Over two years ago, local heart and stroke charity Croi took the proactive step of reviewing its procedures and controls in the use of sponsorship cards so as to minimise the risk of the general public being duped by bogus collectors and fundraisers.
One of the steps taken by Croi was to introduce a ‘security foil stamp’ on all its sponsorship cards so as to avoid any unauthorised copying of cards.
This week the charity is calling on all charities to introduce similar security measures so as to protect unsuspecting donors from being duped by sham sponsorship cards.
“In recent weeks, it has come to our attention that fake copies of sponsorship cards for a national charity have been identified in Galway. The matter has been reported to the charity concerned by a member of the public who also kindly called us to alert us of what they observed.
“Fortunately, we were able to reassure the caller that all Croi Sponsorship Cards are security marked and cannot be photocopied” says Croi’s Fundraising Manager Barry McCann.
Mr McCann went on to say that “all Croi sponsorship cards are numbered and carry a silver foil security stamp. We only issue sponsorship cards to people who are officially fundraising for our charity and we retain the full details of everyone we issue a card to. Furthermore, we discourage door to door fundraising with sponsorship cards unless the person is personally known to the fundraiser. In all cases, we ask people to be aware and if in doubt check that any sponsorship card in our name carries a security stamp”
