Donating to Charity

Charities are a good way to give back, especially for those who are too busy to volunteer in their community. However, in some cases there are charities to avoid because much of what is donated will not go to benefit the charity, but to the business affiliated with the charity drive.

Avoid any charities that ask for old cars as a donation. While some charities or volunteer organizations do ask for cars to be donated in order to use them, there are some charity scams out there that will take donated cars and sell them for wholesale prices after a little fix-up. In other cases, cars that are donated will be sold at auctions for more than they are worth and very little of the cash made will go to the charity. If you want to give a car to charity, check out United Way as they will actually put your old car to good use and it will completely benefit those in need,

Another charity scam to avoid entails emails that solicit donations. Any emails that come from charities asking for donations should be carefully checked and you should always route to the official website through a private search on your own. Scammers will often include a web link to a website that seems perfectly alright with a place to donate right at your fingertips. However, these websites are often not real and the donations will go to the scammers. Charities will not send emails in order to get donations, so it is a good rule of thumb to delete any emails that come to your inbox looking for handouts.

You can read more about charity scams at Scam Busters.