What is a Charity Scam?
Charity fraud is the use of deceit to extort money from those who believe they are making charitable contributions. These fake charities do little to no work- instead, the creator of the fake charity lines their pockets with these stolen funds.
How to Avoid Charity Scams
1. Do some research
Before giving to any charity, the first thing that needs to be done is research. This is a crucial step that needs to be done to confirm the legitimacy of an organisation. When searching online, you can add words such as “complaints”, “review” or “scam” to the name of the charity you want to donate to.
2. Check their website
Many nonprofit organizations have websites that are fully functional and cohesive. They look professional, with useful UI and intuitive UX. Always check whether a charity has a website with a donation page. Donation pages are the primary way in which nonprofits gather funds; if someone’s only way of accepting donations is via cash, gift card, or wiring money, warning bells should be blaring in your head. This is most likely a scammer. Legitimate charity websites often end in “.org” and not “.com”, and contain the charity’s taxpayer identification number.
3. Verify the charity’s registration
Make sure that a charity is registered with their local government. This can be done by using the organization’s employer identification number (EIN), Business number (BN), nongovernmental organization (NG), or community-based organization (CBO) number. Whatever it is called in your country, this number is a one-of-a-kind number that can be used to identify an organization. This number can be used to find them on websites, like the Charity Navigator site.
We need to keep in mind that some NGOs are grassroots and may not be officially registered. To determine their legitimacy, look at a combination of other factors.
Websites to check before giving to a charity
Support Black Charities:
One form of website that you can use is trusted directories. If a charity is a trusted directory, there is a high chance that it is trustworthy too. One such directory is Support Black Charities an online directory that aims to increase charitable giving for people of African and Caribbean descent.
Charity Navigator, GiveWell, Guidestar.org, and CharityWatch:
These websites rate charities using various criteria while giving their users access to detailed analytics on a charity, like which charities pay their executives the most They are independent nonprofit evaluators, empowering donors of all sizes with accurate information.
