Donation request investigation
Donation and Fundraiser Scam Messages: What to Check Before You Give
Generosity is not a deadline. Make the organization, fundraiser, payment path, and claimed cause line up before money moves.
First, classify the request
Before judging the story, determine what kind of organization is asking. A registered charity, political action committee, individual crowdfunding organizer, commercial fundraiser, and informal community drive can all use emotional language while carrying very different obligations and verification paths.
Write down the exact legal name claimed in the message. If all you have is a cause, slogan, or person’s first name, you do not yet have an organization to verify. That is the first gap in the case file.
Follow the money, not the logo
Find the organization through an independent search. Compare the legal name, official domain, mailing address, published phone number, tax status, and the name shown at checkout. If a fundraiser is involved, determine whether the donation page says how much reaches the organization.
Use the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search when federal tax-exempt status matters. For political appeals, use FEC records. For charities, check the relevant state charity regulator as well as the organization’s own disclosures.
- Exact legal organization name
- Independent official website and contact information
- Tax-exempt or political-committee record, when claimed
- Fundraiser or platform operating the page
- Name of the actual payment recipient
- Refund, fee, and information-sharing terms
Pressure tells you where to look
Urgency does not prove a scam, but it reveals what the sender hopes you will skip. Match the pressure to the missing verification: a countdown discourages entity research; a tiny first payment lowers resistance; a dramatic personal story can pull attention away from who controls the account.
Gift cards, cryptocurrency, wire transfers, cash, credentials, verification codes, or remote-device access are not ordinary charitable due diligence. Preserve the request and step away from the supplied payment channel.
Preserve a record that another person can audit
Save the complete message, sender, voicemail, callback number, URL, redirect destination, organization name, payment instructions, receipt, and every representation about tax deductibility or use of funds.
A useful record allows a bank, regulator, journalist, attorney, or the organization being impersonated to reconstruct what happened without relying on memory. Crop for privacy only after preserving the original.
If you already paid
Contact the payment provider using a trusted channel and ask whether the transaction can be stopped or reversed. Change exposed credentials, preserve confirmations, and report the request to the appropriate regulator or platform.
Do not pay a second person who promises to recover the first payment for an upfront fee. Recovery scams frequently arrive after the original loss because the victim has already demonstrated urgency and willingness to pay.
How this guide was built
Reporting and review note
This guide organizes FTC and IRS guidance into a repeatable identity-and-payment investigation. It is designed to help a reader document what is known, what is merely claimed, and what remains unverified.
Sources
Make the request prove who it is
Analyze the sending number and preserve the message, callback, link, and payment path before responding.