In the hours after eight people were killed and dozens injured at the Astroworld festival, requests for donations started pouring in on social media.
Some immediately seemed real. The family of 16-year-old Brianna Rodriguez, a junior at Heights High School in Houston, were looking for help with funeral expenses. Rodolfo Pea’s sister was looking for him. Axl Acosta’s family was trying to raise money to travel from Washington to Texas to bring his body home and pay for his funeral.
Others were immediately suspicious. There was a man who wanted money to replace his new sneakers because they had blood on them. People posting their Cash app handles and their Venmo names claiming they needed help with medical bills. There were people claiming to be parents whose children were asking for cash during a Travis Scott concert in Houston’s NRG Park.
Crowdfunding is an increasingly popular way to get financial aid directly to those who need it. Market research firm Technavio estimates that crowdfunding will increase by about 15%, or $196 billion, by 2025.
That increase is also generating more government scrutiny. Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought its first case involving crowdfunding fraud.
Kevin Scally, chief relations officer of Charity Navigator, the world’s largest nonprofit appraiser, said the success of some individual fundraisers encourages scammers to try to create fake stories for land donations.
We always encourage people to give from the heart, Scali said. But we also want them to use their heads.
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How do I deliver authentic campaigns?
Scali recommends donating to registered nonprofits because they are required by the Internal Revenue Service to declare how much money they raise and spend in a given year and where that money went. He added that the organization is actually being audited or financially reviewed by a third party. You can be more confident knowing that funds are actually being used efficiently and effectively by the organization.
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What if I want to donate directly to someone?
Crowdfunding platforms are becoming more proactive in working with fundraisers to verify their identity and the intentions of the money they receive.
Last week, GoFundMe and Indiegogo, the two largest giving platforms, co-founded the Crowdfunding Trust Alliance to make donations on their platforms even more secure.
Over the weekend, once campaigns for Astroworld victims started appearing on its platform, GoFundMe worked to verify the identities of those fundraisers. It then created a special page for the campaigns of Acosta, Pea and Rodriguez to let donors know if any funds would be given specifically to those families.
Crowdfunding isn’t the purchase that people generally understand now. It shouldn’t even be a leap in the dark, and it certainly can’t be a scam, wrote Will Haines, Indiegogos vice president of product and customer trust, in a blog post last week. Was. He added that users want the platform to be a secure, trusted place that can mingle with innovation.
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What if I find out that I have given a fake campaign?
Several platforms are working hard to support donors. GoFundMe has created a guarantee that it is the first and only one of its kind in the fundraising industry. If a campaign misrepresents itself, or funds do not reach their intended beneficiaries, donors may be eligible for a full refund.
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The Associated Press receives support from the Lilly Endowment for its coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. AP is solely responsible for all content.
Disclaimer: This post has been self-published from the agency feed without modification and has not been reviewed by an editor
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