Editorial guide
Check a fundraiser in five minutes
Rescue fundraisers mix the best and the worst: sincere volunteers who front vet costs out of their own pocket, and collections that fund nothing at all. From the outside, the two look alike. Here's how to tell them apart, without accusing anyone.
The five checks
- 1
Who receives the money
This is the check that matters most. A serious organization collects on its own account, whose name appears on the fundraiser or payment page. If the money goes to a personal account, the collection rests entirely on trust in a person you don't know. This isn't always fraud: many independent rescuers do real work. But you can't verify it, and your donation is then not a verifiable gift, it's a bet.
- 2
How long the account has existed
Open the profile behind the fundraiser and scroll back through its history. An account that has documented rescues for years, with identifiable dogs you can follow over the months, tells the story of real activity. A recent account collecting large sums on powerful images, with no verifiable past, should stop you. Animal frauds recycle photos and videos taken elsewhere: a reverse image search takes thirty seconds.
- 3
What the requested amount funds
A serious request states what it funds: a priced surgery, a vet quote, named expenses. The amount requested corresponds to something. A collection that stacks up emergencies without ever specifying what the money is for, or whose target keeps rising as donations come in, may owe you nothing legally, but it doesn't deserve your money.
- 4
What happens next
Follow-up is the signature of honest collections. The operated dog is shown after surgery. Donors are kept informed, even when the story ends badly. A fundraiser you never hear about again once the target is reached is a warning sign for next time. Before donating, check what happened to that account's previous fundraisers.
- 5
Permanent urgency
Urgency is the normal mode of rescue work, and that's exactly what makes it exploitable. An account where every post is a matter of life or death, never with results, daily life or figures, uses your emotion as a means of payment. Serious organizations live through emergencies too. They also show the rest.
What this does not mean
A personal account is not proof of fraud, and a registered charity is not a guarantee of good management. These five checks condemn no one: they simply tell you whether you can verify, or whether you have to take it on trust. When you can't verify, the organizations listed on this site, at least, are verifiable.