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I wrote quite a bit in the other posts about things I think you should consider when giving. I like to finish up with a suggestions of what I think is a good way to go about deciding which charities to support. 1. Definitely support whatever church you attend, but I think you should also support at least one ministry and charity directly, rather than relying on your local church alone to do so. 2. Consider giving internationally. Not only will your money go much further, there are far worse conditions worthy of charity than in the US and a much riper field for ministry. 3. Make sure your giving to a charities that you have looked into and believe are worthy, not the ones who solicit you for donations. 4. Figure out the type(s) of charity you wish to support: holistic, well drilling, vaccinations, education, micro-finance? 5. Go to Charity Navigator and browse by category to see all the charities working in that field. You can use the star ratings, program expenses and executive pay to limit it down to 2-5 finalists. 6. If it's a ministry, go to Ministry Watch and see their review. They provide additional details on the organizations beliefs highlight what the organization is doing right and wrong. 7. If the charity is not reviewed by either of these organizations, look for their Form 990 financial statements. If the organization doesn't publish them, this should be a red flag. 8. Once you have your finalists, dig through their websites to try to find exactly what they accomplish with the donations, verify their beliefs line up and look into their leadership. 9. Do Google searches to see what others are saying about these organizations. As always you have to take these opinions with a grain of salt, but it may make you aware of things you haven't considered before. 10. Choose just one charity from each category you wish to support to minimize payment processing fees, communication expenses and other overhead needed for each donor. 11. Give cheerfully, with confidence that your gifts are being effectively used for God's glory.
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Great tips Jeremy. Something to add to #5 is that I have found sometimes (although rare) there my be an organization not on Charity Navigator or Guidestar that is still legit. For example I came across this organization - http://worldaccessproject.org/ - and asked for financials, etc. because they weren't listed. As it turns out, I had an email exchange with the founder and he was a really nice guy and wasn't familiar with Charity Navigator. He doesn't take a salary either, so it's not like he has anything to hide (in fact, when they get listed that will probably help them stand out on there).
Very good point. Charity Navigator only has reviews for 5,000 charities at the moment. They are the larger ones so that covers 50% of all money donated to charity, but not being listed just means they haven't got to it yet, not that there's anything wrong with the charity.