Do leave home with-out your credit card unless you plan to pay the balance in full when you receive your next statement. Look for and bake recipes that do not include expensive ingredients such as nuts and candied fruit. As the holiday season approaches, calls to your home from charitable organizations for donations are likely to increase. Many legitimate groups genuinely need additional contributions to provide food and shelter to the less fortunate during the cold winter months. With more than half a million federally recognized charities soliciting for contributions, it pays to be cautious when making a donation.
Some solicitors are swindlers and others use donations in a fraudulent or wasteful manner.
Very few Arkansans mind giving to a worthy cause, but most want their contributions to be used as intended. Keep the following in mind as you plan to support your favorite charity. Understand that many charitable organizations hire professional fund raisers to plan, conduct and manage their fund-raising campaigns. When this is the case, a percentage of all donations are retained by the fund raiser with the remainder going to the charity. The next time your phone rings and someone you do not know requests a donation for a seemingly legitimate cause, ask a few questions yourself.