There are a number of rating sites out there, sometimes with conflicting information. What do you go to when you want to donate, especially when you want to look for a particular issue/crisis/disaster.
If I can improve my impact by taking a few minutes to research, it would be nice to have a place to go instead of googling “charity rating for ____”
Givewell.org seems to be well respected
Charity Navigator is a good place to start identifying options based on your interests. I don’t think their “ratings” are great, but I discovered a nonprofit I never knew about through them.
Thanks. I’m interested in Survival International and Charity Navigator is the only one mentioned in the comments that includes them (so far).
Support local groups where you know the people I guess.
I don’t know anyone that works in a charity and i suppose that’s the case for most people.
You can always look up local charities and attend a meeting.
When I did a couple events with habitat for humanity, I met a number of people highly involved in other local charities.
I think volunteering is a good way to meet people who regularly volunteer. That’s the crowd that is likely to know what all is going on in your area. Learning about organizations through volunteers will also give you a good idea for which groups are actually working with their community directly and which ones are more talk and less action.
So I would recommend finding a group to volunteer with to get started, and you can switch to causes that more closely align with your interests once you start making connections. Habitat for humanity, food banks, local environmental cleanup days are all easy to find just about everywhere.
And those charities around me work on local issues, whereas I want to support the less privileged
If you’re interested in a particular charity organization, you can look them up on Charity Navigator. They pull information from the charity’s IRS filings as well as their website to rate various aspects. They give a breakdown of things like the fraction of funds spent on administrative costs, privacy policies, fundraising efficiency, etc.
They also provide the contact information and website for the charity. This way you know you’re donating to the actual charity and not a scammer impersonating them.
Givewell is thorough with their research, and afaik they try hard to stay current on everything.
