As most of us know it, charity toward others is among humanity's greatest virtues. There is a purity to the very word. It is a principle of selflessness and sacrifice dwelling at the very core of the Christian faith.

To give is to receive. To be charitable toward the downtrodden, toward society's less fortunate, is to share in the very nature of God.

Charity is emblematic of the best in us, regardless of faith, bringing to mind a cornucopia of wealth flowing the right way, from the haves to the have-nots. With little or nothing expected in return save the exquisite joy of giving. Charity affirms our souls.

For those reasons and more, many of us - dare we say most - find something offensive in "charity" that is, in fact, a means of profiteering.

Virtually all true charities measure their benevolence by how little they extract from the till. Watchdog groups - the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance, for example - typically measure a charity's effectiveness by the percentage of its receipts that are spent on "program activities." How much they actually give to the poor, in other words.

For over a year, Arizona Republic reporter Robert Anglen and his editors have tracked the activities of an intricately knit group of charities that appears to have violated some of those basic principles of giving.

While these charities do, in fact, provide resources of food and medicine to the needy, often in far-flung points on the globe, their operators appear to expect - and receive - a great deal in return for themselves.

Like luxury cars and disturbingly high salaries for charity operators. The charity operators appear to have used cash donations to pay for their salaries, travel and expenses while using the (often inflated) value of food and medical supplies to understate their operating expenses as a percentage of donations.

Following a paper trail

The many charity organizations tied to the Don Stewart Association, a Phoenix Christian ministry, have a system.

Over a three-year period, 22 charities tied to the Stewart association reported $154 million in revenue, four-fifths of it in the form of food and medicine, according to The Republic's investigation.

Of that $154 million, fully $82 million of it involved food and medicine the charities never handled. They were all on paper. And with every paper donation of hard goods a charity in the Stewart system receives, the bottom line of each charity is enhanced, making it more appealing to potential cash donors.

And the ratio of expenses racked up by each charity's directors - virtually all of them tied by family or business association to Christian preacher Don Stewart himself - dwindles in comparison to the seemingly enormous supplies of food and medicine each charity handles. Handles, that is, on paper.

Today through Wednesday, The Republic reports on the charities tied to Don Stewart. On the intricate system of transactions. On the tight, often familial relationships of the charity directors, whose operations (often located in residences or, in one case, a post-office box) are spread across cities in the U.S., Canada, Europe and the Near East.

Further, Anglen reports on the deep concerns watchdog groups have with these charities, which receive financial contributions from the Combined Federal Campaign, a source of $273 million overall in charitable contributions last year from a million federal employees.

Anglen's reporting already appears to be generating results.

Piqued with interest following Anglen's inquiries, Canadian officials have shut down a "charity" in British Columbia that facilitated the transfer of goods within the network of Stewart-related charities - at least on paper.

The "charity," operated by a couple that spends half the year in France, is less a charity than a middleman or broker, according to the Canadians. The clever, tightly woven scheme appears to be unraveling.

A flawed system of giving

Anglen's reporting can be found both on Republic news pages and online. The online reporting includes graphics and interactive imagery that depict, with stunning clarity, the depth of interplay among the web of charities tied to the Phoenix-based Stewart.

The food, the medicine and the services go back and forth incessantly. Almost always on paper.

And the cash gets spread around from charity to charity, bolstering the bottom line of each charity and allowing for the inflated expenses, such as salaries and vehicles. And burnishing a false image of charitable efficiency for each one.

Anglen's detailed reporting has revealed a gross flaw in the system that allocates the precious dollars of well-intentioned givers to the nation's charities. The system is clearly broken.

Among the most serious problems in need of immediate fixing: the system of charitable "federations" that gives groups like the Stewart-related charities credibility, yet which themselves are reliant on their members for their funding. The charity game appears to be an easy one to manipulate.

A nation that donated $300 billion to charitable causes in 2006 - a nation of citizens committed to the virtue of selflessness toward others, in other words - should not be made the prey of clever schemers who game the system to their own advantage whether their scheme is legal or not.

It is, at the least, uncharitable.