BBB Serving Northern Indiana recognizes that in the aftermath of the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York, many people will want to help in any way possible, and that often means contributing to fundraisers to help the survivors and the families of the victims.
Sadly, scammers often take advantage of these moments of vulnerability to deceive donors. In addition, there are often campaigns set up by well-meaning individuals who may not be able to deliver on promised relief activities.
BBB urges donors to give thoughtfully and avoid those seeking to take advantage of the generosity of others. Use BBB’s tips for trusted giving:
- Thoughtful giving: Visit Give.org to verify if a charity meets the BBB Standards for Charitable Accountability. Take the time to find out how the organization plans to address either immediate or long-term needs. The first request for a donation may not be the best choice. Be proactive and find trusted charities.
- Crowdfunding: Keep in mind that some crowdfunding sites take precautions in carefully screening, vetting, and managing postings, others might not. Review the crowdfunding site to find out about posting procedures, transaction fees and other specifics. It is always safest to contribute to individuals that you personally know. If the post claims it intends to pass along collected funds to a charity, consider cutting out the middleman and visit the charity’s website directly.
- Know how donations will be used: Watch out for vague appeals that don’t identify the intended use of funds. For example, how will the donations help victims’ families? Also, unless told otherwise, donors will assume that funds collected quickly in the wake of a disaster or tragedy will be spent just as quickly. See if the appeal identifies when the collected funds will be used.
- Is the charity new?: This is a personal giving choice, but an established charity will more likely have the capacity and experience to address the situation quickly and also have a track record that can be evaluated. A newly-formed organization may be well-meaning, but will be difficult to check out and may not be well managed. News reports may help identify responding charities but are not a guarantee that the organizations will use donations effectively.
- Give money rather than goods. Donating money is the quickest way to help and provides charities the flexibility to channel resources to impacted areas.
- Financial transparency: After funds are raised for a tragedy, it is even more important for organizations to provide an accounting of how funds were spent. Transparent organizations will post this information on their websites so that anyone can find out without having to wait until the audited financial statements are available sometime in the future.
- Tax deductibility: Not all organizations collecting funds in the U.S. to assist after a tragedy are tax exempt as charities under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donors can support these other entities, but keep this in mind if they want to take a deduction for federal income tax purposes. In addition, contributions that are donor-restricted to help a specific individual or family are generally not deductible in the U.S. as charitable donations, even if the recipient organization is a charity. You can check a U.S. organization’s tax status with the IRS. In Canada, only specific types of registered charities are able to provide tax receipts. If you are not sure whether your donation would be eligible for a tax credit, contact the Charities Directorate at 1-800-267-2384. You can also search for information on which organizations can issue official donation receipts.