Why are NGOs targeted by Online Fraudsters?

NGOs in developing countries are most vulnerable to these online fraudsters that not only offer false promises of arranging grants but also use fake identities of donor agencies to win their trust.

These fraudsters are quite aware of the fact that there are millions of small and struggling NGOs working in remote areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America with poor access to resources, skills and knowledge. They also know that these NGOs are unable to easily raise funds on their own and are willing to outsource the fundraising work to third parties.

Besides, the fraudsters are clever enough to use the fake identities of renowned international funding agencies and development organizations like the United Nations, the World Bank, Ford Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to name a few and make NGOs believe that their offers are genuine.

Recently, NGOs in Africa have reported cases where certain well-established institutions have been using the name of ‘fundsforNGOs’ to organize workshops, grants or scholarship program to gain instant popularity and support. We had to issue a disclaimer to clarify that fundsforNGOs has nor partnered neither collaborated with any agency to organize any workshop, grants or scholarship program.

It has been found that mostly struggling NGOs fall to their traps because of their desperate need to get money to fund their work without realizing that these offers only cause further losses to them in the long-term.

Ref: https://www2.fundsforngos.org/featured/how-ngos-can-identify-genuine-grant-opportunities-and-donor-organizations-and-avoid-scams/