GOOD HOUSEKEEPING REPORTS: Sites help match donors with worthy charities

There’s not much time left to donate to charity and still get a tax deduction for 2008. But with more than a million charities to choose from, how do you select the right one?

To ensure that your money is spent wisely, don’t write a check until you read these five key rules from Good Housekeeping on how to donate wisely.

1. Meet your match. Once you’ve pinpointed the kind of cause you want to donate to, find a specific charity that’s worthy through these two free Web sites: guidestar.org and charitynavigator.org.

Search Guidestar’s database of more than 1.7 million nonprofits using key words related to your interest —- such as “cancer research” —- and then view the report for each charity. There, you’ll see the group’s mission statement and easy-to-understand financial information from its Form 990, the annual report that tax-exempt organizations file with the Internal Revenue Service.

Or if you have a particular charity in mind, you can search by name to find this information. Charitynavigator is a similar site, but it also awards star rankings for fiscal responsibility and financial health, ranging from zero (exceptionally poor) up to four (exceptionally good).

2. Scrutinize spending. Zero in on the “program ratio” —- a key yardstick for determining whether the charity handles money wisely. This is the percentage of the budget spent on programs and services, and it appears on charitynavigator.org.

“As a general rule of thumb, you want to focus on organizations that spend at least 75 percent on programs,” said Sandra Miniutti, vice president of marketing at charitynavigator.org.

3. Understand what the Charity Seal means —- and doesn’t mean. As you do your research, you’ll probably run across the Charity Seal, which the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance has awarded to more than 200 organizations.

To carry the seal, a charity must be at least 2 years old and meet the BBB’s tough accountability standards for financial management, fund-raising and honesty. You can find the list at bbb.org/charity.

Note, though, that while this seal provides reassurance, participation in the program is not mandatory. Some excellent groups simply choose not to apply for the designation.

4. Verify that the group is a tax-exempt charitable organization. This will ensure that your donations are deductible.

Check with the organization to be sure it is what’s known as a 501(c)(3) charity, says Joseph Anthony, a Portland, Ore., tax pro. If the group is a nonprofit but not a 501(c)(3), it means the group has no profit objective but is not officially a charitable organization, so you can’t take a write-off.

5. Find charities that will let you volunteer. If you would like to give your time rather than your money, check out the Web site volunteermatch.org.

After typing in your location and a specific area of interest, you’ll get a list of local groups that could use your help. You can even search for “virtual opportunities” if you’d prefer to volunteer from home.

EASY WAYS TO GIVE

You and your family don’t even need to spend extra cash to donate. Check out these sites that give back:

Goodsearch.com: Every time you search with this site, a penny is contributed to the charity of your choice.

Goodshop.com: Stores in this online mall donate a percentage of your purchases to charity (as much as 37 percent).

Freerice.com: This online vocab quiz for kids donates 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program for every correct word match.

Where to write: Good Housekeeping Reports, care of King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.