February 6, 2011; Source: Boston Globe | Two small nonprofits on Boston’s South Shore, the Friends of the Ellisville Marshes in Plymouth and the Carver-based Friends of Myles Standish State Forest, have contacted the attorney general complaining that a California-based website, Charity Blossom, is soliciting donations on their behalf.

The website has purportedly been established to make giving easier online but it has simply downloaded the names of nonprofits from the IRS, asking no one's permission to represent them. Reportedly it asks donors to make pledges on the Charity Blossom site. Thereafter sending the donors along to sites where they can make their pledges by credit card.

The nonprofits that have complained say they will raise their own money, thank you very much, and do not want any money raised outside of their control and definitely not without their express permission.—Ruth McCambridge