After deciding I had better look into charitable organizations that solicite my financial support, I have discovered that there are a vast amount of unscrupulous organizations. To aid in my research, I have stumbled upon a great website entitled "Charity Navigator". It gave me a path to pull up the IRS 990 forms that charitable organizations are required to file. WOW!! What an eye opener!! The majority of the charities to which I had been sendiing money had 10% or less of their contributions going to those they purport to represent. I unfortunately gave money to "the Metro Firefighters Association" without checking them out. I cannot find them or their 990 forms online. I have used their Fed Tax ID# of 73-0957897 online but get nothing. Soooooo I will no longer be sending money to them. Hope this helps someone who is looking for information on them.
I have received two calls from this number. I screen my calls and when I don't know the number,
I don't answer. Both times, this caller did not leave a message. I am alway afraid of scammers.
I don't give to organizations that call me. That way, my donation will go to whom I want it to. I do
not care to have any organization call me. I think that the Do Not Call list should apply to ALL callers.
Scams wouldn't happen if the list were an all or nothing deal.
I had this organization call me soliciting for donations. My caller ID showed 405 600-8282 which is the Cox Communications Customer Service phone number. I already reported this SPOOFING to Cox. DO NOT give money to any organization that will not show their REAL Name and Phone Number.
When you search all the major charity sites, you CANNOT find this organization by name or the Federal Tax ID they provide.
FYI they are part of the registered as International firefighters association. I prefer to have direct giving to my local volunteer fire dept. They may have a tax ID but that does not guarantee how their collection are controlled beyond how they file each year. I have checked with my local rural FD and they have not received any contributions and in fact have refused the funds by another group on the grounds that only 10% ever gets to firefighters. I suggest in this modern internet that all people checkout all request, see what respnses they get, and make the personal decision based on that information if they want to contribute or not. This appears to be a call center, there must be 100 numbers listed. To see this information just enter the tax number 73-0957897, this was on there mailing. I will get off the soapbox now..
After deciding I had better look into charitable organizations that solicite my financial support, I have discovered that there are a vast amount of unscrupulous organizations. To aid in my research, I have stumbled upon a great website entitled "Charity Navigator". It gave me a path to pull up the IRS 990 forms that charitable organizations are required to file. WOW!! What an eye opener!! The majority of the charities to which I had been sendiing money had 10% or less of their contributions going to those they purport to represent. I unfortunately gave money to "the Metro Firefighters Association" without checking them out. I cannot find them or their 990 forms online. I have used their Fed Tax ID# of 73-0957897 online but get nothing. Soooooo I will no longer be sending money to them. Hope this helps someone who is looking for information on them.
Thank you all for your posts. I was suspicious of the letter they sent because on the phone they said they would address it to my local fire department and they didn't. Why can't people be honest??? I was feeling very sympathetic to them after all the wildfires so of course I said yes. But I will be mailing my donation the actual fire department. Jerks.