Charity Fraud: Be Aware of You Who Donate To

Posted on August 9, 2024

Charity is a virtue they say. Helping others, raising awareness, and leading a charge to cure ailments or search for a cure or better treatments for something like Cancer, is a fantastic perspective and one we should always hope to strive for. However, the truth is, even though we might want to donate to a great cause, it’s always pragmatic to cross our t’s and dot are i’s when it comes to vetting said Charities.

For almost a decade there was a YouTuber who would do charity drives for Dementia research. On his live streams, he would showcase video games, people who do let’s plays (a type of walkthrough of a video game), who would livestream a video game on platforms such as Twitch, just an event lasting hours on his channel to bring awareness to a condition that his mother passed away from.

I would tune in and feel so great that someone was creating a charity and helping a cause that can impact so many families…only he wasn’t donating the money to a charitable cause each year like he said that he was doing. This person would often say: I’m working with x,y, and z charities but he never was.

The fact that he wasn’t donating the funds only came to light after other fellow YouTubers noted inconsistencies with his charity’s public tax information and were able to notice the discrepancy. Eventually, they were able to motivate him to send the money to an actual charity, but money loses value over time due to inflation. This also wasn’t a “restricted” donation meaning a charity will save up funds for a single large donation. This streamer had said that every year he was donating the money to different non-profits.

While I would never tell people not to donate, it’s really important to check if a charity is legit. Also, if you can donate, donating directly to charity rather than a 3rd party collecting funds and then sending to said charity can give you a better peace of mind because you know exactly where your charitable donation is going