Tuesday is National Pancake Day and IHOP wants you to celebrate with a free short stack of buttermilk pancakes.

That’s right, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. IHOPs around the area (and nation) will give you free pancakes in hopes that you will voluntarily donate to the Children’s Miracle Network. The goal is raise a cool $2.3 million this Pancake Day.

If that goal is reached, IHOP will have raised over $7.65 million for the Children’s Miracle Network since they started this fundraiser six years ago.

Help them reach their efforts and fill up on a short stack.

NBCPhiladelphia.com

The humanitarian crisis in Haiti has compelled millions of people to pick up their phones. Not because they want to talk about it, but because they want to help.

In the aftermath of the Jan. 12 earthquake, pictures of hollow-eyed children outside leveled homes triggered an unprecedented number of text-messaged donations from people who were moved to help. Most of the donations were small — typically $10 — but millions of small contributions add up. The Red Cross says its campaign encouraging text-messaged donations has generated more than $30 million.

But charity experts say there are downsides to cellphone philanthropy.

“It’s getting so easy, you soon will be able to give by simply blinking your eyes,” says Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, a watchdog group. “The problem is it can also lead to impulsive giving, which is not good because you can give to an inefficient or ineffective charity.”

If you want to text-message your donations, Borochoff says, give to a charity you’ve already vetted. You should also be aware of fees and administrative costs. In response to the crisis in Haiti, the major wireless companies have agreed to waive their standard text-messaging fees.

Text-messaged donations may also take longer to get to the charity.

When you text a contribution, the amount is added to your phone bill. It can take up to 90 days for your provider to send the money to the charity, because providers usually wait until customers have paid their bills before sending the donation. But in response to the urgent need in Haiti, major wireless carriers have agreed to accelerate donations for earthquake relief.

Still, the most efficient way to give is online, says Ken Berger, president of Charity Navigator. Most major charities allow you to make credit card donations directly through their websites, he says. “It’s the fastest way (to give) and the least expensive for the charities to process.”

Other giving tips:

•Give to charities that already have experience in Haiti. After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, a third of the organizations that came to help victims in Thailand were new charities, says Saundra Schimmelpfennig, a former Peace Corps volunteer who helped the Thailand government coordinate tsunami aid. Many of the groups were well-meaning but ineffective, she says.

There are many worthwhile organizations with a good track record in Haiti, Borochoff says, so there’s no reason to take a risk with an unknown organization.

•Don’t earmark donations. After the 2004 tsunami, Thailand received so much money to build orphanages that the government built more than it needed, Schimmelpfennig says. Some desperate parents gave up their children in order to get assistance. Pressure from donors to get victims out of tents quickly also led some charities to build substandard homes that eventually had to be replaced, she says.

Once you’ve selected a worthwhile charity, don’t put restrictions on your donations, Berger says. “If you trust them and they’ve got a good track record, give them the freedom to use their judgment to handle the disaster.”

•Take advantage of new tax rules. Legislation signed by President Obama on Jan. 22 allows taxpayers who contribute to Haiti earthquake relief to claim the deductions on their 2009 tax return. Ordinarily, you’re required to deduct charitable contributions in the year they’re made.

The provision is limited to cash contributions made between Jan. 11 and March 1, 2010.

If you think the deduction will be more valuable this year, then you can claim it when you file your 2010 tax return. As is the case with all charitable contributions, you must itemize to claim the deduction.

You’re required to keep a record of charitable contributions that you deduct. If you donated by text message, the IRS says, your telephone bill will meet that requirement, as long as it shows the name of the organization that received your contribution, the date of the donation, and the amount. For other types of contributions, keep a bank record, such as a canceled check or a receipt from the charity.

•Make a long-term commitment to give. Look for organizations that will remain in Haiti after the disaster-relief efforts have ended and continue to support them, Berger says.

“The experts are saying it’s going to be 10 years at a minimum before Haiti is going to be back to where it was,” he says, “and it wasn’t in great shape to begin with.”

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/block/2010-02-02-ym02_ST_N.htm

It’s getting easier to donate money to Haitian relief efforts — and to feel certain that your full donation goes to help, rather than being diluted by fees and administrative charges.

The donations will carry special tax breaks, too, should President Obama sign a bill today that would let Americans take a deduction on their 2009 tax returns for charitable donations made to Haitian earthquake relief through February.

And many companies are making sure donations are getting to relief efforts quickly and will not be reduced by fees. Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover have agreed to suspend fees for credit card donations to many charities. Text-message donations to charities such as the American Red Cross also have surged, prompting major wireless companies to waive similar fees.

It can take up to 90 days for funds pledged via text message to be passed on to a charity, because the wireless company waits until customers pay their bills before sending the donation. But major wireless carriers have decided to speed the delivery of these donations.

“We’ve made sure that the money was in the hands of those who need it as soon as possible,” says Verizon spokesman Chuck Hamby. So far, Verizon has sent $8 million to the American Red Cross that it has received from customer pledges.

“I think it’s a noble and right thing for them to suspend it for a time, particularly when the money will be used for such a difficult situation as we see in Haiti,” says Herman “Art” Taylor, CEO of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2010-01-22-haiti-fees_N.htm

There’s a new effort to increase volunteerism in cities nationwide.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley joined Judith Rodin, Rockefeller Foundation president (and former University of Pennsylvania president) today to announce grants of $200,000 apiece to 10 cities, including Philadelphia.

The money can be used to hire senior officials dedicated to developing plans to increase volunteerism under the new Cities of Service Coalition.

“As tens of thousands of Philadelphians are hard at work at project sites across the city to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., this grant is one more thing to celebrate and is a great boost for service and volunteer efforts in Philadelphia,” Mayor Nutter said.

The coalition is an outgrowth of a New York City program Bloomberg founded last April in response to President Barack Obama’s call for increased civic service.

In addition to Philadelphia, the grants are going to Chicago; Detroit; Los Angeles; Nashville-Davidson, Tenn.; Newark, N.J.; Omaha, Neb.; Sacramento, Calif.; Savannah, Ga.; and Seattle.

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/20100118_Phila__among_cities_getting__200K_volunteering_grants.html

More Americans are getting help to pay home heating bills, and more are likely to need help as the economy continues to struggle, says the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association.

Almost 8 million U.S. households received federal government help to heat homes in fiscal year 2009, up 33% from the prior year, the association says. Applications for assistance in the current fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, are running even higher as more people join the ranks of the long-term unemployed, the association says.

“It looks like 2010 will be a very difficult winter for a lot of people,” says Mark Wolfe, the association’s executive director. The group represents programs that subsidize energy bills.

More households got assistance last year because of increased funding. Congress gave $5.1 billion to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP. That was up from $2.6 billion in fiscal 2008.

Wolfe says the federal government is increasingly stepping in to provide Americans with help paying energy bills in the same fashion it’s provided base coverage for food and health care. “We are not there yet. But the numbers are moving in that direction,” he says.

The big increase in LIHEAP funding last year helped stem what could have been a flood of utility shutoffs, Wolfe says.

In fiscal 2009, 4.3 million U.S. households had utilities shut off at one time or another for non-payment, the association says. That was up from 4.1 million in the previous year.

Much of that increase was likely driven by owners of foreclosed homes who walked away from utility bills, Wolfe says.

Because LIHEAP funds were greater, the average grant to a household in fiscal 2009 covered 48% of winter heating bills, up from 33% in the prior year. The higher coverage probably saved some from shutoffs, Wolfe says.

Given a national unemployment rate of 10% and continued weakness in the economy, Wolfe anticipates a 20% jump in families seeking assistance in the current year, based on initial applications.

If that continues, the association anticipates LIHEAP will need $7.5 billion to keep services at current levels. Wolfe says his group expects to ask Congress for additional funding to keep up. If it doesn’t come through, assistance may be cut, he says.

Lower heating bills may help consumers this year. Winter heating bills are expected to drop an average of 8% nationwide from last year, the Energy Information Administration has said.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2009-12-18-energyaid18_ST_N.htm

Citigroup announced Thursday that they will suspend foreclosures and evictions for 30 days in a temporary break for about 4,000 borrowers during the holiday season.

The suspension will run from Friday through Jan. 17. It applies only to borrowers whose loans are owned by Citi. Borrowers who make payments to Citi but whose loans are owned by other investors are out of luck.

“We want our borrowers to have a much less stressful time, to spend their time with their families during the holidays as opposed to worrying about their homes,” Sanjiv Das, head of the company’s mortgage division, said in an interview.

The suspension means Citi will halt foreclosure sales and stop evicting homeowners from properties it has already seized. The company projects it will help 2,000 homeowners with scheduled foreclosure sales and another 2,000 that were due to receive foreclosure notices.

Das also said the company is working on “some long-term fundamental alternatives” to foreclosure, but declined to be specific. “We know that moratoriums are not permanent solutions,” he said.

Most major lenders suspended foreclosures last winter while the Obama administration developed its $75 billion loan modification program. Foreclosures picked up again after those suspensions lifted. In recent months, they have fallen as banks evaluate whether borrowers qualify for the government program.

Citi has enrolled about 100,000 borrowers in the Obama program, but had made only about 270 of those modifications permanent as of the end of last month, according to a Treasury Department report. But Das said the low number resulted from a “reporting error” and said it will rise dramatically by year-end.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2009-12-17-citigroup-suspends-foreclosures_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip