How to find out which charities are most reputable?

Tunstallstoven

Hi all

I am hoping to start giving money to charities on a regular basis. It is my 40th next month, and I am starting by asking friends and family to donate what they would have spent on presents to a charity instead (which I would like to choose).

The trouble is, I often get an admittedly unfounded hunch that some charities are better than others. I mean in terms of things like how donated money gets used, what kind of salary managers and CEOs are on, and how they approach the projects they set up.

Are there websites which can help determine which charities are most reputable? Or any other ways to find out?

In case it matters, at the moment I am most interested in foreign aid charities and animal charities. But the question is pretty general seeing as I hope this to be an ongoing thing and I may choose to support other charities in the future.

Many thanks

Max

Kim_kim

I donated to water aid & they drove me mad looking for more & more.

I changed to save the children - they accept my dd & don't hassle me.

Savvy_Sue

All registered charities have to publish their accounts, and you can find them on the Charity Commission website.

You then need to look at their accounts, annual reports etc.

It's a bit of a judgement call: personally I think there's a limit to the impact a small charity can make, but that's not to say a small charity isn't the right size for what it's doing. With a larger charity you might think "oh my goodness they're paying a lot for ...", but it might be more cost-effective to pay that than 'make do'.

7_week_wonder

Seagull27 wrote: »

Hi all


Are there websites which can help determine which charities are most reputable? Or any other ways to find out?

I've used this website to compare charities. It lets me check what proportion of donations goes to charity (rather than on administration) and what sort of projects the charities do.
http://www.aliveandgiving.com

HTH

kingfisherblue

For my 40th, I requested donations for my son's special school instead of gifts. That way, I knew that the money would be spent on something that directly benefited the children.

Do you have a local animal shelter that would appreciate a donation? Smaller places often spend less on admin and sometimes have volunteers instead of paid staff, so it might be worth considering.

sooty&sweep

Hi,
I appreciate that it costs money to run any organisation but to be honest I've got a little fed up with how pushy some of the bigger charities have become.

I'd suggest that you choose a local charity or community group / project that you would like to support. They don't have access to the same level of resource that the bigger national charities have and with the public sector funding cuts a lot of local community groups are really struggling.

Jen