Click here: Cash, volunteers are available. (Free For All).

Disaster relief, assisting disabled veterans and saving chimpanzees. Three very different charitable causes with one significant similarity: Each allows visitors to their Web site to donate directly online with the click of a button.

It's a good method to capitalize on compulsive donors, but one doesn't need the intellect of Washoe, the signlanguage chimp, to figure out that nonprofits don't always have the necessary resources to employ these capabilities.

Enter CharityWave.com, a charitysupport service that will provide a Web donation page and guarantee the delivery of 100 percent of every dollar that the site generates to qualifying nonprofits. The site is a product of Wave Systems Corporation, a New York City-based Internet commerce and services company.

"What you're getting is a donation template. So, it's a donations screen which is similar to everybody else's," explained Cristine Cronin, director of the organization. "You're getting a very secure site and a technologically advanced infrastructure that ensures people privacy."

The donations page allows an organization to put its mission statement onto the site as well as providing additional page that can contain as much text and relevant information as the nonprofit sees fit. From that additional information page a donor can link directly to the nonprofit's homepage.

Cronin realized that the service was needed in the sector but felt obligated to best serve the donor through diligence. With that goal in mind, CharityWave has developed a set of criteria that each organization must meet to qualify for the free services.

To begin, an applicant must prove that it is a legitimate 501(c)(3) CharityWave also wants to know that the nonprofit is providing the public with its IRS forms upon request.guideStar.org is a perfectly acceptable method and non-Guidestar participants will be questioned regarding the public distribution of the Form 990s. Additional information, such as press coverage, is also considered beneficial in that it portrays the attitude of the community on the organization, Cronin said.

If all of this information is provided, the application was filled out properly and the legal agreement signed, it could take as little as a few weeks before an organization is given the thumbs up or thumbs down. CharityWave actively seeks the information it requires so the onus is not entirely on the nonprofit applicant.

"Our legal agreement is written in a very open-ended fashion," Cronin said. "We're entering into an agreement with a charity where we'll list them and they will link to us for however long each of us agrees that the relationship is working. If the organization decides one day that the CharityWave agreement isn't exactly what they would like to participate in anymore all they have to do is notify us and we'll take them off the site. That goes for us too. If I'm reading in the paper that a particular charity on our site has suddenly gotten into a lot of trouble with their state attorney general's office and it's a very, very serious matter, then I would want them off the site as well," she said. "Either one of us can back out of the agreement easily."

Upon acceptance a template is provided and upon its completion it is launched "almost immediately," according to Cronin. There are some quality assurance checks carried out but other than that it gets launched quickly onto the Web.

The organization can go online at any time and look at its donation history including date, time the gift was donated and the amount of dollars that was given, if donors have allowed their names to be passed along, meaning they haven't clicked on a button stating their preference for anoymity, nonprofits can look up the name, address, phone number of their donors.

At the end of every month an accountant at CharityWave tallies up the results and sends out checks, normally the third to fifth day after the end of each month. Money is sent out regardless of how small the amount may be that month.

Volunteer hunters

If fundraising isn't your organization's issue, the Web can also provide solace for the free-seeker desperate for resources that are more human. Rarely do you hear of an organization with too many volunteers, but there are plenty of causes desperately in need of bodies. Sure the classifieds of your local newspaper are a viable option but now you can pocket those advertising scoots and list your needs without cost at ePartTimeJobs.com. This for-profit company provides a complimentary section of their site to anyone looking for non-paid help.

"What we have found is that our demographics and the aging baby boomers are going to look to continue to work as well a do something philanthropic like volunteering," said Jayne Woolf, CEO of the Web site that is based in Scarsdale, N.Y "A lot of people also don't know what else is available to them other than the big charities that exist. They don't know what local organizations are doing in their geographic location."

To utilize the service just logon to the site, click the "Free" button on the toolbar, and access the area labeled, "Click here to post your unpaid internship and volunteer positions for free." From there it's a painless step-by-step process to construct and post an ad.

The jobs will stay up for 60 days but organizations can keep them up longer by renewing their listing if the position hasn't been filled. If a match is found, the organization is responsible for removing its ad from the site.

If a nonprofit really wants exposure they can arrange to talk to ePartTimeJobs about putting up banner ads. Banner ads are produced for charities at no charge, at the discretion of the Web site. Nonprofits should call [phone] if they're interested in putting up a banner.

Disclaimer: The NPT is not responsible for the effects of profiled services, software products or free stuffs on devices, networks or programs. Nor do we endorse Washoe the chimp over Bubbles, Bonzo, Ham the space simian or Cornelius from Planet of the Apes.

Send ideas for Free For All to: Craig Causer via email: [e-mail] or you can fax it to us at [phone].