How to avoid donating to scam charities

Imagine it’s a cold, rainy, autumn day, and you’re on your way out of the grocery store. As you pass the bottle return and walk through the automatic doors, a young woman greets you. She’s a volunteer raising money for a local cancer charity, and she politely asks for a donation. It’s for the “fight against cancer,” she says. You think about it for a second, then hand her a few bucks. It was an easy enough choice. Who doesn’t want to fight cancer?

Americans are among the most generous people in the world. According to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, we donated an estimated $298.42 billion to charities in 2011 alone.

Unfortunately, not all of this money is used wisely.

97 Cents of Every Dollar to Salaries

This past summer, the Tampa Bay Times wrote a stinging exposé on charitable waste, singling out one Florida-based charity for its inefficiencies. Reportedly, this charity spends less than 3 cents of each donated dollar helping its target audience: kids with cancer. The other 97 cents goes straight to the salaries of its operators and to the for-profit solicitation companies it uses for fundraising ($4.8 million and $110 million respectively over the past decade).

After slamming the Florida charity for its questionable use of funds, the article lists similar examples. One Tennessee-based charity stood out to me for its creative use of donor dollars. This charity, which is supposed to educate children about drug abuse, health, and fitness, supposedly pays 80% of its donations to for-profit solicitation companies. Much of what’s left goes to the founder/president’s for-profit video production company, so he can film himself scuba diving. These deep-sea diving videos are then aired on a local Knoxville station to a paltry 3,600 viewers (although according to the Times, the charity’s IRS statements claim its programming reaches an audience of 1.3 million people). It’s not very clear how these videos further the charity’s mission to educate young people about drugs, health, and fitness. And yet this organization has managed to raise nearly $30 million in the past decade!

Illegal Activity

While many charities engage in legal but clearly questionable business practices, others are involved in outright illegal activities, or get dragged into them by rogue employees. A recent Washington Post article exposed numerous cases of employees at very large nonprofits stealing hundreds of thousands, and even millions, of dollars from their organizations. Here are some of the Post’s findings:

• Up to $3.4 million lost by a national health research foundation due to fraud by a former employee;
• About $2 million lost by a national youth service charity after it was “misappropriated” by a former employee;
• $230,000 lost by a national charity that advocates for older Americans due to embezzlement and billing irregularities.

Some may say this kind of criminal activity is an unfortunate byproduct of large organizations: that it’s only a matter of time before a big entity has to deal with a rogue employee stealing or causing trouble. Yet smaller nonprofits can be just as susceptible to this kind of behavior.

Last fall, a small charity in Massachusetts was set up in memory of a two-year-old child who had died of brain cancer. Its goal was to help families affected by similar illnesses. The charity grew, and eventually helped twenty local families through their misfortunes.

All was well until the charity’s board of directors attended an event about sound nonprofit financial practices. Using what they learned, the board soon discovered that a person associated with the charity was making numerous unauthorized charges from its bank account at places like Starbucks and Panera Bread. This person also made $2,500 in payments to Verizon Wireless and two transfers of $1,000 to another checking account. Once discovered, the individual repaid most of the stolen money. Nonetheless, this person is now set to be arraigned on larceny charges in Massachusetts court.

What Can Be Learned From These Charity Horror Stories?

As an estate planning law firm, we vigorously support donating to charity. In fact, donating to charity is an excellent way to build your legacy and leave a lasting impact on the world.

Yet there are many charities that mislead donors and misuse donations, intentionally or not. That’s why it helps to do your homework before you make any donation. Below are four questions you should ask yourself before opening your wallet.