased Charity Checks for his 42 Vice-Presidents. He chose the amount of the donation, but his employees were free to select the cause or charity that benefited from his tax-deductible gift. A valuable new tool for personal or business philanthropy, CHARITY CHECKS are the brainchild of the husband-and-wife team Victor Dorff, a journalist and educator, and Lisa Sonne, a documentary film producer and magazine writer. &amp;quot;You give them to the people you care about,&amp;quot; says Dorff, &amp;quot;and the recipients give them to the causes they want to help \u2014 relief funds, soup kitchens, local symphonies, national literacy programs, hospitals and public television, just to name a few. The giver of a Charity Check receives the tax-deduction, but the receivers enjoy the opportunity to make a contribution of their own choosing.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Gift certificates can buy goods. Giving Certificates can do good,&amp;quot; said Sonne. &amp;quot;Whether a company is sponsoring a classroom of kids or using Charity Checks as employee benefits, and whether an individual is giving them as gifts or using them as part of a personal philanthropy program, people are determining what they care about... and making a difference.&amp;quot; To give go to www.CharityChecks.us. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/a23109/charity-checks-holiday-giving/>