In today's scene of online scams, phishing attempts, and online identity theft, how can you trust this site and what we're doing? That's an excellent question that I would ask about a similar site anywhere else. The only way I've been able to find that would direct you to know that we're actually real is through the Utah State Government's web page. Utah has a way to look up business information. You can click here to go to that page. However, you might know that a scammer could link to a self made page that looks legitimate. If you don't trust my link, just go to utah.gov or use a search engine to look up Utah State government. Any of these methods will take you to the Utah State homepage, then hover over "Business" in the center of the top menu, and click on "Business Online Services." Once on that page, click on "Business Entity Search" (about the third choice from the top) and type in grace foundation for Utah into the search field. You will pull up a link that you can click on that verifies all our info. Our official name is "The Grace Foundation For Utah 2007." You can verify that I haven't created a phony site by entering the name of any other business in Utah, and you'll be able to access their info too.

    We are also registered with the IRS, however, I haven't as of yet found a way to verify a business through the IRS. However, realize that being registered with both the IRS and with the state of Utah holds us responsible to both. If we were a scam, we wouldn't have registered with the state or with the IRS since that would make it easier for them to track us. Also, registering costs money, and if we were really trying to pull a fast one, we wouldn't have spent money up front.  

    You can also check with the Better Business Bureau, however, usually only negative reports are ever reported to them, and since we're relatively young (only since October 2007) there aren't likely any reports at all to the BBB.

    Lastly, to ensure that we're held financially responsible to those who have donated, we will post online the total amount of all donations received, along with a total spent on the project. If you sign up for the newsletter, or donate, you will receive occasional emails that update you concerning our progress and will explain exactly how your donations have been spent. We will also post pictures of the progress since that will also help prove that we're doing what we say we are.

    Also, you might wonder how you can ensure that you're safe while using the online donation modules. Both Paypal and iTransact are reputable online commerce companies with years of online history and positive reputations. The transactions you conduct through them occur via their secure servers, and therefore, your info is safe. You could also send a check or money order as directed in the "How You Can Help" section which would also ensure your identity is safe.

    I would post testimonials from people who either know myself, or the family that we're trying to help, however, since if I were trying to scam people, I could simply fabricate those testimonials, those really wouldn't mean anything. If you wish to see a copy of our articles of incorporation that we filed with the state of Utah, or the IRS letter of recognition, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , and within one or two days, I will email you a copy of those (however, the employer identification number/tax identification number will be blacked-out for safety reasons). 

    If you've read through everything, and have been touched by this family's story, and really want to help out, but feel that we haven't satisfied you that we're a legitimate organization, you could still donate to related charities that are more global and be assured that your donations are safe. Although these charities won't directly benefit this family or our efforts, if this story has put you in the mind set that you would like to donate to a worthy cause, please consider the following (however, again, if you don't trust my links, you can Google the companies in question, and go directly to their pages):