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Originally Posted by Lyarham
Great article. So many people get duped by these commercials
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Yep. Dogs and kids. Two foolproof ways to raise money. Unfortunately though a lot of that money gets misused.
Remember back in the 70s and 80s, and those TV commercials featuring kids looking to be about five or six, standing amidst a fair bit of squalor, staring into a camera while a disembodied voice assured us that "x" amount of money donated will feed l'il Rosita for a month? Where Rosita lived was never really revealed though it was assumed it was somewhere in Central or South America. Often the disembodied voice urged regular (monthly) donations, which would assure that Rosita, or whichever kid was assigned to the donor, would supply the donor with regular letters letting the donor know how much their money was helping, updates on their lives, etc. You could even get a framed picture of the kid you were funding.
There were legitimate charities doing this kind of thing. Save The Children for example was a reputable (though annoying) charity that actually did help. But there were knockoffs that didn't. One lookalike "charity", Feed The Children, ended up being investigated for fraud. There were others as well who were adept at separating gullible people from their money but not much else.
We try to donate directly rather than going through intermediaries. That way we KNOW that the money we're giving isn't going to fund some CEO's lavish life style but rather to the people and organization actually doing the work.