I am in the process of finishing my charity donations for 2026. Any recommendation on a site(s) that review(s)/rank(s) charities? I typically start with local ones I personally have inexpedience with such as food banks, hign school and colleges, public TV and animal rescue and then go to national charities.
I use QCD’s. BTW, for those who are not familiar with QCD’s, they are a tax effective way of making donation from RMD accounts.
Thank you
I’m planning on doing the same thing, making QCD’s in another 10 years. Most of my tax deferred money would still be in my 401K, I wish we would be able to do a QCD from a 401k as well.
Charity Navigator is the obvious choice. There are a few others. I prefer to give to larger charities, figuring that more people are watching them, so if some ripoff was going on, likely would become public. Also, likely more efficient and can access govt matching programs. I prefer to give to charities that do work in really impoverished areas, where people have little chance to escape poverty or wars. Too many Americans needing help, due to their own bad behavior. My current 5 charities are World Vision, Project C.U.R.E., Direct Relief,Doctors Without Borders and Catholic Relief Services. Who knows if they are better than others, but I hope they’re doing good works, efficiently.
There is a local church that we now donate clothing items to instead of Goodwill. They provide the clothes to anyone who professes a need without charge. Yeah, slightly different subject. I prefer to donate local.
I’ve heard of Charity Navigator and will check it out - THX.
My non-local list includes Docs W/O, St Jude’s and save the children. Does anybody know anything about Wine to Water?
Any type of giving is positive - money or useful items.
I also have been doing QCDs and have spent too much time trying to make decisions
A site somewhat similar to charitynavigator.org is charitywatch.org. My wife and I do both local and international donations. If you are comfortable with international giving, there are sites that evaluate the cost effectiveness of donations including givewell.org. Per their website “we search for and support programs that save or improve lives the most per dollar”. The gatesphilanthropypartners.org also selects high-impact global health and development initiatives.