When you’re ready to beging sending off your holiday donations, you must be diligent–you must charity watch. The Firefighters Charitable Foundation helps victims of fire and disaster and The National Veterans Services Fund, Inc. serves veterans and their families. What do these two charities have in common? These two charities are on Charity Navigator’s Top Ten List of Consistently Low-Rated Charities for consistently performing far below industry standards and below nearly all similar charities.
It is assumed that big charities are most likely to use your donation effectively, but that’s not always the case. Before donating even one of your hard-earned dollars, screen your charity. Here are a few websites to help you:
Charity Navigator: This website independently ranks over 5,000 charities. U.S. non-profits.
GuideStar: This website contains comprehensive information on more than 1.8 million nonprofits and also gives users the opportunity to interact with the nonprofit community.
GiveWell: This website provides information on the highest-impact nonprofits and rates them accordingly.