The holidays mark a time when most of us want to give to others in need, but with over a million nonprofit organizations to choose from, finding the right one isn't always easy.
For starters, how do you know if a charity is reputable? After all, you want to know that a good chunk of your donation is making it into the hands of people in need.
It's not easy to do this assessment on your own unless you have time to pore over an organization's tax records. Fortunately, there are several nonprofit sites that make it fairly easy to separate a well-run charity from an inefficient mess of one. Charitywatch, GuideStar and Charity Navigator are good places to start. Each allows you to search for a charity by name, or browse by cause, and receive a ranking based on various criteria.
For example, Charity Navigator, a free site that bills itself as "Your guide to intelligent giving," gives charities one to four stars, based on two primary areas: how fiscally responsible the charity is and if the charity is in a position to sustain its programs over the long term.
In an easy-to-read format, Charity Navigator also gives the rundown on a charity's administrative and fund-raising expenses, CEO salary and its rules regarding donor privacy, among other things. GuideStar offers similar information; however, full access to its database requires a subscription fee.
Not all charities are listed in these guides. Some, like Charity Navigator, require that charities file a 990 tax form for a prescribed number of years before they're eligible for inclusion in their database. The