The Romance Novel community,
seeking to honor a writer,
created a Facebook post
asking folks to donate
to a charity
the writer supported.
This post was shared
thousands of times.
People, including big name writers,
forwarded it,
making it appear
like they donated.
Comment after comment
communicated that same thing.
I tried to donate.
The charity is no longer active.
It still has a website
(likely because the hosting
was free)
but the donate buttons
were dead
and
the email address
and the social media accounts
no longer exist.
I contacted the organizers
and they quickly changed
the charity.
But the damage had been done.
I, and anyone else who had donated,
knew the people who had claimed
they had donated
had lied.
No one who had forwarded
the post
had donated.
They were asking people
to do
something THEY didn’t plan
to do.
If you ask customers
or partners
to give to a charity,
make certain
they CAN give to that charity.
And consider giving
at least a token amount.