At a time of year when nonprofits rake in most of their dough, this week's Rogue proves the importance of checking out charities before opening your wallet.

The National Missing Children's Locate Center Inc. sounds like a worthwhile organization. But of the more than $1.5 million the Northeast Portland charity raised last year, it spent only $112,000, or about 7 cents of every dollar, on program services, according its tax return. The group spent the other 93 cents on management expenses and fund raising.

Victoria Cox of the AG's office says such an expense ratio is highly unusual. "It's terrible," Cox says. "We find these numbers appalling."

Indeed, the numbers at many other nonprofits are flipped. The Oregon Food Bank, for example, spends more than 90 cents of each dollar raised on program services.

Stephen Jenkevice, NMCLC's vice president, professed ignorance of how the operation reports its activities, despite having run the child-finding operation for 17 years with his wife, Marilyn Mann.

He says the organization's tax return was prepared incorrectly. "The numbers are wrong," he argues. "I'm a private investigator, not an accountant."

So WW walked Jenkevice through the organization's reported expenses, which included $476,000 for postage, $336,000 for printing, $218,000 for computer databases and his salary of $36,000. After the review, Jenkevice blamed the heavy spending on a costly sweepstakes effort. "We made a mistake," he admits.

The AG's office is currently reviewing two complaints against the Children's Locate Center, but Cox says the First Amendment gives broad protection to charitable solicitations. "We're really limited unless they're blatantly lying," she says.

Cox advises consumers to check out charities before giving, either by asking how they spend their money or visiting tracking websites such as www.guidestar.org.