Charity Navigator

This is a great site to help people and charitable causes connect.


You can search by organization name or type of charity. They do the homework for you. They can tell you if the organization is using their funds wisely. It can be a little misleading in this economy. Hopefully most charities have some investment funds, that may well have tanked this year, so cut them some slack for that. You can find out if the CEO has a reasonable salery, and my personal favorite; how much they spend on fundraising.

You can give the charity your info, or be anonymous. You can keep all your tax record deductions in one place. You can pay with a credit card (I don't recommend that) or link your checking account to Pay Pal. I chose that way. That took a while...like several days for me, but I finally got it, and it will be easier next time. .

They say its better to not spread your donations too thin, but I have trouble saying no to all of them. Its silly. Its not like they are sitting by the mailbox, saying "Where is her annual $7.00 gift? Doesn't she care about us anymore? We could feed an animal for a week on that". Yet I guess that's how I feel. Anyway my point is it can be very easy to give to the cause of your choice. Any little bit you can spare would be appreciated. (possibly less so by mail than on line.) I received 90 requests so far in 2009! Sometimes I feel like they spent all of the little gift I gave them sending me mailings to ask me to send more. That's why I am switching to anonymous on line giving for a big hunk of the causes I support.

Check them out. You may be astonished at how many there are out there. Hey its the holidays, send a little to the animals or the environment, etc. It will mean more than some of the junk you buy people cause you think you have to get them something.