WILMINGTON – Today, DANA, the Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement, joined the National Council of Nonprofits (NCN) — the nation’s largest network of nonprofits — to champion a new set of national principles designed to guide ethical online fundraising platforms and protect the integrity of charitable giving.
To help safeguard local charities and the generous donors who support them, NCN and its network of state and regional associations developed a set of core guidelines to ensure and prioritize four key pillars: nonprofit consent, transparency, partnership, and accountability.
“Nonprofits depend on transparency and trust, and when online fundraising platforms operate unethically, sometimes counter to state or local laws, they risk undermining the public integrity nonprofits have worked so hard to develop,” stated Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits. “These actions harm the very nonprofits that online fundraising platforms seek to support while creating frustration and confusion among donors, and diverting resources intended for communities and causes.”
Too often, online fundraising platforms operate in unethical ways at the expense of charitable organizations and donors alike. Across the U.S., hundreds of platforms operate with very little oversight or accountability – and with the rapid advance of AI, more are coming online each year.
Many of these platforms collect donations for nonprofits – generating millions of dollars in fees and tips in the process – completely without the nonprofits’ knowledge or consent. Some platforms use incorrect and outdated information that compromises and misrepresents a nonprofit’s brand, mission, strategy, and message. Others charge donors hidden fees or set excessive platform “tips” as the default, taking a large bite out of every donation.
DANA CEO Melissa Hopkins noted that last year, online fundraising platform GoFundMe mined public data of 1.4 million 501(c)(3) organizations and created charity pages, including an unauthorized page for DANA. No notice was sent to these organizations that the pages were created on their behalf, and it was not readily apparent how nonprofits could take control of the GoFundMe charity pages.
“While online fundraising has become an invaluable tool in allowing nonprofits to reach new donors, last year’s breach of trust has magnified the importance of and need for guidelines,” Hopkins said. “Nonprofits work hard to build trust with their donors, and these unethical practices can erode that trust. DANA is proud to endorse NCN’s principles and stand by them, and we hope that these online platforms will respect and follow these principles.”
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