Kids with cancer charities scammed $187 million in donations

Charities were used as fronts to scam a fortune, at the expense of kids with cancer. Some very bad people made one hell of a living off donations intended for cancer research and support:

Source: Four cancer charities scammed $187 million in donations, much of it intended for kids with cancer

Until a few months ago, I was getting calls from some organization phone ID’d as something something “children’s cancer.” I wondered about that–although I get all sorts of calls from all sorts of non-profit (and, although I’m on the Do Not Call Registry, profit making) organizations.

But if I don’t recognize the ID, I don’t pick up.

Then those children’s cancer calls stopped. Now (see above link) I know why.

You don’t give money to just any organization, do you? There are ways of determining what percentage of donations for even an authentic charity–and these were seemingly not authentic, since all the “charity” went to the top executives)–go to the people they’re supposedly collecting money for, and what percentage is retained by the organization for “administration,” and the like.

I once saw a huge book–don’t remember the name of it–containing specific information about all non-profits, a/k/a charities. It was eye-opening, I recall. Organizations collecting huge amounts of money were keeping very high percentages of those funds. Pretty scandalous.

Which reminds me of the scandal connected with the American Red Cross, which is apparently everyone’s default “give to” charity whenever there’s a disaster. Well, not everybody; I don’t give to the Red Cross. Because I am well aware of what they do with the billions they collect. (And because I don’t give money to any organization connected to or using the symbol of a religion in its name.)

I just did some online research and discovered a (non-profit) called Charity Watch, which says it offers accurate, honest appraisals and ratings for many charities–although if you’re not a “member,” i.e., haven’t given subscription money to them (a donation? Um…), you can only get top-rated charity information.

Just to check its claims, I ran a Charity Watch check on the American Red Cross. Charity Watch gives the Red Cross and “A.” Not very reassuring, given what I said above. But when I clicked on a media/news button, I saw a collection of links to the story I sketched above.

So, maybe don’t give money to a charity until you check it on Charity Watch–and not until you check Charity Watch to make sure its rating is deserving.

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