Capital One Canada to add $10 to individual donations made through
CanadaHelps.org during Fraud Awareness Month
TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2012 /CNW/ - A new survey commissioned by
CanadaHelps.org and Capital One Canada, as part of Fraud Awareness
Month, found that 45% of millennials (aged 18-34 years) are taking no
steps to ensure a charity is legitimate before making a donation, and
more than half (52%) are spontaneous, "on the fly" donors. This kind of
behaviour puts millenials at risk for fraud because they are casually
handing over their hard-earned money and personal information with
little to no planning or due diligence.
The survey found that compared to other generations, they are more than
twice as likely to give personal information, nearly half as likely to
ask if a charity is registered, and less than half as likely to ask for
a solicitor's identification. This relaxed attitude might explain why
only 19% of millennials are very concerned about falling victim to a
fraudster compared to 27% for other age groups.
"Across all generations and all donor methods, more than half of
Canadians say they're less likely to give to charity based on a fear of
fraudsters," said Owen Charters, CEO of CanadaHelps. "It's important
that donors know how to find legitimate causes, so they can feel
comfortable giving to charity - online and off."
The survey found that online appeals are becoming the new "door knock"
with email (17%) and social media (17%) closely following telephone
(20%) as the most frequent ways to solicit Canadians for charitable
donations. Even though they're receiving most solicitations online,
over a third of Canadians don't trust online donations as a secure
channel. In fact, Canadians are less trusting of online donating (65%)
compared to online retail purchases (84%) and online banking (90%).
"With more Canadians giving online than ever before, it is increasingly
important for them to understand what to look for before giving out
their credit card number and other personal information," said Laurel
Ostfield, spokesperson, Capital One Canada. "There are some simple
steps they can take to ensure the donation they're making is going to a
legitimate cause, and we're partnering with CanadaHelps on this
campaign in an effort to educate as many people as possible about what
they need to do to safeguard their financial information."
To educate the public about charity fraud, Capital One Canada and
CanadaHelps are teaming up during Fraud Prevention Month for the third
annual Charity Fraud Awareness Quiz. This quiz will help participants
identify the signs of charity fraud to hopefully avoid these malicious
schemes. During the month of March, Capital One will also be topping up
individual donations made through CanadaHelps.org by $10, up to a total
of $25,000 for Canadian charities.
The online Charity Fraud Awareness Quiz is designed to inform Canadians
about the risk of charity fraud and how to prevent it. Accessible at www.canadahelps.org, every participant who completes the quiz will be eligible to have
their personal donation made via Canadahelps topped up by $10, thanks
to Capital One Canada.
Capital One and CanadaHelps offer the following charity fraud prevention
tips:
-
Make sure the charity is registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and provides you with their charitable registration number.
CanadaHelps.org only lists charities registered with the CRA
-
Ask to see a charity's financial statements. These should be readily available to anyone who asks and give you a
sense of how the charity spends their money
-
Understand the impact the charity has and what difference they make in
the community. Charities should be able to give you clear outcomes of the programs or
services they provide
-
Research the causes you want to support and how much of your budget you
want to donate to charity. You will feel less pressured to give when solicited if you have already
planned your giving
-
Avoid any charity that pressures you into making a donation or isn't open to sharing more information about their organization
Additional Survey Results:
-
Half of Canadians (53%) are less likely to give to charities because of
the possibility of falling victim to a fraudster; 72% believe there's
more charity fraud today than 10 years ago.
-
Just 3% donated via social media (like Facebook) and just 2% think
donating by text message is secure.
-
Canadians identify the following as important or very important factors
in motivating them to make charitable donations online: easier/faster
(29%); more traceable (24%); safer/more secure (21%); can confirm
legitimacy of organization I'm donating to (16%).
-
Millennials are less likely (65%) to think that there is an increase in
charity fraud, compared to Canadians age 35-54 (73%) and 55+ (78%).
-
Millennials are the most comfortable donating online (24%) compared to
Canadians age 35-54 (14%) and 55+ (9%).
About the survey
From February 13th, to February 15th, 2012, an online survey was conducted among a sample
of 1,000 Canadian adults 18 years plus, who are Angus Reid Forum panel
members. The Angus Reid Forum is owned and operated by Vision
Critical. Individuals were sampled according to Census data to be
representative of the Canadian national adult population. The full
dataset has been statistically weighted according to the most current
gender, age, region, education (and in Quebec, language) Census data to
ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of
Canada. The margin of error is ±3.1%, 19 times out of 20. Discrepancies
in or between totals are due to rounding.
About Capital One
With offices in Toronto and Montreal, Capital One has offered Canadian
consumers a range of competitive MasterCard credit cards since 1996,
when the company first introduced the Platinum MasterCard in Canada.
Capital One Canada is a division of Capital One Bank, a subsidiary of
Capital One Financial Corporation of McLean, Virginia (NYSE: COF).
About CanadaHelps
CanadaHelps is an online donations website where donors can give safely
and securely to all charities in Canada that are registered with the
Canada Revenue Agency. The mission of CanadaHelps is to engage
Canadians in the charitable sector and provide accessible and
affordable online technology to both donors and charities to promote -
and ultimately increase - charitable giving in Canada.
