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Aid For Teens

This one-click charity is Not Recommended.

NOTE: Only the "view" option was reviewed. The search, buy, and other methods of donating are not within the scope of One-Click Charity Check, and were ignored.

Date of Review: October 3, 2002

Pertinent data for this site:

• Owned by: Jordan Michaels
• Owner profit type: generous individual
• URL: http://www.aidforteens.com/
• Donations go to:
  • Bridgeway
  • Covenant House
  • Children of the Night
• Percentage of revenue that goes to the beneficiary(ies): According to FAQ: "We donate a minimum of 90% of all funds generated to charity. A maximum of 10% is used for the cost of operating this site."
• Method of payment: not stated
• Geographic limitations: Covenant House does some work internationally, but Bridgeway and Children of the Night operate only in the US.
• Language(s): English
• Calendar day for this site starts at: not stated.

Jump to the summary of what this site should do to improve

Criteria that have been met will have a checkmark graphic, and criteria that have not been met will have an X-mark graphic, as shown below. Further details will be listed below each criteria specifying what elements resulted in the checkmark or X-mark.

How this site scored on the criteria (version 1.41):

Critical Criteria

1. I have confirmed that the beneficiaries are getting the money owed them as follows:
   • Dana Brown, Bridgeway Staff, confirmed that Aid For Teens sends Bridgeway funds on a regular basis.
   • Izabella, an accounting representative from Children of the Night, confirmed that Jordan Michaels has sent several donations.
   • An unnamed representative from Covenant House confirmed that they have received several donations under Jordan Michaels' name since November, 2001.
2. Contact data for the one-click company/individual is displayed on the site as follows:
   • Email or Form Mail (required) - shown on the About Us page and on the FAQ page
   • Phone number (strongly recommended) - not provided
   • Postal address (strongly recommended) - shown on the About Us page
3. There is a clear description of who gets the money, as follows:
   • Beneficiaries are clearly stated in the FAQ and on the main page.
4. There is clear indication that the site is still operating (as of the date of this review) as follows:
   • I couldn't find any, even though I know from personal conversations with Jordan that the site is still operating. Users who do not have the benefit of such conversations cannot know that the site has been updated since April of 2001 (the most recent article dates on the Abuse Facts page and Health Facts page. The More Donation Sites page includes a link to EndCancerNow.com, which closed quite some time ago and isn't even a valid URL anymore. The copyright date still only goes as far as 2001, even though 2002 is almost over. I don't expect monthly updates from sites run by a generous individual, but something indicating an update every three months or so is a reasonable expectation so users know their clicks continue to be useful.
5. The site does not require users to visit another site, nor perform any activity other than clicking on a donate button/graphic for a donation to count.
6. The site counts donations regardless of user input or registration.
   • I am not a registered user of this site, and as such performed the review as an unregistered guest.

Important Criteria

1. There is no apparent conflict of interest.
   • Children of the Night and Covenant House both could not locate records of receipt under "AidForTeens," while Bridgeway did. The first two groups did provide confirmation when asked about Jordan Michaels, saying the donations were given in his name. This could signal a potential conflict of interest in that tax receipts may end up being used against Michaels' personal income tax, even though he technically did not pay for the donation. However, it could just be a matter of convenience, and Michaels could well abstain from using the tax receipts in such a manner. I will give Michaels a chance to either change this practise or more fully disclaimer it before the next review. If nothing has changed by the next review, this will be considered a potential conflict of interest.
2. All possible ulterior motives (such as religious affiliation, being part of another organization, being part of a marketing campaign from some corporate entity, etc.) are listed as follows:
   • Michaels himself has a religious affiliation that he mentions on the About Us page, and Covenant House is a religion-based institution, but all of this is fully disclosed and further rendered moot by the declaration of being non-denominational and non-political on the About Us page, and the choice of two non-denominational beneficiaries along with Covenant House. Also, the FAQ makes it clear that "A maximum of 10% is used for the cost of operating this site." Therefore, it is my assessment that this site does not harbour any ulterior motivation, religious or otherwise.
3. The site has up-to-date, accurate information throughout, as follows:
   • See Critical Criterion #4 above. The presence of many facts from the late 1990s through to early 2001 is noted, but insufficient given the number of out-of-date indications.
4. The site has a good frequently asked questions (FAQ) area.
   • There is a good FAQ, although it could use clarification on when the day begins and ends so users know how long they have to use up their 20 clicks.
5. The money is not just being collected for the future; it is in use now.
6. The site specifies how much each sponsor pays per click as follows:
   • When the user donates, a paragraph below the donation information says, "We have estimated that about one-tenth of a penny is donated every time you click the donate button , meaning you can donate up to $0.02 cents a day."
   • Type of currency is not stated, but is presumably US dollars. It should be clarified for non-US users.
7. There is a clear privacy policy.
   • Privacy Policy.
8. Users can access information about the site, such as the FAQ, Privacy Policy, etc. before clicking to donate.

Useful Criteria

1. The site is accessible to the disabled or to slow computers as follows:
   • Bobby test results (Bobby site was unavailable during the review, so I used resident Bobby v3.2 software on my computer to generate a similar result):

     This page does not meet the requirements for Bobby Approved status. Below is a list of 1 Priority 1 accessibility errors found:

     • Provide alternative text for all images. (7 instances) Line 136, Line 151, Line 170, Line 182, Line 302, Line 406, Line 438

     User checks are triggered by something specific on the page; however, you need to determine whether they apply. Bobby Approval requires that none of them apply to your page. Please review these 10 item(s):

     • Provide alternative content for each SCRIPT that conveys important information or functionality.
     • Be sure pages are readable and usable if style sheets are ignored.
     • If an image conveys important information beyond what is its alternative text, provide an extended description. (18 instances) Line 136, Line 140, Line 151, Line 170, Line 182, Line 302, Line 343, Line 348, Line 355, Line 360, Line 406, Line 418, Line 429, Line 438
     • If you use color to convey information, make sure the information is also represented another way.
     • Provide alternative content for each OBJECT. (1 instance) Line 18
     • If a table has two or more rows or columns that serve as headers, use structural markup to identify their hierarchy and relationship. (13 instances) Line 134, Line 149, Line 168, Line 185, Line 180, Line 339, Line 305, Line 300, Line 409, Line 404, Line 177, Line 443, Line 457
     • Make sure pages are still usable if programmatic objects do not function. (1 instance) Lines 15-17
     • Provide accessible alternatives to the information in scripts, applets, or objects. (1 instance) Lines 15-17
     • Make sure programmatic objects do not cause the screen to flicker.
     • For tables not used for layout (for example, a spreadsheet), identify headers for the table rows and columns. (4 instances) Line 185, Line 339, Line 305, Line 409

     Several graphics are missing ALTs. They may only be spacer graphics, but to aid screen readers and not confuse text-only users, such graphics should contain a null ALT (alt=""). Some of the user checks may also need to be addressed.
   • Standard elements such as ALT tags are NOT present
   • HTML is NOT valid according to W3C specifications
   • Site looks reasonable in Lynx, but could use some improvements. A means to skip the long list of navigation links would be helpful.
2. The site does not induce pop-up windows, disable browser buttons, or otherwise hijack the user's browser or computer.
3. This site has good navigability as follows:
   • navigation information on every page (strongly recommended)
   • navigation does not require javascript, frames, etc. without an alternative
   • most links should work and go where the user will assume they're going (one broken link found, see Critical #4).
   • URLs are short and logical - URLs include login/guest information, but can be truncated to not include it.
4. The site is aesthetically pleasing and uncomplicated, as follows:
   • no animated gifs other than the ads
   • good colour scheme
   • no javascript and other useless toys (other than for logging in)
5. The site does not promote, inadvertently or otherwise, poor behaviour such as spam.
   • The site has a good anti-spam policy and reminds users of the Tell a Friend feature to read that policy. This could be improved by moving the reminder up further on the page, before the send button.
6. Cookies are not required for donations to count.
   • According to the Privacy Policy, cookies are only used to remember a login name for registered users.
7. If the money collected is only going to one country or smaller geographical division, this is noted as follows:
   • Covenant House does some work internationally, but Bridgeway and Children of the Night operate only in the US. This heavy concentration of fundraising for the US should be noted so clickers from other countries can decide if they still wish to click daily, and to encourage US residents to do so.
8. There is detailed, accurate information about why the money is needed, and statistics are used in a responsible, contextual manner.
   • There are several pages of pertinent facts that do a good job of convincing the user to click to help.
9. Donation totals are posted. Non-daily totals or batch-posted totals include a statement as to how often the totals are updated.
   • The totals are only grand totals going back to the start of the site, as well as a leaderboard for registered users. As such, they are not batch-posted.

Considerations outside of criteria

This is another unfortunate situation where I know the site is still operating, but I must downgrade it for failing to demonstrate such. I began a new policy with this review of giving site administrators a week to upload some kind of evidence of update, but I could still find no clear indication of timeliness, even two weeks later.

However, I completely understand that it can be very difficult for a generous individual to update frequently. As such, I only really expect something indicating continued maintenance every three months or so. But given that it is late in 2002 and I could find no evidence of update since early 2001, I had to mark it down. It is possible that other elements have been added or removed in this time, but without a date indicating when things were last updated, users cannot easily tell.

The broken link in and of itself is forgivable since it seems to be just the one, but it is recommended that site owners update their copyright information yearly for their own protection, as well as to reassure users that the site has not been abandoned.

Michaels has donated to two of the beneficiaries under his own name. This concerns me, because it could mean that tax receipts will be issued in his name, allowing him to use the donations as a personal tax deduction. I am not saying that Michaels is doing this, but it is a concern. Michaels should be sending the money in the site's name, or at the very least make some sort of pledge on the site to not misuse the tax receipts. If this issue has not been cleared up by the next review, I may have to note it more strictly under the conflict of interest criterion, and possibly downgrade that point.

The notation of how much is raised per click should specify the currency used, as not everyone will automatically assume US dollars.

The site needs some checks and tweaking to make it accessible to non-graphical users. This only takes a small extra effort, but promotes inclusiveness and allows more people to click to donate.

Summary of what this site should do to improve

More effort needs to be made to ensure users do not think the site has been abandoned. Copyright year should be updated annually for this reason and for protection of the site. The links page should be checked occasionally for dead links. Facts and statistics should be updated when possible.

Michaels should send donations only in site's name, or should declare that he won't use the donations in his name for his personal tax deduction purposes.

There should be a notation of when the day starts in terms of counting the 20 clicks per day.

The currency of the funds being collected should be noted so users don't have to just assume it's US dollars.

Some tweaking needed to make the page accessible, such as missing ALTs.

Since beneficiaries all work primarily in the US, it would be helpful to users for this general limitation to be noted somewhere on the site, both to encourage US users and to fully inform non-US users.

Review History:

• Original Review
  • Date: October 3, 2002
  • Grade: Not Recommended
  • Problems:
    • More updates needed, at least every few months.
    • Copyright year should be updated annually.
    • Broken link to EndCancerNow should be removed.
    • Donations should not be made in personal name, or declaration should be made that receipts will not be used for personal taxes.
    • Should be notation of when day starts.
    • The currency of the funds being collected should be noted.
    • Some tweaking needed to make the page accessible, such as missing ALTs.
    • Geographical limitation should be noted.