But plenty of room for credibility building still…
Updated post – Oct 28 2011
Back in 2009, a friend who now runs her own charity pointed me at this site today to cast my beady eye over it.
I blogged about it at the time, saying that while I wasn’t saying it was a scam, its online presence at the time was certainly in danger of making it look like one.
It had no Companies House information, no Charity Commission number. No location in the real world, almost nothing about it and no traceable people behind it. And yet it was asking for money.
I wrote a basic checklist of the kinds of things that contribute to something looking dodgy or credible – and pointed out where EmpathUK at the time was falling way short.
My point for writing that was (and still is): if you’re going to use the online world to ask for donations, then the responsibility falls on YOU to do whatever it takes to demonstrate credibility and accountability in order to gain the trust of your prospects. In a world flooded with scams (including charity scams) you have to go the extra mile, it’s that simple.
Sarah’s comment today however, prompted me to revisit EmpathUK and I’m happy to report that there is both Companies’ House and Charity Commission information on the website now as well as a geographical address. I still don’t think EmpathUk’s online presence comes close to convincing me to actually give them money but it’s at least one step closer than it was.
Better stick with Justgiving.com! They’re a reputable outfit with a track record of working with many charities.
All this is based on something set up in its infancy, so of course there wasn’t much information at the time. It IS registered with Charity Commission etc, so you should really take this unfounded post down.
Hi Sarah
Thanks for the comment. I’m happy to amend my post to reflect the company registration and charity details.
However, at the time, there was nothing ‘unfounded’ about this post and while I’m more than happy to have edited the post and added your correction, my basic criticism still applies
When the EmpathUk site first went up (with its ‘please donate’ buttons asking for money from the public) there wasn’t even any company registration or charity information. The point of my post is that it’s incumbent on YOU guys to make yourselves look trustworthy, not on ME to trust you.
Its also worth remembering that EmpathUK sets out its stall in a world exploding with scams – some of whose victims I have helped save a lot of money (my motivation). In that context, it’s once again incumbent on EmpathUK to go the extra mile to ensure it appears as the credible organisation I’m sure it is.
Adding registration information and Charity Commission is a big step towards that and of course, I’ll amend that in my post.