donor bill of rights

Tempest in a Teapot - Central Asia Institute

I have been watching the ripple effects of the allegations of misuse of funds by Three Cups of Tea author and charity founder, Greg Mortensen.  Mr. Mortensen has been accused of spending donor dollars to promote his book, and more importantly that what he says he is promoting is not what is happening on the ground.

Charity Scams Alive & Well in Canada

Charity scams are alive and well in Canada.  In 2003 the Chronicle of Philanthropy released a report that in North America over $1.28B is lossed due to fraud (and that is only the fraud that is caught!).  This hit home this week when Ashley Kirilow was denied bail for her part in a cancery charity scam. Read more »

Why Donors Stop Giving... A True Story

True story - I have a client; a small family foundation who wanted to make a donation to a medium-sized public foundation.  This family foundation offered up $30,000 a year for FIVE years, totalling $150,000.  The conversation began in September 2008 as of today (January 2nd) the recipient still has not made the transfer of funds possible. 

Several questions arise from this situation:
  1.  What is going on internally with this charity that they cannot come back with a response (yes or no) to accepting the donation?
  2.  Should the family take the offer off the table?
  3. Why would I even suggest putting an offer like this in front of an organization that does not have the capacity to manage the gift?
  4. How can this charity better manage the donation?
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