How to pick the right charity to donate to
it can be overwhelming figuring out where to start and what charities are worth your time and money. Even worse, some “charities” are downright fraudulent — like four major cancer charities that were exposed last year for spending only 3% of $187 million in funds on actual cancer patients.
But don’t fret: There are a few well-established organizations that evaluate charities for you. GiveWell is a nonprofit that vets and rates charities. CharityWatch is another, and Charity Navigator is yet another.
“People unfortunately tend to not do much in the way of research,” CharityWatch president and evaluator Daniel Borochoff told CNBC. “I would strongly encourage them to, because they can exponentially improve the effectiveness of their giving.”
CharityWatch takes a “deep dive” into charities’ use of funds, examining their efficiency, and “exposes nonprofit abuses.”
- The watchdog ranks charities through an A-F grading system.
- It also evaluates how much of the money raised is spent on the actual program it serves — versus its overhead costs.
- Efficiency is measured in terms of how much a charity spends for every $100 raised.
- You can check out evaluations of charities’ “governance and transparency” and learn about high-ranking officers’ salaries.
Charity Navigator is another watchdog that examines the efficacy of charities in terms of financial health, accountability and transparency.
- You can view charities’ ratings along these dimensions — the maximum is four stars.
- Charity Navigator also has an assortment of top 10 lists, including everything from most financially inefficient charities to charities with the most consecutive 4-star ratings.
Reblogging to make use of on Tuesday.
