For expert, one-on-one advice on charitable giving or to obtain professional services related to vetting a specific charity, please see Check-a-Charity.
For general advice, browse Giving Guidance for tips on avoiding charity scams, on being a proactive giver, donating anonymously, and many other topics that will build your knowledge base and help you make better informed giving decisions. Visit the Blog for more topical issues on charitable giving, nonprofit news, and commentary.
Donors who want to conduct research into charities on their own can use these sources to locate non-profit tax forms, audited financial statements, fundraising contracts, and other reports. As charity financial reporting can be complicated, inconsistent, and at times counterintuitive, users who lack a relevant financial background should not make judgments as to a charity's financial efficiency or effectiveness without a qualified accountant or other competent professional first evaluating the information. For laypersons, many of these sources offer helpful and interesting information such as tips for wise giving, giving statistics, lists of charities organized by cause, non-profit news, and other information about charities and charitable giving.
CharityWatch is an assertive watchdog of charities. It provides A+ to F ratings of hundreds of non-profit organizations based on in-depth analyses of charity audited financial statements, IRS Tax Forms 990, and other data such as state solicitation filings, fundraising contracts, and more. It maintains its independence by receiving 95% of its funding from small donations from the public and does not charge charities to be reviewed or listed.
Disclosure: Laurie Styron was the Lead Financial Analyst at CharityWatch for nine years prior to launching her consulting practice.
Foundation Center, among other helpful information, offers a searchable database of charity tax forms (IRS Form 990). Also find research and reports on giving trends.
The National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute bills itself as "The National Clearinghouse of data on the nonprofit sector in the United States." Use its database to run queries, view statistics, or obtain information on a specific nonprofit.
GuideStar offers images of 3.2 million digitized charity IRS Form 990s of approximately 1.8 million organizations. It also offers information on charity executive salaries.
Visit the Federal Trade Commission web site for information on charity scams, investigations into wrongdoing in the nonprofit sector, and advice for giving to veterans, local police and firefighter, and other organizations.
Not all nonprofit organizations are eligible to accept tax-deductible contributions due to their designation with the IRS. Other organizations may not be in good standing or up-to-date with their tax filings. Use the IRS Exempt Organization Select Check Tool to confirm a charity's status with the IRS and its eligibility for tax deductible donations.