Our hearts go out to everyone affected by the tragic wildfires on Maui. If you’re interested in providing support, the website Maui Nui Strong has gathered numerous official donation and volunteering sites at: mauinuistrong.info/support.
You can also help Maui teachers specifically at the Hawaiian Teachers Association website.
Watch out for scammers
Sadly, scammers use disasters like this as a way to profit.
Before making a donation, the Attorney General advised in a news release Wednesday to keep following tips in mind:
- Donate to trusted, well-known charities. Beware of scammers who create fake charities during natural disasters. Always verify a charity’s legitimacy through its official website. If someone is fundraising on behalf of a charity you are familiar with, the best practice is to donate directly to that charity.
- Verify that the charity is legitimate.Any charity that solicits donation in Hawaii must be registered with the Department of the Attorney General, and its status can be verified here. There are also a number of independent online sources you can use to verify that a charity is legitimate, including the following:
- IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search: https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/
- Charity Navigator: https://www.charitynavigator.org/
- DCCA Business Search: https://hbe.ehawaii.gov/documents/search.html
- Stay away from suspicious donation requests and be mindful of the following scammer’s tactics:
- Rushing you into making a donation. Don’t let anyone rush you into making a donation. Take your time to do your research.
- Asking you to make a donation using cash or gift card. Most legitimate charities will accept credit card and check donations.
- Using names that sound a lot like the names of real charities. This is one reason it pays to do some research before giving.
- Scammers make lots of vague and sentimental claims but give no specifics about how your donation will be used.
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