As the number of charities grows, so does the percentage of charity scams

Interesting. From Information, competition, and the quality of charities by Silvana Krasteva and Huseyin Yildirim. Relates to Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails by Christopher J. Coyne.

Drawing upon the all-pay auction literature, we propose a model of charity competition in which informed giving alone can account for the significant quality heterogeneity across similar charities. Our analysis identifies a negative effect of competition and a positive effect of informed giving on the equilibrium quality of charity. In particular, we show that as the number of charities grows, so does the percentage of charity scams, approaching one in the limit. In light of this and other results, we discuss the need for regulating nonprofit entry and conduct as well as promoting informed giving.

Hmmm.