United Way Bruce Grey is urging people to find alternative ways to donate to them and other charitable organizations in the midst of the ongoing Canada Post strike.
Executive Director Francesca Dobbyn says with many donations coming through the mail, organizations aren't receiving them during the strike period. She says the challenge is that the need for a lot of these organizations continues to rise.
"The longer this continues the more challenging it is. We're hearing from a lot of our partners in the community that need is way up, because of the general economy, and resources are down because a lot of donors have become clients because of the economy," Dobbyn stated.
If you're nervous about making online donations for fear of scams, Dobbyn points out there are ways to avoid that, like contacting the charity directly.
"A lot of charities have the ability to take e-transfer donations now. But making sure you've got the right email address to do that is key, because that fraud piece, they just change one letter an 're' to an 'er', for instance, in those scam email addresses and then the money is gone," Dobbyn warned.
To avoid this, Dobbyn says reaching out directly to your charity of choice is a good failsafe.
"Reaching out directly to your favourite charities to make that donation online is great. You can also drop it off. We certainly with the United Way can take a single donation and people can leave us a list of charities to distribute things to and we can get it to those organizations," added Dobbyn.
Dobbyn adds the challenge is that the need for a lot of these organizations continues to rise, especially around the holiday season with spikes in food banks being accessed. For that reason, she says if you can find an alternative way to mailing in donations right now, it would be a huge help to many charitable organizations.