Did you know that using your credit card online with a reputable company is more secure than virtually any other place you use it?

Much of credit card fraud happens when information is collected through postal theft, the trash, or when a credit card is handed to someone at a restaurant or shop. When you use your card with a reputable site online the information is encrypted so no curious eyes can see it as it is transmitted from your PC to the credit card processor.

That said, there is no shortage of scams or just sloppy practices online, so be informed and be careful. Here are a few tips to help you out:

1. Always verify a charity’s legitimacy before donating: Get proof that the group is in fact a registered public charity with 501(c)(3) status. You can try to locate them in the charity finder on the Freelanthropy.com home page, or for more detailed information use the search tool available at Guidestar.org.
 
2. Research the organization before making a donation:  Go to their website and look at their mission statement, decide if you believe in their cause, learn how and where they apply the donations.  Charity Navigator, charitynavigator.org, is a great third-party resource to learn about an organization’s performance.

3. Before making a donation online: make sure the organization has a secure site.  When supplying personal information, look for a closed padlock symbol in your browser’s status bar. Also the “s” in “https://” at the beginning of the URL means you are logging into a secure page.  

4. Protect yourself from online scams:  Do not respond to email solicitations unless you are 100% sure of the source. But even then don’t transmit sensitive information via email – it is not secure. And if you give such information via the charity’s website, see the note above regarding security.  Nonprofit domains typically end in .org, but this is no guarantee of the validity of the organization.
 
5. Check to see if your gift is tax deductible. “Nonprofit” does not necessarily mean that your donation is tax deductible, so be sure the organization has received its 501(c)(3) designation from the IRS.

6. If possible, designate how you want your donation to be spent. Many organizations allow you to select a specific area of work for your donation to be applied. Otherwise just know that your donation will be rolled into the organizations operating budget.  

7. If you want to direct your IRA to charity, it is not considered taxable income.  Contact an IRA custodian for help on giving an IRA to a charity.  

8. For giving in times of crisis, always donate to a charity you can trust and follow up with the charity in a few months to find out how your donation was put to use and where they need additional help. The scam artists tend to come out of the woodwork to exploit your sympathy at the time of a large crisis, so take extra care to verify that you’re giving to the organization intended and that organization is a reputable charity. See some of the other tips above.

9. Avoid telemarketers and eliminate the middleman:  Some charitable telemarketing campaigns can keep 25-95 cents of every dollar they collect.  Cutting out the middleman and donating online ensures 100% of your donation reaches the charity.

10. Volunteer! Don’t be afraid to give, online or offline, just be smart about it. But often your time and expertise is just as valuable to donate to an organization as your hard cash, so consider giving that, too. You’ll be amazed at how fulfilling it will be. If you’re not sure where to start, here’s a good resource to try VolunteerMatch.org.

There are more great tips and resources online and here are a few reputable sources where you can learn more:

• GuideStar
• Charity Navigator
• Network for Good
• ePhilanthropy     
• JustGive
• VolunteerMatch