(WTAQ) – As we honor and mourn those who gave the ultimate sacrifice while serving the country this Memorial Day weekend, some may choose to contribute to charities supporting veterans and related causes.
But it’s important to be very familiar with the charities you choose to support. Because even on the most solemn days, not everyone is honest. Susan Bach of the Better Business Bureau says scammers may try to confuse donors.
“They try to capitalize on name confusion they will use the same or similar names or words to reputable charities,” Bach tells WTAQ News, “Rearrange the words, put them in a slightly different order, or instead of abbreviating U.S. they’ll say United States – something like that…They’re trying to confuse potential donors to think that they’re donating to a reputable well known charity when in fact they’re not.”
It’s also important to recognize whether a charity is a well-run operation. Sometimes even legitimate charities with good intentions could have issues.
“Although you are donating to a charity, professional fundraisers can take up to 90 percent of that donation,” Bach says, “If you get an unsolicited calls that may very well be a professional fundraiser and especially if they’re putting a lot of pressure on you to donate on the spot, maybe they’re getting a commission for all of those donations so you want to ask plenty of questions…They also should be able to tell you about the charity give you an address tell you how the money is going to be used.”
The BBB evaluates charities based on twenty different standards of accountability.
“Those address things like governance and oversight, charities that measure their effectiveness, finances and fundraising,” Bach says, “You can either research a charity or you can get a list of charities and that specialize in veteran causes.”
You can find a full list of charities at give.org.
