Blue Water Credit’s goal is to be an active partner in supporting both our local communities and people in need all over the globe. By a crazy twist of fate, a member of our Blue Water team, blogger Norm Schriever, was in the Philippines on the island of Boracay during the typhoon, the biggest in recorded history to hit land, where he experienced the storm first hand.
Norm survived and his video footage (see here) and accounts were on Good Morning America, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, our own News 10 Sacramento, and television stations from Russia to Australia to the UK. We’re happy that Norm is around to keep blogging for us, but unfortunately hundreds of thousands of people were not so lucky in the Philippines, and they need your help.
Today we offer 10 resources to help research and scrutinize charities, ensuring that your valuable donation reaches the people intended.
- Charity Navigator is an amazing resource for researching charities with all kinds of lists and rankings, and even a charity advisory watch.
- The American Institute of Philanthropy is known as Charity Watch, and lists charity reviews and articles.
- Guidestar is an online source of financial information on charities.
- Check with the Internal Revenue Services to make sure a charity is legitimate and in good standing.
- Look up your charity on www.nasconet.org, a national association of state charity officers.
- The Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance offers ratings of charities.
- Read up on the charity on their website, but also from credible outside sources.
- Email or call them with questions.
- Don’t just follow direct links or solicitations that are emailed to you – scammers prey on people by sending out emails portraying to be from legit organizations.
- Inquire whether the charity has any religious or political affiliation or agenda, if that is something that interests or concerns you.
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