Trust, but verify, your charitable giving | Ed Kellerman

News admin September 6, 2026 0 Comments

Trust, but verify, your charitable giving | Ed Kellerman

Years ago, at a Project Nepal fundraiser at the Gainesville Country Club, my tennis partner and good friend Annie sternly asked where the money was going. I explained that all the money went to a registered school for orphans in Katmandu, my co-director and I took no salaries, and all our bank records were open to the public. She was satisfied.

You’ve probably had dozens, if not hundreds of appeals in the wake of Nepal’s floods and have also read about charity scams, and I need to reiterate your responsibility to check it out before you hit that donation button. I am not only a donor but I co-direct Project Nepal, taught Non-Profit Leadership at UF, and was the Communications Director of the Harvest of Hope Foundation for 13 years.

Your first stop is CharityNavigator.com to see if they are registered. Whether registered or not, investigate these four criteria: how much they spend on actual services, how much they pay themselves, are their Form 990 records filed on time and transparent and how much they spend on fundraising. Most non-profit advisors recommend at least 80% or more being spent on direct services – even if they have paid staff. But also spending $10,000 to raise $30,000 makes me uncomfortable especially if they use paid marketers.

For examples, my Project Nepal has been using the Radha Paudel Foundation as our educational agent and for disaster relief. Radha sends us spreadsheets of every penny she spends as well as photos of her work. Our old Harvest of Hope Foundation distributed between 88% and 95% of our monies directly to migrant families, did all our fundraising in-house and used local CPAs for our transparent accounts.

I know you want to contribute to Nepal relief but be careful. The Himani Trust of Nepal (www.himanitrust.org.np) and Radha Paudel (radhapaudelfoundation.org) have excellent reputations. The Nepal Youth Foundation (nepalyouthfoundation.org) is 4 star rated on Charity Navigator and CN has a page of recommended relief charities and their ratings (www.charitynavigator.org/discover-charities/where-to-give/nepal-flooding-2026).

Whether you use these or other organizations, remember that FaceBook pages and crowdfunded solicitations can be full of bright graphics and stirring words but once you hit that button, if it’s a scam, you won’t get that money back or if it’s an unregistered, non-transparent group, you’ll never know whether that money goes to help people or to help themselves.

Like Annie, you have the right and obligation to ask where the money is going.

Ed Kellerman is a retired Master Lecturer/Fulbright Scholar from UF and regularly consults organizations on leadership and nonprofit issues.

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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Trust, but verify, your charitable giving | Ed Kellerman

Reporting by Ed Kellerman, Guest column / The Gainesville Sun

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This story was originally published September 6, 2026 at 1:00 PM.