What You Need to Know Before You Give to Charity This Year

What You Need to Know Before You Give to Charity This Year

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The end of the year is traditionally the most popular time for making charitable donations. But to make sure your hardearned donations really do the most good, it is very important that you do some due diligence before you write that check or donate that stock, car, antique, or other item. http://give-to-charity.com

First of all you should approach the donation as a business deal. Ask yourself what causes matter to you. Maybe you want to help the environment, or provide scholarships to gifted but impoverished children. http://give-to-charity.com

Whatever your cause, you'll need to do some research to find charities that are helping in that area. Making sure you find a worthwhile charity for your donation does take some work. You do need to verify that any agency that you are dealing with is legitimate. http://give-to-charity.com

A simple way to do this is to do a search online for a charity and download its IRS 990 Form at guidestar.org. You can also contact the charity directly and ask for its IRS 501c3 determination and a copy of its latest IRS 990 form.

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The 990 form can look complicated but it gives you lots of useful information to help you decide if a charity is a good one to trust with your hardearned money. The 990 form shows you what percent of its total funds an organization actually spends on its programs, as opposed to using these dollars to build up an endowment or pay administrative and fundraising fees. http://give-to-charity.com

The 990 form also includes the salaries of highestpaid employees and how much went to high-paid independent contractors, so you can see if a charity is paying fair wages or is perhaps using most of their donor funds to pay themselves instead of advancing their mission. http://give-to-charity.com

For more information about what you should know before making a charitable donation to be sure your dollars go to reputable organization please visit http://give-to-charity.com

http://give-to-charity.com