Thursday, January 14, 2010

Before You Donate

HSUS has already begun rattling the disaster relief donation pan. Now HSUS can spend their money any way they like - although I take issue with their tax-exempt status - and that's their right. But in the interest of full disclosure, which HSUS seems to have a hard time with in general, anyone considering donating to HSUS to help animals in Haiti (or to help pets here at home even) should research exactly how the organization spends its cash. For example, direct mail services and lobbying. And it's a good time to review how HSUS performed with the last boatload of cash it received from donors during a natural disaster - Hurricane Katrina. Add to these their more recent deceptive fundraising ploys such as asking for money to care for Michael Vick's dogs when they didn't have the dogs and were actually lobbying for their deaths as well as the Fay debacle, then decide for yourself if you trust your donation will be used how you wish it to be used.

I always research before making a donation to any group - animal related or otherwise. There are unfortunately more than a few "charities" out there who exist to help only themselves.

5 comments:

Darlene said...

One place to donate is the World Society for the Protection of Amimals.

Read more here: http://animalsindisasters.typepad.com/wspa/2010/01/joining-forces-to-help-animals.html

Unknown said...

To be fair, the Red Cross too has a history of improper use of funds, especially during Hurricane Katrina and Sept 11. They've been accused of racism and similar financial issues as HSUS (i.e. using a lot of funds for fundraising, admin, etc).

If we want to be consistent in our application of "before you donate", it seems prudent to include the same caveat for the Red Cross as well.

Anonymous said...

Wow.

The folks at HSUS don't miss any opportunity to shill for a buck, do they?

Darlene said...

Rinalia:

And that is why I don't donate to the Red Cross. I'm supporting Partners in Health and WSPA.

Anonymous said...

I recently wrote this article along the same vein:

HSUS 2008 Tax Filing