BBB Giving Tuesday - Bryan Oglesby

Tuesday (Dec 2nd) is Giving Tuesday. Bryan Oglesby with the Better Business Bureau in West Florida joins to help you avoid being scammed when looking for a nonprofit or charity to support the things you believe in.

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordenbird here with Beyond the News. December second is Giving Tuesday.
It follows in the trend of Black Friday and Cyber Monday,
a day to encourage charitable giving and support for community organizations.
But it's easier than ever for scammers to pose as
charity organizations and harder than ever in some ways to
know which ones are legitimate. Brian Oglesby with the Better

(00:21):
Business Bureau in West Florida, joins us to talk about
how to give wisely and effectively. Brian ogles Be welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good morning, thanks for having us. Gordon.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Well, First of all, if you happen to run across
a text or maybe you're searching for a group to
support a cause that you care about, but you're not
maybe familiar with the group that is involved, how do
you go about vetting them to make sure that they're
on the up and up.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yes, So, when it comes to giving to a charity,
especially if it comes unsolicited to you, you really want
to know who it is that's asking for the donation,
and legitimate charities are going to allow you to vet
them to verify the information, understand they're truly go to
the internet research their name, add the word scam or complaint.

(01:05):
See if what others are saying about that charity. Make
sure it's not a scam, it's a legitimate charity. But
be careful of name similarities because a lot of scam
charities will sound very similar to legitimate charities that are
out there in the marketplace. You really want to keep
it simple. Now is the time to donate to charities
that you know and trust. Stick with those organizations that

(01:28):
you already know about, go to their website, see that
they're needing help, and give directly to them on the
websites that you specifically know about.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
And a lot of that too, involves knowing the numbers,
knowing as opposed to the story or the narrative, knowing
what the charity is actually doing on behalf of the
causes that you're concerned about.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Absolutely, and transparency is key. All legitimate charities are going
to let you know where those moneyes are going, what
percentage of your dollar is going to the cause. There
should be that transparency. There should be that nine to
ninety form available to you if you ask for it.
The Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance is a program
of the Better Business Bureau that vets charities against twenty

(02:12):
standards of accountability. We do a lot of that homework
and research for you on charities at give dot org,
and you can simply go to give dot org research
to charity to see if they've met the standards, if
they have not met a standard, and if the charity
is accredited by the Wise Giving Alliance program as well.

(02:33):
So these are ways that you can vet and check
charities out, along with other third party charity watchdogs out
there as well.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Give dot org such a simple and easy web address.
Another point that you make that's important is how you
pay and how you give, as far as which platforms
to use and which platforms you might want to stay
away from.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Absolutely, so you definitely want to stay away from those
unusual payment requests. You're clicking on a link to a
potential charity and they're asking for gift cards or cryptocurrency
or zelling money through third party payment apps, those are
going to be red flags. Your best protections is going

(03:15):
to donate money through a credit card. If that's an option,
you have protections in place. But again, if you're vetting
the charity, if you know and trust the charity, you've
done that homework and research. Then it's okay to pay
them through typical payment methods like your check card or
sending a check directly to the charity. The things you
want to avoid and stay away from is request to

(03:37):
pay with an unusual gift card that doesn't relate to
the charity, or cryptocurrency or any alternative methods of payments.
That just raises those red flags.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Very important point there, and once again let's get that
website out, give dot org, which is the BBBS website
for helping people make charity donations. Wise, such a simple
address and so much information.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
There, lots of information at give dot org. It provides
a lot of tips. We have a lot of content
on give dot org. But more importantly, you can research
charities on give dot org and we vet charities against standards,
not against each other, so you can see if that
specific charity has met those twenty standards of accountability, and

(04:24):
we have a check mark if they've met them if
they did not disclose the information, or an X if
they did not meet that standard. And that just gives
you some guidance on a charity that you may want
to donate to, or finding a different charity by doing
that vetting. It's also important that when you're donating online
is to make sure that when you're providing that donation

(04:44):
information like a credit card or a check card online,
it's done through a secure transaction that that website has
at HTTPS. That S stands for a secure transaction and
you would never want to provide any sensitive data like
a credit card or check on a website if it's
not secure as well.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Brian Oglesby with the Better Business Bureau in West Florida,
thank you very much for joining us on Beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Thank you for having us today. Gordon