Charitable Giving TipsWhile almost everyone would like free money, there should be some guidelines and tips that you follow to ensure that you are not the victim of a scam, or even worse charged with fraud for donating to a false charity and claiming a tax deduction. In order to help protect yourself you should educate yourself about something's that can help you make good responsible charitable giving decisions. First, you should never donate to anyone who calls you randomly on the phone. Anyone with access could call you and claim to be from a charity even if they are not. If you are honestly interested in donating, ask them to send you some written materials about their charity, such as who they help, how they help, how they select people to help, and where they are located. If the charity is a legitimate and honest charity, they will be excited you are requesting written materials. If they are a scam they will be upset and possibly act insulted that you asked for written materials instead of just blindly donating.
You should also carefully research the charity you are looking to help and make sure you are supporting the correct charity. You may make a mistake and support a charity that has a highly similar name but is not the charity you were intending to support. This would be a case of charitable giving going wrong. You are still helping support, but are you supporting something that you believe in? Any charity that is legitimate will also be happy to answer any questions about how donations are used, and even happily tell you how much of the charity's money is spent on administrative costs. While most charities have bills such as rent or lease payments, utility payments and even some employees often have to be paid you should not be told that 50% or more of all donations is used for administrative purposes. This should be a red flag that the charity is either poorly run, or a potential scam. Carefully investigate before sending a charitable gift to a charity such as this. Never donate to anyone who is going door to door. While in the past this was a safe way to handle charitable giving there are many people now who use door to door as the perfect excuse to scam people. Protect yourself, ask for information, and let them know you will make a decision and if you decide to donate will contact them to arrange the donation. Never actually donate on the spot, you should always ensure the donation is given to the proper charity, the last thing you want is to donate money to a charity only to have the money kept by the person who came to your home. |