{"id":3560,"date":"2021-11-02T16:26:48","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T16:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/2021\/11\/02\/secretary-of-state-issues-annual-wise-giving-report\/"},"modified":"2021-11-02T16:26:48","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T16:26:48","slug":"secretary-of-state-issues-annual-wise-giving-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/2021\/11\/02\/secretary-of-state-issues-annual-wise-giving-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Secretary of State issues annual Wise Giving Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Secretary of State Mark Hammond announced today the release of his office&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sos.sc.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/Documents\/About%20Us\/2020-2021%20Wise%20Giving%20Report.pdf\">2020-2021 Wise Giving Report<\/a>&nbsp;and 2021 Give Smart Watch List, in conjunction with International Charity Fraud Awareness Week (ICFAW).&nbsp; &ldquo;I am pleased to join my fellow charity regulators and members of the nonprofit sector in raising donor awareness about charity fraud,&rdquo; said Secretary Hammond.&nbsp; &ldquo;I hope that this year&rsquo;s Wise Giving Report and Give Smart Watch List will encourage South Carolinians to use the tools offered by our office to make wise giving decisions.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>ICFAW, which runs from October 18 to 22, 2021, is a collaborative education and social media campaign to highlight charitable solicitation fraud and promote wise charitable giving. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Participants include charities, regulators, law enforcement, and other nonprofit associations and stakeholders. Donors can follow the campaign on social media at #StopCharityFraud.<\/p>\n<p>The Secretary of State&rsquo;s Wise Giving Report provides tips for charitable donors to avoid fraud and includes data from professional solicitor fundraising contracts and financial reports filed in 2020 and 2021.&nbsp; The Wise Giving Report includes 2021 Give Smart Watch List&mdash;a list of 10 charitable organizations that are soliciting or that have registered to solicit in South Carolina.&nbsp; The organizations included in the Give Smart Watch List have either reported spending less than 40% of their total expenses on their charitable programs or have failed to disclose to donors how they are using their money.&nbsp; The organizations included in this year&rsquo;s Give Smart Watch List are listed below in alphabetical order:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Childhood Leukemia Foundation, Inc.<\/strong>, Brick, NJ<\/li>\n<li><strong>Disabled Veterans National Foundation<\/strong>, Lanham, MD<\/li>\n<li><strong>Firefighters Charitable Foundation, Inc.<\/strong>, Farmingdale, NY<\/li>\n<li><strong>Law Enforcement Officers Relief Fund<\/strong>, Sarasota, FL<\/li>\n<li><strong>Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation<\/strong>, Annandale, VA<\/li>\n<li><strong>Miracle House of Hope Ministries<\/strong>, Charlotte, NC<\/li>\n<li><strong>National Cancer Assistance Foundation, Inc.<\/strong>, Daytona Beach, FL<\/li>\n<li><strong>Project Cure, Inc.<\/strong>, Lakewood Ranch, FL<\/li>\n<li><strong>Retired Police Canine Foundation, Inc.<\/strong>, Weeki Wachee, FL<\/li>\n<li><strong>Walker Cancer Research Institute, Inc.<\/strong>, Boynton Beach, FL<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&ldquo;It is tragic that some organizations exploit donors&rsquo; concern for legitimate causes in the name of charity,&rdquo; said Secretary Hammond.&nbsp; &ldquo;Just because an organization claims to help veterans, law enforcement, cancer patients, or the homeless, does not mean that they are deserving of your contribution.&nbsp; Donors need to be vigilant when it comes to charitable giving, and always check out organizations before making a donation.&nbsp; The best weapon against charity fraud is the educated donor, and together we can #StopCharityFraud.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Donors can research charities and professional fundraisers through the Secretary of State&rsquo;s website at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/sos.sc.gov\/\">sos.sc.gov<\/a>.&nbsp; The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/search.scsos.com\/charities\">Charity Search<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/search.scsos.com\/PFRs\">Professional Fundraiser Search<\/a>,&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/search.scsos.com\/raffles\">Raffles Search<\/a>&nbsp;features provide registration and financial data, as well as electronic copies of financial reports. Furthermore, donors can submit a confidential complaint about a charity, professional fundraiser, or raffle through the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/appengine.egov.com\/apps\/sc\/SOS\/CharitableSolicitationComplaint\">Online Charitable Solicitation Complaint Form<\/a>&nbsp;that is available on the Secretary of State&rsquo;s website.&nbsp; Donors can also contact the Secretary of State&rsquo;s Division of Public Charities at 1-888-CHARITI (242-7484) or&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:charities@sos.sc.gov\">charities@sos.sc.gov<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Secretary of State Mark Hammond announced today the release of his office&rsquo;s&nbsp;2020-2021 Wise Giving Report&nbsp;and 2021 Give Smart Watch List, in conjunction with International Charity Fraud Awareness Week (ICFAW).&nbsp; &ldquo;I am pleased to join my fellow charity regulators and members of the nonprofit sector in raising donor awareness about charity<span class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/2021\/11\/02\/secretary-of-state-issues-annual-wise-giving-report\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[227],"class_list":["entry","author-john-griggs","post-3560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-community-news","tag-secretary-of-state"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gpstrianglenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/CharityFraud_2021_630x350.jpg?fit=630%2C350&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}