Minnesota attorney general finds that less than 1 percent of donations to Kars4Kids charity goes to Minnesota kids
Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson is taking aim at Kars4Kids, a New Jersey charity that spent less than 1 percent of the $3 million it raised from Minnesota donors on programs in the state.
The charity, one of the largest vehicle donation charities in the country and perhaps best known for its radio jingle, solicits vehicles from donors and raises money by selling and scrapping them.
But according to a compliance review issued Thursday by Swanson’s office, Kars4Kids spent just $11,600 on charitable programs for Minnesota residents from 2012 to 2014.
We were discussing earlier with thecryptofiend about charities that would use the blockchain technology for them to function more efficiently than any currently existing ones. In a world with increased use of technology and internet connection more and more people all over the world are getting access to "internet money" even though their situation and location doesn't let them or make it easy for them to have a bank account.
The unbanked will in my opinion be a big factor in the blockchain technologies usability because of its non-existing transaction costs (not looking at you, bitcoin...) and for them to have a place where they can store their value safely and don't have to trust companies or middle-men except for the code and their private keys.
This will make it easier for people to trust these charities again. There are as many frauds in the current ones as ponzi-schemes all over the internet.
There was a post that I was excited about that could've gotten this started in a small and good way, it was called Steem-A-Dream but unfortunately nothing happened with the project.
What would the community think about reviving it now? We as a community could come up with a great charitable cause and use the voting mechanism for which one we should focus on first. There are plenty of ideas and ways we could get that going and I would love to start a discussion between members who already are aware of the technical advantages our platform gives and newcomers could have some good ideas and causes to suggest.
Let me know your thoughts about this.
I definitely think there is a need for charitable giving to be part of the blockchain. Scams like this happen way too often and when people use a front for a charity to get money for personal use it is flat out wrong in my opinion.
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I think it could certainly help with transparency so it would make deliberate corruption more difficult (as well as reducing actual costs).
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That is crazy, I hear those advertisements around New England all the time, I always wondered how they could afford to spend so much on advertising. Answer = it's a big scam and they don't need money for the charity anyways.
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this definitely needs to happen. Ive seen it tried a few times, and once by a women trying to raise money for a laptop so she could make better steemit posts to help provide for her family. Within a month steemians helped her raise enough money to get a laptop and I was very proud of our community for stepping up because many did more than just upvote, and actually donated their own steem. I was talking to my girlfriend recently about trying something like this for autism awareness month because she works with many kids with autism, didnt end up doing it though. But this is the perfect place to do be doing these things.
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I was thinking of setting up a real-time charity idea. Steem a dream is a great idea!
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this post really needs to go all the steemians so that they can aware,
thanks for the info,
resteemed :)
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It seems to me that it would be a positive for charities to use the blockchain tecnology as a way to curtail so much corruption that we hear about everyday.
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The possibilities are endless. I haven't had much experience myself with charities so had to actually search around for it quite a bit. What I noticed was that there are very low amount of statistics and openness about their funds. The sites that google search lead you to were either charities filled with ads or clones of random name charity. It feels somehow like gaming the SEO and just spamming the internet with other untrustable stuff to make you send money that in the end will probably not go to where you think it does. Wouldn't surprise me if its as common as phishing emails.
With blockchain, we can know that person that's on the other end writing right now, or just taking a picture and uploading it here will receive the steem that we send it. In no time there will be services in the area that realize what these currencies are and what advantages they give and how they can use it, now with an increasing technology usage in the unbanked world.
Imagine something like Patreon without there needing to be a website in the middle that takes a big cut - and another one like Paypal taking an even bigger one.
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I really appreciating of charities because it is a positive step to help needful peoples.
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There has to be an exceptional vetting process by experienced individuals who know how to audit and manage charities. Anyone who donates or supports a charity or is considering it must very diligently examine its Annual Statements, look at the Board of Directors, look at their affiliations and contracts, and then make that decision. Does the charity have 10 "Fund Developers" on staff and only two outreach employees? Is the AGM Gala costing more than its core program? Are the Directors also the owners of contracted companies? Check those financials line by line and beware of line items that appear to be clumped together; that's typically done to hide something. No Annual Reports online? They're not hiding something; they're hiding everything. Vetting charities and non-profits is very difficult but otherwise you're just blindly handing out your money, or Steem Dollars, to golfers at the local Country Club.
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Steem-a-Dream is a great name for a charity!
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Using the blockchain technology for transparency and value would help monumentally in this case of vampiric corruption! Grrrrr...
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