Donation Websites: What Are Donation Websites and Are They Legal
Donation websites have been around since the inception of the Internet in one form or another, but are they legal?
The answer is in the word donation.
A donation is a voluntary gift that when made to qualified non-profit charitable, educational, public service, or religious organizations may be deemed tax deductible by the IRS as a contribution in the calculation of your income tax obligation.
When an individual voluntarily transfers the title or possession of any “thing” from himself to another person without any coercion or consideration, it is actually considered to be a gift.
Therefore, donation websites are legal as long as no effort is made to mimic well known charity names and/or websites that can fool potential donors into believing they are donating to these popular causes.
As long as donors are aware that you are not the charity and that they are not getting an IRS tax deduction, donation websites for a variety of causes are above board however, the fact that donation websites are legal does not mean you are free of any IRS tax obligations.
Although there are existing free donation websites such as MyEvent or Webs.com that are in the business of setting up personal donation websites for individuals who do not have the time or the ability to do it on their own; setting up a donation websites is a relatively easy accomplishment.
In addition, when it comes to spending money, especially in this current economy, many donors do not take mass donation websites seriously. We all know that trust is everything online, particularly when soliciting donations for your cause.
For this reason, free websites like those above should only be used if you plan to solicit donations from your circle of close friends and family members.
Donation websites, regardless of which type you decide on, should be professional in their design and easy to navigate if you expect to garner the trust and contributions of your web visitors.
If you run into problems finding a keyword rich domain name, you can include your home town name, your name or other specific information to the title of your donation website for SEO purposes.
Additional information on “how to make donation websites” will be posted in the near future but for now, as long as you do not plan to deceive your donors into believing that their donations are being made to anything other than what is outlined in your site, donation websites are legal.
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