GREENSBORO, N.C. — You open your wallet to make a donation to charity, but how can you be sure that your money is actually going to help?
WFMY News 2 spoke with Kevin Scally with Charity Navigator to talk about ways to spot charity scams. These are his suggestions:
Avoiding Charity Scams
- We recommend individuals ask themselves the following questions before making donations to any charity:
- Research the charity: Before making any donations, research the charity thoroughly. Look for information about their mission, programs, financial transparency, and past projects. Use Charity Navigator’s ratings to guide you to effective, efficient, trustworthy organizations.
- Check for registration: Legitimate charities are typically registered with government authorities or relevant regulatory bodies. Charity Navigator lists all 1 million+ US-registered nonprofits and issues alerts for fake charities.
- Donate through a trusted source: Donate directly through the charity's official website or via a trusted platform like Charity Navigator’s Giving Basket, which doesn’t allow you to donate to a fake charity.
- Our main tips for donors are to avoid email and phone solicitations and go directly through the charity’s authorized website.
- Alternatively, through a reputable and secure service like Charity Navigator’s Giving Basket, which allows donors to control which information is shared with charities, donate to multiple charities if they choose, and be in control of their giving more easily.
- Charity Navigator has an alerts feature that provides donors with information detailing alleged and confirmed charity misconduct. Alerts appear on Charity Navigator’s search results and profile pages alongside its 195,000+ ratings, providing donors additional nuance and direction through four levels of concern:
- ‘Review Before Proceeding’
- ‘Proceed With Caution’
- ‘Proceed with Increased Caution’
- ‘Giving Not Recommended
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