As the war in Ukraine continues, more and more citizens of that country are in need of help. There are a number of relief efforts underway, but you want to be careful before jumping on the first one you may see online.
The Better Business Bureau San Diego has a website that could help make sure your donation gets into the right hands. Give.org does all the legwork for you, filtering out some relief efforts that may not be well organized or may even be fake.
“You can find a list of all BBB Accredited charities that are able to support Ukraine-related programs or are actually directly supporting in another way,” said Viridiana Quintana of the Better Business Bureau San Diego.
Whether it’s through their online tool or not, the BBB says research is key since there could be relief efforts that are well intended, but the execution may need a little bit of work.
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“See what they’re doing with their funding, see what types of programs and services they’re providing,” said Quintana. “Are they even able to get directly into the impacted area, right?”
And of course, there are the scams. They could be well-disguised as noble efforts to help the people in Ukraine, but the true intention is to keep your donation for themselves.
“That’s why we have to make sure that we do the research and make sure that the money can go to the correct charities that are doing the work and are actually able to support these efforts,” Quintana said.
