Distinguishing Between The Genuine And Fake Public Charities

By Stephanie Wilson


Most people have a genuine human heart and are willing to contribute to charitable organizations. However, there is an emerging trend of fake public charities that are fleecing donors. It is disheartening to realize that the contribution you made did not assist the needy cases you had in mind. As such, check the credibility of such organizations before forwarding your donation. This will give you an assurance that you are dealing with a genuine charity.

Request the fundraising agent to reveal the mission, course or aim of the donations sort. It is easy to recognize genuine reasons. However, there are outright fake reasons like the mention of an disaster or need that is nonexistent. Should the organization or its agent give you an unconvincing reason, hold back your donation for a more worthy course.

Charity contributions by individuals or organizations are exempted from taxation. The fundraiser must therefore provide details to enable you include the contributions in your tax returns. Where such details are not provided, they are unclear, or unverifiable, you should halt your contribution until you verify. You will be forced to pay taxes on funds that you never used for personal benefit.

There are charities that settle for names that sound or appear similar to those of popular humanitarian organizations. This is one of the tactics used in defrauding donors. Close resemblance is used to hoodwink donors who are not too keen on the name. Since this is a cause for alarm, the best thing is to verify the existence of such an organization. This is one of the clearest signs of fraud.

A fundraiser should never push you to contribute in a hurry. This only happens when the agent does not want you to question his mission or realize that something is wrong with the campaign. You are likely to fall for the trick especially when money is readily available. Do not give into pressure. Hold on until such a time when you can ascertain that the deal is genuine. This will prevent your money from going to the wrong beneficiaries.

There are organizations that claim to be years old in charity yet have nothing tangible to show for their existence. Pick the name and check online for news about their activities and existence. Should there be any doubts, halt any donation action. At least a few success stories and the latest photographic evidence is a reasonable threshold.

All charitable organizations are licensed and their activities regulated by government bodies. Their details including administrators and areas of specialization are uploaded on government websites. Request for registration details from the fundraiser and counter-check them against what the regulators are providing. These details are usually available online. They can be verified anywhere and at any time.

An SMS option is provided to verify the authenticity of charity course or organizations and prevent loss of funds. Verify the details as provided by the fundraiser. If the course or organization is ascertained to be false, law enforcers should be notified to prevent continued fraud. This ensures that charity money benefits the intended persons.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment