Charities face daunting terrorism screening requirement

Published: 2004-08-17

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Three sentences in Item 16 of the check-off list for applications for funding from the federal employees' United Way-style charity campaign may cause some charitable agencies to investigate thousands of employees, volunteers and subcontractors around the world. The section, added to applications in the last year, requires each of the 10,000 charities that receives money through the Combined Federal Campaign to certify that it does not knowingly employ people or contribute to organizations whose names appear on any of several terrorist watch lists maintained by the government. Like the United Way, the campaign is a way for government employees to donate a part of their paycheck to charity. For a CFC recipient the size of Life Teen Inc., a nationwide Catholic youth ministry program, meeting the requirement is probably no more complicated than checking the names of about 30 employees in a handful of U.S. offices against the tens of thousands of names on the government lists, according to Life Teen spokeswoman Jennifer Swanson. But complying with Item 16 for Catholic Relief Services might require the Baltimore-based international relief and development program to check not only the names of its own 5,000 to 6,000 employees worldwide, but the names of every employee at every one of the thousands of partner agencies and vendors it uses around the world.

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