Photos posted on Facebook page

People who intend to help others through donation activities are finding their favorite careers through social media, according to a recent article published in Foreign media. Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, can be an effective tool to help people find worthwhile charities, but at the same time, social media are also an important source of false information that can make these potential donors face a lot of risk because there are always people who " Trying to cheat you, cheat you, exploit you.

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Sometimes it takes a Twitter message to change a lot of things.

About a year ago, Kara Har (Cara hafferty) was browsing the Twitter message, A sudden news from the Boston Charitable Fund smallcanbebig.org that a family could not afford to pay the rent because of sickness and loss of wages, a household that needed about $1500 trillion to get out of the way. After reviewing the charitable foundation's website to confirm its mission, Harvard began volunteering and donated money shortly thereafter.

"That Twitter message is only 140 words or less, but this very simple message catches my eye." Harvard says he is the social media coordinator for the Braintree Bin Ends Wine Wine sales site in Braintree, Massachusetts.

From Facebook posts to Twitter tweets, charitable funds are using social media as a tool to find, attract and retain donors. At the same time, donors are also using social networks to find and share information about charitable funds they believe are trustworthy. But without smart identification, all of this shared information could make donors vulnerable to fraud.

Social media is the medium of "true expansion of information, knowledge and participation", said Ken Berger, president and chief executive officer of Charity Navigator, charitable Fund assessment agency. "But we've seen a lot of risk in social media. If you are not careful about how to use social media, you face these risks. ”

Identify the authenticity

Before you start to add a charitable fund as a friend or send a Twitter message, the first thing to do is to make sure that the fund is a legitimate organization. Nowadays, it's easy for crooks to find you-they just need to use the information, interests, and ideas that you publish and share on social networks. In addition, a fake Faceboo page, blog or Twitter push message can also make people look very believable. But Lindsay Nichols, a nonprofit group that specializes in the analysis of charitable funds, GuideStar USA's social media director Lindsay Nickels, says that fake pages and blogs can reveal some details about their falsity, such as strange fonts, colors, or font sizes.

The lesson here is that you don't trust Facebook posts or Twitter messages. Charitable organizations that use social media should also have a website, so what we're going to do is log on to the site and make sure the charity is legal. 501 (c) (3) (This is a clause in the United States Tax code that grants tax exemptions to organizations such as religion, charity, education, etc.). In general, the Charitable Fund web site contains a copy of Form 990 or 990-ez file submitted by the Fund to the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which is necessary to establish its tax-exempt status. In addition, the charitable Fund's website should also publish any audited financial reports and the Fund's mission statement.

Illinois, Vice director Management (Center for nonprofit Lize Livingston Howard), parochial of Kellogg School of Management (Kellogg, Management), Northwestern University (Liz Livingston Howard says the attorney general's Office should be able to provide you with information about the state where the charitable organization is registered (if a charitable organization is not registered and is a major danger signal).

In addition, charitable funds can be screened on websites that specialize in reviewing and evaluating non-profit organizations. The charitynavigator.org website assesses more than 5,500 charitable funds based on their accountability, transparency and financial results. GuideStar.org the income information and tax return form of the charitable fund, which 100多万个 has been granted tax-exempt status by the IRS.

"One bad aspect (in terms of social media) is that this medium is also an important source of false information." "Bogle said. There will always be people who "want to cheat you, cheat you, exploit you".

But it should be noted that social media can be an effective tool to help people find worthwhile careers. For example, after a disaster or major news event, people often want to donate money, but do not know where to begin. For example, in the aftermath of a hurricane, flood or earthquake, Twitter messages and Facebook posts from charitable funds and organizations can provide information about the situation and how donations are given to people who want to donate.

After the recent shootings in Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani activist Marara Yusafazai, Globalgiving.org posted a photo on its Facebook page of about 20 Pakistani girls shouting " Education is the rights of every Child "(education are the right of Every children), in addition to a link to a charitable fund designed to raise money to send Pakistani girls to school. GlobalGiving reviews charitable organizations from around the world and classifies them on its website according to the themes and areas of the charitable organizations.

Bogle said that in the event of a disaster or a major news incident, there would always be a formal charitable foundation calling for donations, rather than a random person jumping out to call for it. If a charitable fund is sharing content through social media--such as photos, videos or every inspirational quote--that seems legitimate, then what people should do next is visit the fund's website to find out more.

Tracking the whereabouts of the funds

Social media also allow potential donors to better measure how the money they donate will be used-and, in some cases, to give them a little bit of insight into the work being carried out using their endowment funds.

This transparency is appealing to Northwest Ministry receptacle's personal assistant Couby Graham (Cubby Graham) of the Snoqualmie Charitable Fund advocacy group in Washington, WA. Graham has heard from a video link on Twitter that a well rig is being built in northern Ethiopia to expand clean water projects. The video comes from a charity called Charitywater.org in New York, which is working to develop clean water projects for developing countries.

After discovering the news, Graham began tracking the nonprofit on Facebook and Twitter, and eventually donated about 250 dollars to the organization's website. In addition, he launched two charitywater.org campaigns to raise money for clean water projects, raising more than 2000 dollars from friends and family through his social network. In addition, Graham was registered on the charity's website to get regular Twitter updates from staff including his founders. Being able to track the "Progress" of the money you donate is a very attractive thing, he said.

Be aware that if you want to register a charitable organization's web site for regular updates, make sure you can opt out of the subscription whenever you want.

One of the most useful features of social media for donors may be to allow them to spread their favorite careers and provide feedback on how a charitable fund is doing on its way to fulfilling its mission. But if you start talking about these things online, remember that the information you publish is often open. If you "like" a charitable fund on Facebook or post a Twitter message about it, expect the fund to get in touch with you, which happens all the time. It may even happen that people who track the same charitable foundation on social networking sites will contact you.

If you don't want other charitable funds to come to you to donate, it's not a good idea to share information about how much money you donate or how often you donate it.

A San Francisco designer named Maik Montro Mike Monteiro has shared information and updates with Twitter messages about the financially troubled family the Boston charitable organization Smallcanbebig.org is trying to help. He said he first donated about 100 dollars to the charity in 2009.

"The best way I can help Sgt can be big is not to donate money." "said Mr. Damon. Instead, it helps to spread the information. ”