do you donate online?

Have you ever donated online? Maybe to a charity or a non-profit… maybe your friend was running a race and asking for contributions… or maybe even a raffle fundraiser? I certainly have… to all of the above! I’ve even hosted my own raffle fundraiser on this blog and collected money from other people–over $500 in generous donations (that I sent to an amazing non-profit).

Where do you draw the line? How much research do you do before donating? How SAFE is it?

Especially with the holiday season of giving upon us, I wanted to touch on some stats and safety guidelines about donating online! Remember I’ve had my social security number stolen before and I know that identity theft is NOT fun and really can happen to anyone–so be aware!

But also know that donating online can be done safely and it’s a wonderful way to give. Some things to remember:

• If you receive an EMAIL asking for donations, research first! Don’t open any attachments and make sure any links aren’t to fake website “clones.” Don’t reply with any personal information.
• Donate on SECURE websites. You know it’s secure if the URL starts with “https://” instead of just the regular “http://” This tells you there’s a lower risk involved with possible security breaches.
• Scams can be well designed and hosted on any 3rd party website. Watch out for requests on sites like facebook, craigstlist, twitter, etc.
• Not sure?? CALL the organization or nonprofit. Ask if the website or email request is valid.
• You should only enter personal information on your secure computer at home. You don’t want anything stored on a public computer AND you don’t want people watching over your shoulder.

~And of course: stay protected. My family uses LifeLock to help prevent identity theft–one of the many things they do is alert us if they find our personal information being used!

Don’t forget to enter the LifeLock for Life Sweepstakes… the topic this month is donating online and know that you’ve read my post I’m sure you’ll get all the answers correct! 🙂 During the month of October you can win great donations to charities of your choice!

Have you ever run into trouble donating online? Will you be donating online this holiday season?

~disclosure: as a LifeLock Ambassador, I received a membership and compensation for this post.