Helping Fire Victims

We all want to help the North Bay Fire victims.  Concerts and fundraisers are springing up all over the place.  Be careful where you send your donations to.  All these events claiming to raise money for the victims can be deceiving.  Somehow it's always publicized as to how much the charity event raised with cheers and accolades, but never a word about how it's distributed.  Some questions to ask:

1.  What percentage goes directly to the fire victims;
2.  Is there anything taken out of donations for overhead or operating costs;
3.  How is the charity finding the people to distribute money to - or how are they finding the charity;
4.  Are your donations going to a tax-exempt entity registered with a federal identification number;
5.  Who is overseeing the distributions to make sure they're going for the intended purpose;
6.  How much is each victim receiving;
7.  How do you define a fire victim?  Somebody who lost everything? Somebody who lost a motorcycle or a car but not their house? Somebody who lost a pet;
8.  What vetting process does the charity use to make sure claims of victimhood are valid;
9.  What will be the timeline for distributions to the fire victims?  Immediately?  Next month?  Next year?  Will there be one flat distribution or several over time?  How do you decide the amount distributed to victims?  Does each victim get a pre-determined flat amount?  Are they all equal;
10.  Will the charity offer up an accounting of where the money went and to whom after funds have been disbursed?

I'd like to see the Press Democrat do a series on how the fire victim donations are really spent and the timeline of giving aid and how that's determined.  I'm curious as to how much "donations" are used to shore up somebody else's unrelated financial obligations.  I am by no means discouraging generosity.  I'm encouraging transparent transactions as to how the funds are spent (or not).