It's the season of end-of-the-year asks from charities everywhere. But if you're only giving to charity when you're asked, you might not be getting the most of your donations. We'll show you how to figure out what charities are most . The most important thing you can do as a donor is to . Figure out what change you want in the world: Less ? Better healthcare for new mothers? What do you want to see to be different after you give money? That's your most important decision from day one. And if you're not sure what result you want to achieve? Have a look at AgoraForGood.com. This organization has divided the universe into six major cause areas including , global health and saving lives. You pick one, then drill down and pick an area within those areas until you wind up with information on that focus on these areas. Much like, where you can pick individual stocks, you can pick charities and add them to your portfolio.
No matter what you decide to support, the million-plus charities in the US alone dictate you'll have a choice of organizations. The best way to choose among them is to screen for and for that you have to use data. First, turn to charity rating services like GiveWell, which analyzes charities to help you . Second, look at your favorite foundations to see which charitable organizations they give to; because they have bigger budgets, they spend more time where to spend that money. Third, look at the data the charity itself. If you see that a charity says it trained 1, 000 people, be skeptical enough to look for information telling you what changed in those people's lives.
Many people give to a lot of different charities. That's understandable——there are a lot of groups in need and it's tough to choose just a few. But the hard truth is a bigger check is better than equally sized smaller checks. It takes a surprising amount of money to just a donation. So don't pick one or two worthy charities and focus your efforts.
