Pick Online Charities as Carefully as You Would Offline Ones
Jan 21 '01
The Bottom Line Charity sites are a great way to pass a little of the Internet wealth on to worthy causes. Just be careful that your favorite online "charity" isn't a scam.
The Hunger Site pioneered the concept of clicking or shopping for charity. Since its debut, a myriad of new charity sites have popped up on the web. While I tend to believe that true charity sites are noble endeavors, I advise the surfer to be just as cautious with picking an Internet charity site as they would picking an offline charity. Just as you should not hand over money to everyone who comes knocking on your front door, you should not trust every “charity” site that you see.
One of the best things about the Internet is also one of the worst. It is possible for almost anybody to create a professional looking web site and then to draw traffic to that site. It is also trivial to get “sponsors” for a web site, as long as the site has traffic.
Charity web sites operate on the premise that users get to make a “free” donation to a worthwhile organization. This donation actually comes from corporate sponsors who pay the web site whenever a visitor clicks a banner or makes a purchase.
Most consumers believe that these corporate sponsors have checked out the web site and have given their approval for the “donation” to be made. In actuality, any web site can set up affiliate relationships with many online companies. Some of these companies, like Amazon.com, pay websites when a purchase is made. Others, like Gateway.com, pay every time somebody clicks on their banner.
Consequently, it is a trivial matter for anyone to set up a site that can generate revenue from clicks or purchases, and then claim to donate that revenue to charity.
Therefore, before you spend hours of your day clicking on banners for a good cause, take a little time to check into the validity of the charity site. Of course, it is impossible to be 100% sure of the integrity of any charity both on and off line. But, there are some indications that a click to donate site isn’t exactly on the up and up.
First, read the information provided by the site. The better ones will tell you how much money they have donated to specific charities. They will also give an indication of how much traffic they receive daily, and how much their sponsors pay for advertising space.
Also, look at the overall presentation of the site. It’s not enough to look at the graphics and layout because even kids can code decent looking web pages. What is harder to fake is the content. Kids throwing together a site to make a few easy dollars tend to ignore the subtleties of grammar and spelling. If a site just feels “wrong” pass it by.
In all likelihood, you will not be cheated personally by a fake charity site. Because the shopping links are typically affiliate links to reputable companies, you will not lose your money. The most that you stand to lose personally is a little bit of your time.
The danger of the fake sites is that they can sour people on the whole “free” charity concept. Real charity sites could lose business if people start to doubt the integrity of this type of site.
Therefore, don’t give up on charity sites altogether. There are some truly worthwhile sites out there doing their part to make the world a little better. Just be as cautious about donating your time to online sites as you are to donating to other offline charities.
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