Secretary Tennant Issues Reminders on Wise Giving During State of Emergency

Secretary of State Natalie E. Tennant spoke with representatives from the national personal fundraising website GoFundMe’s Trust and Safety Unit about giving after the West Virginia floods. Hundreds of GoFundMe pages have been created to raise money for families, counties and groups affected by the floods.
“So many good-hearted West Virginians are doing everything they can to help right now, including setting up online fundraising sites to support flood victims,” Secretary Tennant said. “We should all continue to give generously as able, but also make sure that we’re taking proper precautions before we donate to any source, not just online. I wanted to be sure to share some tips for one of the most popular online sources we’ve seen after the flood.”
GoFundMe’s Head of Trust and Safety, Danny Gordon, gave details on the company’s vetting process before a fundraising page can go live. Details of the security and page vetting process can be found at: https://www.gofundme.com/safety. Some safety tips include:
•    Review the “Created By” area located in the top-right corner of each online donation page and make sure that you know and trust that person.
•    Don’t be afraid to e-mail the organizer/creator and ask questions. Click the e-mail icon beside of their name on the fundraising page.
•    If you do believe there is a suspicious page or activity, you can click “Report Campaign” at the bottom of a specific page.
•    GoFundMe keeps 5% of donations made through the platform and the processor takes 2.9%.
While the Secretary of State’s Office does not register or oversee online fundraisers, it does maintain an online database of charitable organizations, raising $25,000 or more annually, registered to solicit donations from West Virginians. Using the database, citizens can find out how much money was donated to a charity and see if the charity spent the money on administrative and program costs. The database can be accessed on the Secretary of State’s Website at www.wvsos.com.
To report a potentially fraudulent charity or group raising money, contact the Secretary of State’s Investigations Unit at (304) 558-6000 or (877) 372-8398.