How to Check Out The Charity Before Giving

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By georgelarson
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Charitable contributions

During the holiday season charitable organizations engage in vigorous campaigns to get you to donate to their charity. You may receive mail, and email or a phone call. You may, also, want to donate to a charity to generate a tax deduction. Before you help them by donating anything including money, a car, or even clothes to the charity you should check their credentials.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Knowledge of the charity before you give a donation.

Step 1

Why check the Charity's Authenticity

A charity is not a charity unless the IRS says it is. If you want to generate a tax deduction from your donation you need to know that the charitable organization is qualified. A good place to start is the Internet. There are many websites to look at to review the charity's information to see if this is really where you want your money to go.
-charitynavigator.org includes information of 5,000+ of the larger charities. Also provides a safe manner of submitting your donation to your selected charity. Now you can research and safely donate on one website.
-bbb.org/charity sponsored by the Better Business Bureau. Look for their "Wise Giving Seal' of approval.
-charitywatch.org which is the website for the American Institute of Philanthropy.

Most legitimate charities have either obtained from, or applied with, the IRS for tax-exempt status or 501(c)(3). Before you donate you can check an organization's tax status at www.guidestar.org.
Step 2

The second reason to do some checking is to ensure that the organization spend most of your donation for the good of their charity and not towards the Administration. As a rule charities should spend at least 65% of its total expenses on program activities.
Step 3

Charity Scams - Protect Yourself

How to protect yourself from fraud charities and scams.
-Do not open email solicitations - Even if the email appears to be from a valid charitable organization the general rule is - legitimate organizations do not solicit contributions through email.
-Check for the charity's website - When you do a search you may encounter a fraudulent website that looks very real. The easiest way to determine a fraud website is examination of the web address. Non-profit website addresses end in '.org' not '.com' or a series of numbers.
-Never give your credit card number or bank information over the phone. This may sound elementary but many fake charity's names are similar to well known and reputable ones so you may feel confident about your donation over the phone. Legitimate non-profits will send a follow-up letter, after the phone call, with an envelope for the donation.
Step 4

Tax-Wise Charitable Giving

If you're hoping to make the most of your charitable aid contribution on next year's taxes, you'll need to make sure you get a confirmation from the organization. The appropriate forms of confirmation include:

-Less than $250, get receipt or keep canceled check
-More than $250, letter from organization
-Property worth $5,000+, get it appraised