COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – Giving Tuesday falls on Nov. 29 and is one of the biggest days for organizations to receive donations.
“November and December are the biggest giving seasons of the year,” explained Dominic Kalms, CEO and Founder of B Generous. “40% of all donations in the United States come in the last 2 months of the year. Charity is a big dollar game in the United States. About half a trillion dollars are donated to charitable organizations in America.”
Unfortunately, scammers are also aware of the giving spirit around the holidays and try to take advantage of it.
The good news? It doesn’t take too long to verify which organizations are real.
“The IRS publishes a master list database of all 1.7 million profits in the United States and that’s directly from the IRS’s website. That will show you if the non-profit is in the IRS master list database and if it’s not, there’s a good chance it’s not a legitimate organization,” explained Kalms on one way to double check if an organization is legit.
Another option is to research the team that runs the organization.
Charities and non profits are usually transparent about this, so lack of information may indicate the organization isn’t real.
You can also look up non profits on charitable rating agency sites like Charity Navigator.
“If there is an organization that is not listed there or is not rated there, it’s possible that that organization isn’t legitimate and isn’t real,” stated…
