Vet a charitable crowdfunding appeal

You’ve probably been asked to contribute to a crowdfunding appeal to benefit a victim or victims of a natural disaster or human tragedy. The BBB encourages you to consider giving to such causes – if they’re legitimate.

There are many crowdfunding platforms, with GoFundMe being one of the most well-known. Each has its own set of rules for setting up a fundraising campaign, how much it will charge in fees, and how the money raised will be disbursed to the campaign organizer. Some do a better job than others in verifying campaigns are legitimate.

In 2017, a woman ran out of gas and was stranded on Interstate 95 in Philadelphia. A homeless man gave her his last $20 for gas and, in appreciation, the woman and her boyfriend set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to get the man off the streets. The story went viral and they raised almost $400,000 from donors across the country.

It was a truly heartwarming story – except that it was completely bogus. The woman and her boyfriend spent the money on a fancy car, expensive handbags, trips and gambling; the homeless man received $25,000. All three pleaded guilty to fraud and the woman and her boyfriend were sentenced to prison terms. The homeless man was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay $25,000 in restitution.

GoFundMe shut down 21 campaign pages set up in the aftermath of the condo collapse in Surfside, Florida, before any funds were donated to them, but Florida officials worry that other accounts that remained open may have been fraudulent. Closer to home, a Mississippi woman was arrested in 2014 when she set up a fraudulent fundraising page to raise money for the family of a young victim of a horrific murder.

There are a variety of resources for checking out the record of an established charity, but it’s difficult to verify the trustworthiness of someone behind a charitable crowdfunding appeal. It’s best to give to a campaign organized by someone you know. If you don’t know the organizer, check out the story as best you can and gauge the amount of your donation against the risk it may not be true. You can feel safer if your donation goes to an account managed by a bank, attorney or CPA.

The BBB offers these additional tips for donating to crowdfunding appeals:

• Photos don’t mean a campaign is legitimate. Scammers may be using them without permission from victims or family members.
• Be wary of appeals that are long on emotion but short on details about how your donation will be used.
• Don’t assume that a charitable appeal on social media is legitimate, even if it comes from a friend.
• Only donations to a crowdfunding appeal organized by a registered charity are tax deductible.