New guideline for U.S. charities overseas may make them targets.

Because a new U.S. Treasury guideline "suggest that charitable organizations are agents of the government," workers for U.S. charities overseas could be targets for terrorist groups. A group of 40 U.S. charities asked the Treasury Department to withdraw its new Anti-terrorist Financing Guidelines: Voluntary Best Practices for U.S.-based Charities.

The group is affiliated with the Council of Foundations. In its place they propose that the Treasury endorse the group's own Principles of International Charity, which includes eight principles to guide the anti-terrorism efforts of charities.

The guidelines propose that charitable organizations:

* engage in additional information-gathering activities;

* report individuals "suspected of activity related to terrorism" to the Treasury or the FBI;

* link more closely with the U.S. government.

They argue that collection of more information on more individuals and organizations would impose financial and administrative burdens on non-profits and hinder their charitable activities:

They claim that the information itself will have little utility in preventing the diversion of charitable funds to terrorist purposes.

The group complains that the government is potentially undermining the trust between U.S. charities and foreign recipients and creating additional concern about extremist groups targeting humanitarian workers.

They point out that the revised Guidelines do much more than offer guidance to charities that might be helpful in achieving compliance with sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

The publication of the revised Guidelines in the Federal Register may give government agencies cause to defer to the Guidelines as if they were mandatory, even though they continue to be labeled "voluntary."

The Working Group responded with its own Principles of International Charity document. It specifies eight fundamental principles, including the observance of all applicable U.S. and foreign legal requirements and the adoption of further practices, as deemed appropriate by individual charities, that may provide additional confidence that resources and services are provided for exclusively charitable purposes.

The group argues: "The foundation of the relationship between a service provider and the community can also be shaken if inquiries by the organization are perceived as undertaken on behalf of a government or as intelligence gathering. The consequences to humanitarian workers when charitable assistance is confused with military or intelligence operations may be deadly to staff and may undermine the effectiveness of the programs they deliver."

Among the organizations supporting the statement are: Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations, Save the Children, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Islamic Society of North America; Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; Grantmakers Without Borders, Philanthropic Programs of American Express, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; United Way International, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation.

www.cof.org