Charity

Below is a great piece about charity. Be VERY careful and do your due diligence before giving ANY money to charities. It's not all about the big charities though.

Many small charities are just formed for bragging rights, someone scratching their scabs or wanting to try to balance their life (good luck) after screwing over so many people. Most of these "boutiques" wind up not doing anything useful at all, and just wind up paying out fees to those that organzie and work for the charity. Many are also opportunists, jumping on the cause of the day, such as Hurricane Katrina, Haiti or Japan. Here's a great article on Haiti charity scams: http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/13/haiti-earthquake-charities-personal-finance-spotting-scams.html

And one on Japan charity scams: http://www.wkyc.com/money/article/180669/16/FBI-Warning-Beware-of-Japan-quake-charity-scams

Are there legit charities out there? Of course, but like anything else you invest in, do your due diligence!

Opps, almost forgot. Here's the reason I wrote this post:

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/04/10-reasons-why-i-would-never-donate-to-a-major-charity-or-how-to-be-a-superhero-part-2/

Read the whole article, but read point 6) about charity FRAUD a few times.

Michael tiny Saul

tinymjs at gmail dot com