Best Practices on Managing Requests for Charity Drives

[vtcnc]

I wasn't sure where to put this so off-topic seemed like the best place.

Our forum has about 29,000 registered members. On occasion, a member gets sick, tragedy strikes, financial troubles ensue and a request for a charity drive of some sort is posed to the admins. This has been done with some success in the past but has on occasion ended with some bitterness for many different reasons upon which I won't elaborate on - some petty some legit.

Here is my question: for those of you running a forum out there, do you ever get similar request? Do you have a policy around this? If so, are you willing to share it here? I'm trying to do some research on this to bring back to the forum mgt team so we can make a decision on how to consistently evaluate requests and then administer the request fairly and consistently.

Thanks and if this isn't the right place to post this, I apologize ahead of time and would appreciate any feedback on where to look for answers to this question.

vtcnc

 

[Ozzy47]

IMO, in those types of situations I would look into a GoFundMe.

 

[sbj]

What kind of a forum is this? Niche?

It sounds strange to me that your site deals with the charity side aspect. Are you getting proof of the troubles those people have?

The problem here is, if you deal with it, you will held responsible for it. So you have to make sure and verify if the request is really true and if your community is the right one to help.

 

[vtcnc]

What kind of a forum is this? Niche?

This is our forum: https://www.hobby-machinist.com. It is niche in the sense that our members are there for hobby machining topics.

It sounds strange to me that your site deals with the charity side aspect. Are you getting proof of the troubles those people have?

You can imagine that the demographic is primarily men and span from 18-80. Many are retired, many have developed close relationships after many years on the forum - even becoming friends IRL. Some will take to the forum to reach out for help in time of need. Think of it when you see a coin drop at a gas station for a community member going through cancer treatment - it is an effort that is similar in that nature. Do we get proof? The gatekeeper was a prior admin who no longer is involved with day-to-day. I can't speak to how he obtained proof if he did in fact do so. This is a major concern of mine going forward because of your next point.

The problem here is, if you deal with it, you will held responsible for it. So you have to make sure and verify if the request is really true and if your community is the right one to help.

This is exactly why I'm asking. I like the idea of pushing people towards organizing a GoFundMe and then setting up a link on a sub-forum for them to share with the membership. I think this would largely put the responsibility for fund raising where it belongs.

 

[sbj]

Well it is nice of you and your community that you help people. That is a really nice gesture and as a human being from the other end of the world, I appreciate it.

Yeah, Ozzy's idea seems to be the ideal one where then you can promote the GoFundMe link in a subforum or in a thread. All the legalities would be dealt on that site then I guess. Not sure if this solves the problem of if one can trust that the person x having problems is not lying, but at least the legal side of things wouldn't be on your shoulders anymore. You just promote it by letting them post a link and people can discuss it in its own thread, if needed or someone doubts something.

At least this is how I would handle it, but I have no experiences in that regard. As you say they have close relationships, it would be okay to have a subforum/thread dedicated to that kind of stuff. But a disclaimer of some sort where you make clear that you or the site has no income from the charity is also important. Just to be on the safe side. And that people should value themselves if the charity is legit and rightfully placed.