Yes.

Yes. HopeMob will be audited by a reputable, independent accounting firm and the audit report will be publicly available annually.

100%. Let us tell you why this is so important and how we do it. A growing sense of frustration exists, particularly during natural disasters, wherein donors give money, expecting it to help a particular cause or country, only to find out that the donation never made it there. When you make a donation to a HopeMob, we will only use those funds for that story and that story alone. At checkout, we have an optional donation to help fund the costs of our operations.

1. All stories are submitted through our thorough online application.

2. These stories are sent through a scoring system that eliminates stories that don't fit our platform - like "Help Me Buy a 60-inch Flatscreen" or "Buy my 3 year old daughter a new costume for her beauty pageant".

3. Stories that pass through the scoring system then begin an interview process in which people are emailed, called, and even met in person when possible. We check human references, social networks, and more as well. If approved, a user agreement is signed by all parties agreeing to the truthfulness of the story and holding them legally responsible for any fraudulent claims.

4. After a story goes through the application, scoring, and interview phases, it is put into our Story Queue. At this point, the world gets an opportunity to choose which story they find the most compelling by using Story Points to boost a story up through the queue. It is up to HopeMob users to choose which stories they trust and want to support.

5. We never give cash directly to any recipients. If it is a medical, college, housing, or transportation expense that we are covering, we will not give any funds to people, but will pay bills directly. The same is true for renovation projects, items needed, etc. We never give people the cash to purchase the items, but purchase them ourselves.

Even with this, no system is 100% fool-proof, but we pledge to go out of our way to be the trusted bridge between donors and people in need. It is an essential part of our mission.

The best way to answer this is to look at the current stories that we feature. As you will see, we feature compelling stories of need from all over the world. We try hard to feature stories with an attainable, clear-cut goal. A part of our mission is to tell stories that aren't being told anywhere else on behalf of people that may not be able to use other platforms that put the storytelling and promotional burden on the person in need.

Nope. We are wide open to stories from all over the world. Our research shows us that donors prefer to have the option of local and international stories to support.