Be cautious when giving to charities collecting after a recent disaster. Verify that the charity is legitimate before making a donation. Any charitable organization that solicits money from the public must be registered.
Charity evaluators, such as Charity Navigator, provide information that can help you determine if charities are well-run and worthy of your support.
Here are some tips to follow to ensure your contribution is going to a charity:
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When contributing, make your check or money order out to the charitable organization not to the person collecting the donation.
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To ensure that contributions made electronically to nonprofit organizations are used for intended purposes, go directly to recognized charities rather than following a link to another site.
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Be cautious of electronic requests for charitable donations. Do not respond to any unsolicited (SPAM) e-mails; legitimate charities do not solicit funds in this manner.
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Be cautious of e-mails that claim to show photos of the disaster areas in attached files. Those files may contain computer viruses. Open attachments from known senders only.
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