Before You Give to a Charity

While the Grinch was not known for "giving" around this time of the year, I know for a fact, our listeners in the Southern Tier do give generously.  The holidays are a popular time to give to charities. Giving Tuesday (November 29) is more less, the kick off to the charity donation season.

When you're shopping around the Greater Binghamton area, you will run in to the familiar sounds of red kettle drive of the Salvation Army.  God Bless those bell ringers for standing out in all kinds of Southern Tier weather.

So you want to give to a charity this holiday season?  If your email in-box and mail box have been inundated with charity solicitations, take a deep breath and take a few minutes to look in to the worthiness of the charity you are considering to help this Christmas.

You work hard for your money and you want every dollar to help the charity itself, not line the CEO's pocket.  Consider checking in with charity watchdog web sites like CharityNavigator.org and CharityWatch.org.  Both are excellent sources to tell if the charity your are thinking about giving to, will efficiently use your donation to fund the programs you want to support.

Look for good rating scores before you give your hard earned money.  While most larger national charities are listed on these two web sites, you won't find all, especially local charities based in the Binghamton area.

If you give a lot to charities, keep a tab on your computer or sign up for email updates.  It's defiantly an eye opener how much some of the larger charities take in every year.

Whatever you find, thanks for giving this holiday.