With so many organizations and worthy causes asking for donations, following these 6 tips for vetting charity organizations will ensure your donation makes an impact.

1. Understand how do you want to help?

• Think about what matters most to you?    The environment?  Education? Hunger? Animal welfare? Helping sick children? Economic development? Collective Impact?  Capacity Building?
• Where you want to make an impact?    In your neighborhood? Region? The nation? Internationally?
• Ask yourself if you want to support a large or small charity, a new or an old one, grass roots volunteer led or fully staffed?
• Are you okay with just donating or do you want feedback on the charities impact?

2. Make sure the  mission of the non profit organization or charity aligns with your goals.

• Look at a charity’s description in GivingTrax, on GuideStar, on its Website, in its literature, or on Charity Navigator.  What are they hoping to accomplish?  What problem are they solving?  What is their vision?  Non profit organizations in GivingTrax all use a standard page format that help make research on these topics easy.  If you want to help respond to a disaster, visit the charity’s website to see if they are dedicating a specific fund in response or if donations simply go into their general fund.

3. Verify the charity’s legitimacy.

• Check the nonprofit 501(c)(3) status in GivingTrax, on GuideStar, or directly in the IRS database (online).  You can also access IRS filings on the nonprofit organization or charity through links within GivingTrax to ensure that it is a legitimate tax-exempt organization in good standing with the IRS.

4. Do your research.

• Look for clear descriptions of a non profit organization or charity’s mission and programs, goals, and achievements. Are the goals measurable?   Does the charity use concrete terms to describe its accomplishments?  Do they share their social impact with donors?  
• What is charity’s overhead percent?  For example, what percent of you donation will go to providing services versus backoffice staff?
• If you compare charities, can you compare apples to apples?   Compare charities that do the same kind of work, especially if you’re looking at their finances. The type of work a charity does can affect its operating costs dramatically.  It’s not all about low overhead rates.  We’ve seen amazing charities doing great things solely with volunteer staff and minimal overhead.  Other charities require more non-program related expenses.
• Avoid charities that won’t share information or pressure you.   Reputable non profit organizations will openly discuss their programs and finances (they’re publicly available),  will not  use pressure tactics, are willing to send you literature about their work or direct you to a Web site, and will take a “no thank-you” for an response to a donation request.

5. Trust your instincts.

If you follow these simple tips you’ll be sure to be protected as a donor.  But, if you still have doubts about a charity, don’t contribute to it.  Instead, find another non profit organization that does the same kind of work and with which you feel comfortable, then make your donation.  

6. Don’t give over the phone or to mail solicitations

You’ve likely heard the warnings about not donating to phone solicitations or incoming text messages.  The same can be said of postal mail solicitations.  Postal mail fraud is increasing and surprisingly, it is relatively easy to impersonate a charity.  If you intend to donate to a mailing, be sure to validate the return address against the website of the organization to see if it matches.  Also, never write your credit card number down on paper.  It’s not PCI compliant for organizations to request a credit card and doing so, should be considered a red flag.  The safest way to donate is on the organization’s secure website.  

Happy donating.