Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has announced that Ohioans will be better able to ensure their charitable contributions are being used as they intended through his office’s new stand-alone Charitable Ohio website.
Similar to the attorney general’s
OhioProtects.org consumer protection website, the new streamlined charitable website has been developed with simple-to-find information, forms and publications. Donors will be able to easily access information about charities to assist their giving decisions and learn about enforcement actions taken against charities. They will be able to view annual reports from charities, view charity campaigns conducted by professional solicitors and read good giving guidelines.
Those in the charitable community also can research details about charitable registration, bingo licensing and board governance on the homepage of Charitable Ohio.
“The Ohio Attorney General’s Office is involved in a wide array of work and there is so much helpful information on the website,” said Dan Fausey, chief of the Charitable Law Section. “We wanted to find a way to make charitable information easy for everyone to find and use, so we developed a separate website that makes most of our information available with a single click. We have added some new materials and hope the public and the charitable sector agree that this is a much-improved resource.”
Especially during the current public health crisis, charities fulfill a vital role in Ohioans’ quality of life. A recent
study from The Ohio State University, Philanthropy Ohio and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office found that the coronavirus pandemic has had a stark impact on charities throughout the state. Many have had to close their doors and limit services. Fundraising events have been canceled and hundreds of charities have been forced to cut staff and trim other expenses. Some charities have discovered that their regular donors are unable to provide support because they have lost their jobs or have seen drops in their investment accounts. The study revealed that 28% of responding charities stopped providing services, 32% reported they had severely reduced services and 18% reported they were providing services in a moderately reduced capacity.
For the next few months, the public will still be able to access the Charitable Law Section’s information through the
current website. The Charitable Ohio website can be found at
https://charitable.ohioago.gov.