The 7 Worst Charities to Donate to in 2026 (Verified Against Regulator Records)

Charities are a necessary part of our society. Organizations that provide services to those in need are essential in helping people rebuild their lives after a crisis has struck. Unfortunately, some charities have been caught operating in questionable ways, leading donors to stop giving. If you’re thinking of giving money to charity in the future, you should know which organizations aren’t worth it. 

Here we’ll give you details on the worst charities to donate to so you don’t waste your money or time supporting these organizations when so many other charitable causes deserve your support.

Two different kinds of organisation appear on lists like this one, and conflating them is how these pages go wrong. Some are still operating, still soliciting, and still rated badly by the watchdogs — those are live warnings. Others were shut down years ago by the Federal Trade Commission or a state attorney general, or have had their tax exemption revoked by the IRS; they cannot take your money any more, and they are listed here only so you recognise the name if it resurfaces under new management. Every entry below says plainly which it is.

The seven organisations on this list, and what each one actually is:

1. Cancer Fund of America

SHUT DOWN — DISSOLVED BY COURT ORDER, 30 MARCH 2016

Cancer Fund of America is the most cited name in this whole field, and almost every page still describing it uses the present tense. It should not. In May 2015 the Federal Trade Commission, all fifty states and the District of Columbia charged four affiliated cancer charities — Cancer Fund of America, Cancer Support Services, The Breast Cancer Society and Children’s Cancer Fund of America — with bilking donors of more than $187 million. On 30 March 2016 the FTC announced the final settlements: Cancer Fund of America and Cancer Support Services “will be permanently dissolved and their assets liquidated.”

Founder James T. Reynolds Sr. was banned for life from charity fundraising, management, and serving as a director or trustee of any nonprofit, under a judgment of $75,825,653. Two related figures are routinely mixed up in write-ups of this case, so to be precise: James Reynolds II — the son, not a “Jr.” — ran The Breast Cancer Society, not Cancer Fund of America, and was subject to a $65,564,360 judgment suspended on payment of $75,000. Rose Perkins was subject to a $30,079,821 judgment through Children’s Cancer Fund of America, suspended for inability to pay; that organisation was placed in receivership and dissolved. All were banned from charity fundraising and management.

What this means for you today: there is nothing to donate to, and no judgment left to “face.” The name matters only because solicitation scripts recycle it. Sources: FTC, 30 March 2016 and FTC, 19 May 2015.

2. Operation Lookout National Center for Missing Youth

SHUT DOWN — IRS EXEMPTION REVOKED, EFFECTIVE 15 MAY 2018

This Marysville, Washington organisation (EIN 91-1298249) appears on the IRS Automatic Revocation of Exemption list with a revocation effective 15 May 2018, posted that August, and it no longer appears in the current IRS Business Master File. CharityWatch lists it as “Operation Lookout National Center for Missing Youth (DISSOLVED).” It is not currently doing anything, which means claims that it is “currently prohibited” from telemarketing in particular states cannot be right either — and we could find no state order to support that claim, so we have removed it.

What can be documented is bad enough on its own. CharityWatch graded Operation Lookout F, finding that 10% of its spending reached programmes and that it cost $74 to raise every $100, on its fiscal 2012 filing. The 2013 Tampa Bay Times and CNN investigation America’s 50 Worst Charities ranked it 17th, with 0% of donations going to direct cash aid.

Correction, 10 September 2026: a previous version of this section said the organisation “steals 82% of donations, giving the rest to themselves” and that only 2% of donations reached the cause. The 82% figure was misread from its source, which described money going to solicitors, and the 2% figure appeared in no source we could find. Both have been replaced with the CharityWatch and Tampa Bay Times figures above.

3. Committee for Missing Children

STILL OPERATING AND STILL SOLICITING

This Georgia organisation (EIN 58-2215576) is alive, files with the IRS — its most recent return covers the year ending 31 August 2025 — and is still asking for money. It is on this list because of what the watchdogs and investigative reporters have consistently found about where that money goes.

Charity Navigator currently rates it 48%, a Zero-Star charity, based on its fiscal 2025 Form 990. The 2013 Tampa Bay Times and CNN investigation ranked it 13th among America’s worst charities, calculating that 0.8% of what it raised reached direct cash aid. A 2011 WSB-TV investigation in Atlanta found that the organisation “brought in more than $2.1 million” but “told the IRS it only spent around $314,000, just 14 percent, on programs,” while spending “$1.9 million on fundraising, mostly in fees to telemarketers,” and $176,000 on salaries for its founder, his wife and a director in Europe.

Correction, 10 September 2026: this section previously opened by attributing a “2% of donations” finding about this charity to Operation Lookout, a different and now-defunct organisation. That sentence was incoherent and unsourced and has been deleted. The Charity Navigator score quoted here was also stale — it read 29%, and the current figure is 48% on the fiscal 2025 filing.

4. Diamond Jym Ranch Inc.

SHUT DOWN — IRS EXEMPTION REVOKED 2016; FOUNDER SENTENCED 2022

Diamond Jym Ranch (EIN 46-4089552) was a Branson, Missouri charity that claimed to help foster children. Its tax exemption was revoked effective 15 May 2016, its last Form 990 reported revenue of $7,685 for 2018, and it no longer appears in the IRS Business Master File.

The case against its founder is documented by the United States Department of Justice rather than by anonymous internet posts. Branson performer James Patrick Garrett pleaded guilty to a fraud scheme that, in the Department’s words, “resulted in a collective loss to his victims of at least $85,525,” with donations spent on personal expenses. He was sentenced on 4 March 2022 to five years’ probation with roughly $82,000 in restitution, around $52,000 of it to FosterAdopt Connect, and sold his house to pay it. Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Missouri.

Correction, 10 September 2026: this section previously cited a Reddit user and quoted a Charity Navigator donor advisory. The Charity Navigator page for this organisation no longer exists — the link returned a 404 — and the advisory has been withdrawn along with it. Both have been replaced with the Department of Justice record, and the case is now correctly described as concluded.

5. A Place to Call Home

SHUT DOWN — ORDERED TO DISSOLVE BY THE MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL, 23 SEPTEMBER 2021

On 23 September 2021 Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced a settlement recovering $66,000 for foster children and imposing a permanent ban from the charitable sector on directors Genevieve LaVoi, Renee LaVoi and Thomas Gray. The organisation was ordered to liquidate its assets, distribute them to a Minnesota-based charity benefiting foster children, and dissolve. The Attorney General’s office found that LaVoi “used $127,000 of charitable assets for her personal benefit,” mostly to purchase her home, upgrade it, and pay her mortgage. Source: Minnesota Attorney General, 23 September 2021.

One nuance worth recording: the EIN still appears in the current IRS Business Master File with a 2024 tax period and zero revenue and assets — a dormant registration rather than a live organisation.

Correction, 10 September 2026: this section previously quoted a Charity Navigator “High Concern Advisory.” That advisory is no longer on Charity Navigator; the profile carries no rating and no advisory today. It has been replaced with the Attorney General’s own record, which is both stronger and current.

6. Disabled Veterans National Foundation

STILL OPERATING AND STILL SOLICITING

DVNF (EIN 26-1446183) is the one organisation on this page where the criticism rests on current evidence rather than on history, which is exactly why it belongs here and why the figures need to be right.

CharityWatch grades it F, finding that 7% of its spending reached programmes in the fiscal year ending 30 September 2024. Charity Navigator rates it 49%, a Zero-Star charity. Its most recent Form 990 available in full reports $25,744,812 in revenue against $30,108,970 in expenses.

The history is well documented too. A 2012 CNN investigation found the organisation had raised tens of millions since opening in 2007 while shipping veterans’ groups goods including 2,600 bags of cough drops, 2,200 bottles of hand sanitiser and 11,520 bags of coconut M&M’s. CBS News reported in July 2014 that “more than 90 cents of every dollar donated” went to for-profit fundraisers. A settlement with the New York Attorney General signed on 30 June 2014 saw close to $14 million in fundraising debt forgiven.

Correction, 10 September 2026: a previous version of this section stated that “over $11 million was spent on 11,000 bags of M&M’s.” That dollar figure was not in any source and has been removed. The underlying reporting gives a quantity — 11,520 bags — and no price. The programme-spending figure has also been updated from 8% to the current 7% on the fiscal 2024 filing, and the internally inconsistent fundraising totals in the old version ($115 million in one paragraph, $56 million in another) have been replaced with what the cited reporting actually says.

7. On Your Feet Inc.

SHUT DOWN — IRS EXEMPTION REVOKED, EFFECTIVE 15 MAY 2022

On Your Feet Inc. (EIN 35-2329448) lost its tax-exempt status effective 15 May 2022. Its founders had already been sentenced. On 6 November 2020 Geraldine Hill was sentenced to nine months and Clayton Hill to fifteen months in prison for using the non-profit to steal from donors and cheat on their taxes, taking more than $1.3 million in personal proceeds between 2011 and 2016 and defrauding Forever 21, Feed the Children, Brooks Sports and Good360. Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of California.

Correction, 10 September 2026: the Charity Navigator link previously used in this section returns a 404 and has been removed. The section also closed by recommending readers not donate to an organisation that has not been tax-exempt for four years; it now says what actually happened instead.

Three organisations we removed from this list

Naming an organisation as one of the worst charities in the world is a serious claim, and it should rest on a regulator’s record or a watchdog’s rating, not on tweets and anonymous reviews. On 10 September 2026 we removed three entries that did not meet that bar. We are saying which, and why, rather than deleting them quietly.

• The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). Removed in full. The entry rested on three social-media posts, two of which no longer exist, and on a chief executive salary figure that is out of date: Mark Dowie left the RNLI in 2024 and his successor Peter Sparkes has been Chief Executive since 26 June 2024 on a salary the charity itself publishes as £175,000. The RNLI is a registered charity with £207.8 million of income that saved 352 lives and aided 8,259 people in 2024. It should never have been on this page.
• Complex Minds UK. Removed in full. The entry’s only cited evidence was an unlinked TripAdvisor post; the website it named is no longer registered; and we could not establish which legal entity was being accused. An accusation of street fraud against an organisation that cannot be identified is not something we are willing to publish.
• The Meirim Tikva association. Removed in full. The entry claimed the organisation’s YouTube channel had been terminated for policy violations. We checked the exact channel that was linked: it is live. The website named is no longer registered, the Trustpilot rating cited came from seven anonymous reviews all dated 2021, and no regulator, court record or piece of journalism anywhere names this organisation. The only search result calling it a scam was this page.

If you arrived here from a link about one of those three, that is why the section is gone.

8 Things To Look Out for When Donating to a Charity

Check Out Charity’s Track Record

The first place to start is with a charity’s track record. Before you even read the mission statement or donate, you can use a website like Charity Navigator to look up the organization and see how it rates in terms of finances, accountability, and other factors that might indicate its worthiness.

This website rates charities based on financial health, transparency, and the efficacy of their spending. So if you can’t find a charity’s rating on Charity Navigator, then you should definitely go with your gut and avoid that organization completely. Charity Navigator is a great resource, but remember, it’s not the only one out there. A few other websites rate charities, like GuideStar.

You can also perform your research by visiting a charity’s website, reading its mission statement, and looking up its organization on sites like Open Charity and GuideStar.

Research the Charity

While searching for a charity, try to discover its mission and goals as much as possible. Find out where the money goes, how it’s spent, and what the charity hopes to accomplish with your donation.

Don’t just take a charity’s word for it—find out what work the charity does. You can do this by reading the organization’s website or checking out its financial statements to see exactly where your donation will go. If you’re struggling to find information about an organization or find that a charity isn’t transparent with its goals, then you should definitely be wary.

You don’t have to donate to a charity that won’t provide details about what they do and where your money goes. It’s better to be safe than sorry, so find a charity upfront and honest with its mission and goals.

Ask Questions

If you’re in a situation that requires you to donate money immediately, like if you see a flash flood in your area and there’s a need for sandbags, then you should ask questions about where your money will be going.

You should first ask the people collecting the money where it’s going. You should also ask for a receipt for your donation to see where it’s going. If the people collecting the money can’t provide details about where your money is going, or if they don’t have a receipt, you should definitely be wary.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions; be as diligent as possible when people ask you for money. It’s your money, and you deserve to know where it goes.

Be Wary of pressure to donate immediately

Some charities will try to pressure you into donating immediately. They’ll probably have a grabby headline and a tear-jerking story and likely want your money immediately.

If you get a call or an email requesting money, be wary of the pressure to donate immediately. If a charity representative asks you to donate immediately, that shouldn’t be the case.

Real charities will give you time to mull over the decision and decide whether you want to donate. Don’t donate money to a charity that is pressuring you for cash. If something feels fishy about the situation like if a representative is really pushy about you donating money, you should definitely hang up or end the conversation. You don’t have to give money to people who won’t let you think about the decision first.

Be Wary of overly glowing testimonies

While researching charities and their mission, you might come across some very positive testimonies from people who have benefited from the organization’s services.

It’s always good to see positive testimonies from people who have had a positive experience with a charity. But be cautious if the testimonies are overly positive and unrealistic. It probably is if you read a testimony that seems too good to be true.

If a charity has a lot of testimonies online, but they all seem overly positive, then you should definitely be wary. If you read testimony from someone who benefited from the charity, but the story doesn’t seem realistic, then beware.

Check out the charity’s finances

You want to find out how the charity is managing its finances. You can do this by checking out their financial statements. You can look at the organization’s website or visit sites like Open Charity and see how they manage their finances. The more transparent the charity is with its finances, the better.

Having a transparent financial statement is a great thing. It means you know where your money is going and can see exactly how it is used. If a charity doesn’t want to show you its financial statements, or if they don’t have a transparent financial statement, then you should be worried about and think about your decision. You don’t have to donate to an organization that isn’t upfront and honest with its finances.

Check out the charity’s Cause(s)

You want to ensure that the charity you donate to does the work they say they do. If you know exactly what the charity does, then that’s great. But if you don’t or want to double-check their cause, you can Google their name and see what comes up.

You can also Google the name of the charity you’re considering donating to and look at the organizations they have partnered with. You can also use a tool like Charity Navigator to see which types of causes a charity supports. This can help you evaluate which organizations are best suited to help you.

Watch Out for these Red Flags

Keep an eye out for red flags, like a fake charity website, an unrecognized organization name, a vague mission statement, or an overly energetic person asking for money. If something seems off or out of the ordinary, you should definitely be wary of donating to that organization.

If someone is at your door asking for money for a charity, you should probably just say no. You can’t be sure where the money is going, and donating to organizations that come to your door is not good. If you encounter a situation like this, you should definitely be wary of donating. You don’t have to give money to people knocking on your door, and you don’t have to give money to overly pushy people.

Related Articles You Should Read

• worst veteran charities
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• charity evaluation

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I check if a charity is legitimate?

Verify that the charity is registered with the IRS (check the Tax Exempt Organization Search), has a clear website with contact information, and maintains financial transparency. Always review their 990 form.

What are red flags of problematic charities?

Warning signs include unsolicited high-pressure solicitations, unwillingness to provide financial information, extremely high administrative costs (above 35%), and executive compensation that seems excessive relative to the organization’s size.

Where can I check charity ratings and reviews?

Use Charity Navigator, GuideStar, BBB Wise Giving Alliance, or CharityWatch to research organizations. These services provide independent evaluations and financial information.

How do charitable donations affect my taxes?

Donations to qualified 501(c)(3) organizations are tax-deductible. Keep receipts and document your donations. Consult a tax professional for specific questions about your tax situation.

Bottom line

If you want to donate to a charity, you must do it wisely and only support the best causes. After reading this article, we hope you have some insights into how some charities behave and try to misbehave with the donors.

Ofcourse, not all charities are like these. Nonprofits make the world a better place. But due to some charities that do bad things, the good nonprofits face the wrath.

Note: We don't want to mean any disrespect to any nonprofit, worker, or volunteer. They are the pioneers of our community. We have massive respect for everyone. But with this article, we just wanted to share some worst charities & what they are doing.

Related Reading: More Charity Watchdog Guides

Continue your research with these in-depth guides from our charity watchdog series:

📘 Start here → Worst Charities — Complete Guide (the master vetting framework)

By category:

• Worst Car Donation Charities — vehicle-donation scams & the few legitimate programs
• Worst Cancer Charities
• Worst Animal Charities
• Worst Veteran Charities
• Worst Children’s Charities
• Worst Disability Charities
• Worst Homeless Charities

Where to give instead:

• Charities With the Lowest Overhead
• Best Charities to Donate To
• Different Types of Charities Explained
• Worst Charities: the Complete Vetting Guide