Trust but Verify: How to distinguish charity from fraud
TO TALK FOR GOOD DEED IS ALWAYS PLEASANT. However, this feeling is often used by fraudsters posing as volunteers and representatives of charitable foundations. And sadly enough, those who really help people and animals in need suffer the most from their activities. It’s not even so much a matter of material damage (it’s difficult to estimate, although it’s definitely about millions of rubles going into the sunset), but rather that any such deception undermines trust in charity as such.
For advice on how to distinguish charity from a divorce for money, we turned to representatives of the funds: Alexandra Shchyotkina, President of the Alzrus Foundation, which helps Alzheimer's patients and their families, Lyubov Yermolaeva, founder of the project BuySocial - a charity online store, and Vlada Gasnikova, a counselor the department of resource attraction of the charitable organization "Nochlezhka", helping the homeless. Together we have compiled a small memo for those who want their donations not to settle in the pockets of scammers.
Do not trust those who collect money in public places.
You probably met them on the streets: they offer to buy you a pen, promising that the proceeds will go to help homeless animals, sick children or separate garbage collection. By giving them money, you will not make the world a better place.
Alexandra Shchyotkina: It is definitely not worth sacrificing money on the trains and on the streets. Our charitable community is no longer collecting money. Funds collect money through sites and sealed boxes. On the "volunteers" who come to you with a transparent box and say "Help the orphanage" or "Save Petenka", it is better not to pay attention. Ninety-nine percent of those who offer you to buy a bulb, a box or a pen are fraudsters.
Lyubov Ermolaeva: Honest charitable funds do not collect donations through volunteers on the streets and in the trains and do not exchange them for flags. This is a scam. The exception is volunteers like SOS Children's Villages, who fit the street with the organization’s badges and talk about it, offering to sign up for regular donations, but they don’t collect cash.
Vlada Gasnikova: Pseudo-volunteers print a photo and history of a sick child from the Internet, on their jackets the names of incomprehensible funds (and sometimes they cunning - and present themselves as volunteers of well-known organizations). Such "collectors" do not have official permission to collect donations from the administration of the municipality, district, subway, bus carrier - that is, the territory in which they collect money. Pseudo-volunteers cannot answer questions about the organization with which they allegedly help, cannot name its site, the address of groups in social networks, the physical address. When you want to take a picture or shoot them on video, they get nervous and run away.
Real volunteers can work at major events.
Not all volunteers who work "in the fields" necessarily turn out to be fraudsters, but, as a rule, you can learn about their activities in advance. If the fund carries out a joint action with the organizers of the festival or concert, he will notify about it, and the organizers will be able to confirm this.
Lyubov Ermolaeva: Fair cash funds can be collected at festivals, charity fairs and other organized events where they have a stand, a sealed box and a representative of the foundation. And at the box office in the shops and cafes - of course, also in a sealed box. On the box information about the fund, on which the collection and contact details.
Vlada Gasnikova: Volunteers of “Nochlezhka” collect money in piggy banks only in two cases: at our own events (charity concerts, lectures, festivals) and at third-party events. For example, at a DDT concert in the Oktyabrsky concert hall. This means that we have an official agreement on collecting donations both with the DDT group and with the Oktyabrsky administration. We have an official paper about this, and you can ask any administrator about our volunteers.
Do not react to personal letters from strangers
Spam from "Nigerian princes" and messages like "Mom, throw money to this number, no time to explain, I'll write in the morning" have already become part of urban folklore, and most have learned not to fall for such tricks. However, it is worth it for fraudsters to attach to the letter a photograph of a sick child or fake scans of medical documents - and the suspiciousness of the addressees disappears.
Alexandra Shchyotkina: Charitable foundations do not exactly send letters on behalf of parents. “Hello, I am Ivan Ivanovich, my child is sick with cancer. Here are the card numbers” - do not react to such messages, even if photos and documents are attached to them. Funds, if they send letters, to partners and people who have already donated money. And these letters are only on behalf of the foundation.
Vlada Gasnikova: Do not transfer money on the Internet to anyone's personal cards. This is permissible only if you personally know the family in which the disaster happened. And in this case, it is still better to personally specify whether these are the requisites, whether this is the situation.
Before you repost the announcement of collecting donations in social networks, think about
Repost in social networks requires a couple of clicks. That is why requests for help with trigger words ("Urgent!", "Help!") Are distributed so well on Facebook and VKontakte. And that is why it is worth looking closely at them. Even if you do not transfer money yourself, someone else may react to your repost of a dubious ad - and so, without knowing it, you will play into the hands of fraudsters.
Alexandra Schetkina: Be careful of the newsletters in social networks marked "Urgent": "Urgently need help," "Urgently need medication." The message about a dying child with a very rare group of blood has been walking on social networks for many years - and people still fall for him.
Vlada Gasnikova: Honest organizations never collect money on personal cards, even employees. Only at the expense of the organization, only personally in the hands of an accountant in the office of the organization, only in sealed stationary piggy banks in urban establishments - where you can not put such a box without official communication with the leadership of a cafe or shop.
I'm not saying that all the announcements about raising money for treating people on social networks is a lie. But you can never verify them yourself. In this sense, professional charitable organizations are just engaged in checking information about whether a person really needs help, if it really costs so much, whether the money collected will actually go towards the stated goals. A person who collects money on his page in social networks, does not bear any responsibility before you. An honest charitable organization, to which you donated money, reports to you as to your donor.
Lyubov Ermolaeva: If you see an advertisement for charity fees on the Internet, then check to see if there is a personal card or account being collected? Funds don't do that. Of course, for example, the family or friends of a person who needs help can do this, but since this is a private person, and not an organization that reports to the Ministry of Justice, you have no guarantee that the money will go to its intended purpose. If you do not know a person personally enough to trust him, it is better to donate to reliable funds than to private individuals, and it is better to regularly than one-time.
Ask a few simple questions to those who collect money.
In most cases, fraudsters rely on gullible and compassionate people and do not bother to create a detailed legend.
Alexandra Shchyotkina: If the topic touched you, do not immediately transfer money. If someone asks to help puppies who are thrown out on the street who need medicine, find out which clinic the authors go to, how much the medicine costs, what is the name of the veterinarian. Ask for photos of checks. Fraudsters are usually confused by such questions, and they merge.
Lyubov Ermolaeva: If we are talking about raising funds for the treatment of a person, then in describing his history, a trustworthy foundation usually indicates in which hospital the ward is treated. If this information is available, you can find the telephone number of this department of the hospital and find out if such a patient is in it.
Check the activities of the fund, on behalf of which the collection is conducted
The life of a real charitable foundation is never limited only to announcements asking for help (he at least regularly reports on his work), and their employees do not hide their names and contact details.
Lyubov Ermolaeva: Go to the site of the Fund and in the social network. Suspicions should cause, in addition to personal accounts:
photos from photo stocks instead of real photos of people
lack of contact with fund staff,
lack of reports on donations collected on the foundation website
lack of information about the history of the foundation, its founders, previous activities, etc.
Alexandra Shchyotkina: Funds, as far as possible, always spread reports - usually on their websites and in social networks: how many and through which channels (SMS, bank transfers, fees for boxes) are collected, how many are listed. Large funds usually post annual reports, but if you do not find them, you can always request them. It is necessary to understand that there are small organizations that have just started their work and which do not have enough time for everything. But even they can call and write: honest funds will always meet you and provide the necessary information.
Specify for whom or what exactly you want to transfer money.
Funds spend part of donations to support their activities - and this is absolutely normal. But if you want every penny you donate to reach the addressee, make a reservation in advance.
Alexandra Shchyotkina: A charitable foundation is an organization where people come to work. Part of the donations goes to support the fund’s activities - renting premises, salaries, stationery - but it usually does not exceed twenty percent of the fees. This is stipulated in the law on charity.
There are those who purposefully donate money for the maintenance of the fund. But if it is important for you that your donations go only to pay for the ward, you can specifically state this. Do not be shy to do this - you can and should communicate with the funds.
Vlada Gasnikova: Unconscious attitude to charity is to sacrifice to the one who first came to hand, without delving into who it is and how much they can be trusted. You trust your money to an organization from which you get neither a product nor a service: you invest in your feeling that you helped make the world a little bit better, a bit more fair. Choosing a charitable organization that you want to help is how to choose a management company for your donations: you need to invest in those who honestly and decently help people. Otherwise, there is no meaning in donations.
If you have already been deceived, this is no reason to turn away from charity forever.
The first reaction of a man who has been deceived by pseudo-volunteers is that the cannon shot doesn’t suit those who call themselves charitable organizations. Frustration can be strong, but even if you are unknowingly or carelessly in such a situation, this does not make you a less kind and sympathetic person. Just remember that charity requires a responsible approach.
Alexandra Shchyotkina: Cash losses are difficult to calculate, but it is clear that they are huge. Image damage even more. If some fund raised money for a non-existent child and disappeared, then the stain remains on all charity. Winning people's trust is hard. And when the stars, who believed that they are helping a sick child, summarize and write: “Do not trust charitable foundations” - this strongly affects reputation.
Lyubov Ermolaeva: In general, if there is a desire to help, I recommend to go to sites where all organizations are checked and definitely not fraudulent. Such as the site of the charity meeting "All together", the site "Welcome.Mail.ru", the blago.ru of the CAF fund. They have a convenient search system, so you can easily find an organization whose activities you have will cause a response and want to support. About such many organizations it is very fascinating and tells in detail the portal "Such Cases", correspondents also check all the information.
Vlada Gasnikova: I advise you to donate money only to trusted organizations that are obviously investing in their reputation, in their website, social networks, in communication with journalists, with bloggers. An organization that responds to people on the Internet and by phone, where you can come and see how it works, meet employees, become a volunteer.
In Russia, in principle, there is not a very high level of trust in charity, we still have a long way to go so that this area becomes a natural part of society. And stories of fraudulent charges undermine the already fragile credibility of charity.
Pseudo-volunteers and fraudsters collect a lot of money - because I often meet dubious crossings. Despite their wild design, the absence of any verification information, contacts, the fact that money is collected on a personal card or even on an already cured child - people believe them, since they repost.
But the person who donates money should also feel his responsibility for choosing who to help. As in any other area of life, without healthy skepticism and without spending time, it is impossible to choose a quality service or thing. Maintain charity better with a cold head and a warm heart.
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