Phone Billing Option Offered to Encourage Donations

By DEBRA E. BLUM and HOLLY HALL

Some 150 charities are now offering donors the chance to give on line though donations that are charged to their telephone bills. The new service is designed to appeal to donors who are leery about giving out their credit-card account numbers over the Internet.

Here's how it works: After a donor makes a pledge on a charity's Web site, encrypted information about the pledge is downloaded to the donor's computer, the donor's modem severs the Internet connection