In the days following the Boston Marathon bombing,
crowdfunding sites reported more than $2 million raised to support victims of
the tragedy. Because online giving provides a quick, easy mechanism for
supporting those in need, it is of little surprise that the public went online
to support victims of the tragedy. But the speed at which people turned
to this latest trend in fundraising has BBB concerned.
In mid-2007, BBB Cincinnati had its first experience
with a rudimentary crowdfunding site. Local newspapers touted the site’s
ability to aggregate small donations for a big impact, but BBB was skeptical.
We asked the operators of the site to substantiate a variety of claims
and prove that recipients selected by donors received the donations that were
made online. The site’s operators never responded to our requests for
information, nor did they verify that the intended recipients received the
pledges. Within a couple of years, the site’s operators closed up shop.
“They told us they raised large sums of money online,
but we couldn’t account for where the money was going,” says Jocile Ehrlich,
President & CEO of BBB Cincinnati. “We still don’t know what happened
to the funds they raised.” This lack of independent oversight leaves BBB
skeptical of crowdfunding.
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