Easy Prey Podcast: Advice for Donating to Charity on This Giving Tuesday

"It just becomes this cyclical cesspool of fundraising," says Laurie Styron in her interview with Chris Parker for The Easy Prey Podcast when discussing a common charity accounting trick known as joint costs. 

Before you donate this Giving Tuesday, learn how to avoid bad charities that don't respect your boundaries as a donor and how to identify efficient and effective charities to support. 

Other topics covered in this interview include:

*Failed government efforts to regulate charities and to enforce existing rules that will help ensure your donation is used the way you intend. 

*How to think about compensation of charity executives and why some donors are too focused on nonprofit salaries. Very low salaries can even be a red flag. 

*How to avoid high pressure tactics as we enter the 2021 holiday giving season. A lot of fundraisers have scripts that are designed to pressure you. CharityWatch executive director, Laurie Styron, gives tips on how to say no. 

*Hear a true story of a well-intentioned crowdfunding campaign gone wrong when the fundraiser wasn't equipped to execute the programs they promised. Also - Learn how to cut out the middle man and give directly. 

*Learn about the charity big data websites that claim to "rate" thousands of charities, while in practice functioning more like nonprofit trade associations. These websites essentially allow charities to rate themselves. 

*Money is fungible. There is no such thing as "100% of your donation will be spent on programs," despite what some charities may claim. "It is not real. Don't believe it," says Laurie Styron. 

*If you send very small donations to many, many charities, most of your donations will likely end up paying for donation processing fees versus supporting the recipient charities' programs. 

CharityWatch's investigative work and in-depth financial analysis of charity audited financial statements, tax filings, fundraising contracts, legal filings, and other data used in our evaluations of charities is funded by donations from the general public. We hope you will consider supporting us by making a donation today. We also welcome support from foundation and corporate donors.