Shortly after the Salvation Army's red kettle ringers set up shop around Chicago this year, Rick Garcia took to his Facebook page and posted a status update telling friends and followers to boycott the group.

The Salvation Army uses donated money to oppose gay rights, wrote Garcia, a senior policy adviser at The Civil Rights Agenda, attaching a photo of a fact sheet. He suggested that his friends "pass the kettle" and give their money to other groups instead.

"Serving a gay or lesbian person that needs help with food or housing or clothing is laudable," Garcia said. "But you can't feed them and then stab them in the back."

The Salvation Army has grown accustomed to fielding such charges each year as it launches into its most aggressive fundraising season, said Lt. Col. Ralph Bukiewicz, commander of the Salvation Army's Chicago Metropolitan Division. The group also has been criticized for its theological stance on homosexuality and accused of discrimination in shelters and the workplace.

Officials with the group say all money dropped in the red kettles stays in the community to operate local programs and that discrimination against clients or employees based on sexual orientation would violate Salvation Army policy.

"Most of the information fueling these concerns is based on outright false or incomplete information," Bukiewicz said. "But every year it seems to surface and recirculate."

For at least six years, gay activists have encouraged supporters to keep their cash and slip printed protest notes into the red kettles instead. The campaign resurfaced this year, gaining more momentum than ever through social media.

The move to influence donors comes at the height of giving season and during a time when a growing number of charities and social groups are competing for a limited pool of donations, said Sandra Miniutti, vice president of marketing for Charity Navigator, a watchdog group.

"There are 1 million charities in America, and that number has kept growing in recent years," Miniutti said. "But the level of giving has not kept pace. So in effect, you have more charities fighting for the same size pie."

At the same time, potential donors have become more vigilant about researching nonprofits and considering their stances on social issues.

When the breast cancer support group Susan G. Komen for the Cure cut funding to Planned Parenthood this year, it sparked threats of a boycott. The Boy Scouts of America also came under fire and lost financial support for maintaining a ban on gay members and troop leaders.

Other charities have been exposed by watchdogs for high executive salaries, fraud, minimal spending on clients, poor execution of services and mismanagement of funds.

"People are realizing it's important to pay attention because they could be wasting their charitable donations when a need is so great," said Daniel Borochoff, president and founder of CharityWatch, which also evaluates organizations based on their finances.

Technically, the Salvation Army is not a charity but a large church and, as such, operates under less financial scrutiny. In its annual report, however, it stated that last year it served nearly 2 million meals and gave shelter to more than 1,200 people a night in the Chicago area alone.

When CharityWatch reviewed the Salvation Army's financial documents, the watchdog group gave the organization an A- rating, in part because 80 percent of its money is spent on services and programs.

Salvation Army officials say they don't ask clients about their sexuality, though they acknowledge that some isolated incidents of discrimination may have occurred in a massive operation that includes 60,000 employees and 3.5 million volunteers.

Last year, the Salvation Army USA removed from its website a controversial position statement on homosexuality that suggested gay Christians "embrace celibacy as a way of life." Salvation Army Maj. George Hood, the organization's national community relations secretary, said it "was a theological statement not meant for an external audience and it was creating a lot of confusion."

"A relationship between same-sex individuals is a personal choice that people have the right to make," Hood said. "But from a church viewpoint, we see that going against the will of God."

That stance has created tension with the gay community. But there are signs that the two sides are moving toward some common ground, or at least a better understanding of one another.

The Salvation Army has stressed that discrimination on the basis of gender identification and sexual orientation is forbidden in its services, programs and nonclergy employment, and it has asked for any discrimination incidents to be reported immediately. Over the past few years, it also has reached out to several lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups to talk and try to find ways to work together.

One of those groups is the Center on Halsted, a social service organization half a block from the Salvation Army College for Officer Training in Lakeview.

"I met with them and talked to them about their desire to serve the LGBT community," said Lisa Gilmore, the center's director of education and victim advocacy.

Gilmore said she had a "good experience" co-hosting seminars on human trafficking with Salvation Army employees but said the community is slow to trust the organization.

"It's hard to earn the trust of that community if they know that there is some aspect that rejects their identity," she said. "But this is not just an issue with the Salvation Army but with other faith-based service organizations that LGBT people are trying to navigate when trying to get human needs met."

Despite the boycott and a tough economy, the Salvation Army reports that kettle donations have increased in recent years.

"Donationwise it has not made a difference," Hood said of the gay advocates' campaign. "But it creates a lot of tension, and we are trying to find a sensible way to address the tension and come to some sensible understanding. If we can all agree that we have a difference of opinion on the lifestyle issue and that's OK, then we start to talk about issues of discrimination and the steps we've taken to see that there is no discrimination."