The short answer
Pick the cause first, then the charity. Choose a problem you care about, shortlist two or three organizations working on it, run a 10-minute legitimacy check on each, and give to the one that can tell you most clearly what your money will do. For most people, a monthly, unrestricted gift to one well-run charity does more than scattered one-time gifts to many.
- No favorite cause? The cause finder narrows six environmental and community cause areas to two in under a minute.
- Overhead ratios are a weak test. Charity Navigator itself says it “doesn’t reward low overhead.” Ask what the charity accomplished instead.
- Small, young charities can’t be star-rated, which is not the same as being risky. Verify them with IRS and state records instead.
- Unrestricted and recurring gifts are worth more to a charity than the same dollars given once and earmarked.
- Starting in 2026, people who don’t itemize can deduct up to $1,000 (single) or $2,000 (joint) of cash gifts.
On this page (9 sections)
The four-step method
How do you choose a charity to donate to? (1) Decide which problem you want to help solve. (2) Find two or three organizations working on it, using an evaluator that specializes in that field. (3) Confirm each one is a registered charity in good standing and can show results. (4) Give in the form that helps most: usually unrestricted, ideally recurring, through a low-fee channel.
- Choose a cause. This decision matters more than any other. Charities working on different problems can differ in impact far more than two charities working on the same problem.
- Build a shortlist. Use a field-specific evaluator (table below) or local knowledge. Two or three candidates is plenty.
- Vet the organization. Check its IRS status, its state registration, and what it did with last year’s money. Our 10-minute legitimacy guide walks through each step.
- Give well. Set an amount you can sustain, then choose the method that delivers the most value to the charity. See how much to give for benchmarks and a 2026 tax calculator.
Step 1: Choose a cause before a charity
Most people pick a charity when someone asks them to: a coworker’s fundraiser, a mailer, a checkout prompt. That isn’t wrong, but it hands the most important decision to whoever asks first. Spend five minutes deciding which problem you care about most, and every later choice gets easier.
Researchers who compare causes, such as the career nonprofit 80,000 Hours, use three questions. How big is the problem (scale)? How little attention and money does it already get (neglectedness)? How much would extra resources actually help (solvability)? A neglected, solvable problem in your own region can be a better use of $100 than a famous one that already draws billions.
Tool · Cause finder
No favorite cause yet? Answer four questions
This tool doesn't steer you to us. It recommends climate or land trusts when your answers point there.
Answer all four to see your two best-fit cause areas.
Environmental causes are a good example of a neglected area. Americans gave a record $617.2 billion to charity in 2025, but environmental and animal organizations received $24.57 billion, about 4% of the total, according to Giving USA 2026. If you are already drawn to nature, climate, or wildlife, our guide to environmental charities compares the main cause areas side by side.
Step 2: Build a shortlist
General rating sites tell you whether a charity is run responsibly. They usually can’t tell you whether a climate group is more effective than a land trust. For that, use an evaluator that specializes in the field:
| Cause area | Specialist evaluator | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Any U.S. charity | Charity Navigator | Accountability and finance, impact and measurement, leadership, and culture (“Encompass” rating) |
| Any U.S. charity | BBB Wise Giving Alliance | Whether a charity meets 20 governance, finance, and fundraising standards |
| Climate change | Giving Green | Cost-effectiveness reasoning for climate organizations and funds |
| Global health and poverty | GiveWell | Evidence, cost-effectiveness, and room for more funding |
| Land protection | Land Trust Accreditation Commission | Accreditation of land trusts (480 accredited across 46 states and territories) |
| Local causes | Your community foundation; your own visit | Track record in your area. Many local groups will show you their work in person. |
Step 3: Vet the organization
Vetting answers two separate questions. Is it real? It should be registered with the IRS and with its state, and it should be honest about who runs it. Is it good? It should spend money on its mission and be able to show results. The first takes about 10 minutes and is covered step by step in how to check if a charity is legitimate. The second needs more judgment.
Don’t judge a charity by its overhead ratio
In 2013 the leaders of Charity Navigator, GuideStar, and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance co-signed an open letter calling overhead “a poor measure of a charity’s performance.” Charity Navigator still says it “doesn’t reward low overhead.” It looks for roughly 70% or more of spending going to programs, but it has found no evidence that ratios above that predict more impact. The BBB standard is 65%.
What is the 30/70 rule for charities? It is a rule of thumb that no more than about 30% of spending should go to administration and fundraising, with about 70% going to programs. It is a reasonable floor for spotting outliers, but past that point the ratio says little. A charity that spends 25% on overhead and measures its results will usually beat one that spends 10% and can’t tell you what it achieved.
Better questions: What did you accomplish last year, in numbers? What didn’t work? What would you do with another $10,000? A well-run charity answers these quickly and specifically.
Step 4: Give in the way that helps most
The same $300 can be worth very different amounts to a charity depending on how you give it.
| Choice | Why it matters | Our suggestion |
|---|---|---|
| Unrestricted vs. restricted | Unrestricted money can pay for whatever is most urgent, including the staff and equipment programs depend on. Restricted gifts add paperwork and can leave essential costs unfunded. | Give unrestricted unless you have a specific reason not to. |
| Monthly vs. one-time | Monthly giving made up 27% of online revenue in M+R Benchmarks 2026. Only about 19% of first-time donors give again the next year (Bloomerang), so recurring donors are what let a charity plan. | If you can, give monthly. $25 a month is $300 a year the charity can count on. |
| Payment method | Card fees take 2% to 6% of a small gift on many platforms. Zero-fee platforms and bank transfers avoid this. | For gifts under $100, use the charity’s preferred method or cover the fee. |
| Employer match | Many large employers match employee gifts. Unclaimed match money is estimated in the billions each year (Double the Donation, a matching-gift software vendor). | Check your HR portal before you give. A match can double your gift. |
| Appreciated stock | Giving stock held more than a year can avoid capital-gains tax while you deduct the full market value, if you itemize. | Ask whether the charity accepts stock, or give it through a donor-advised fund. |
Tool · Fee calculator
How much of your gift actually reaches the charity?
Card fees barely register on large gifts, but they take a real bite out of small ones. Pick an amount to compare.
| How the charity is paid | Fees | Charity receives |
|---|---|---|
| Zero-fee platforme.g. Zeffy or PayPal Giving Fund: the charity pays no fees | $0.00 | $25.00 |
| GoFundMe charity fundraiser2.2% + $0.30 processing | $0.85 | $24.153.4% less |
| PayPal, confirmed-charity rate1.99% + $0.49 | $0.99 | $24.013.9% less |
| Standard card processing2.9% + $0.30 (Stripe published rate) | $1.03 | $23.984.1% less |
| Card processing + 3% platform feee.g. Givebutter with donor tips turned off | $1.78 | $23.237.1% less |
Published rates checked October 2026 on each provider's pricing page. A charity's actual rate may differ. Many checkouts let you “cover the fee”, which closes most of the gap. Fees are a fraction of what matters, though. A well-run charity on a standard card processor beats a poorly run one on a free platform.
Large national charity or small local one?
Neither is better. They are good at different things, and they need to be checked differently.
| Large national charity | Small local charity | |
|---|---|---|
| How you verify it | Ratings, audited financials, years of Form 990s | IRS determination letter, state registration, board list, current budget, a site visit |
| What $50 means to it | A tiny share of the budget | Can noticeably change what gets done this month |
| Seeing the results | Annual reports and aggregated data | Often in person: the creek, the garden, the classroom |
| Main risk | Your gift disappears into a large budget | Thin track record. One key person leaving can stall the work. |
| Best for | Large problems that need scale, policy, or law | Problems tied to a place, and donors who want to stay involved |
Many experienced donors give to both: a core gift to a large organization working at scale, and a smaller gift to a local group they can watch work.
Six questions to ask before a bigger gift
For gifts over a few hundred dollars, email the charity. How quickly and clearly it answers is itself a good signal.
- What did you accomplish last year, and how do you know?
- What is your annual budget, and roughly how is it divided between programs, administration, and fundraising?
- What would an extra gift of my size make possible that would not happen otherwise?
- Who sits on your board, and how many members are independent of staff?
- Can you send your most recent Form 990 (or 990-N) and your IRS determination letter?
- Do you prefer unrestricted gifts, and would a monthly gift help you plan?
Advice by budget
Giving $25 to $50
- Choose one charity. Ten $5 gifts each lose a fixed per-transaction fee (often $0.30 to $0.49) and create ten donor records to maintain.
- Consider making it monthly. $25 a month becomes $300 a year that the charity can plan around.
- A small local charity will feel it most. At a young organization, $50 can buy a specific piece of equipment or a flat of plants.
- Keep it unrestricted, and opt out of paper mail if you don’t want it. Mailings cost money.
Giving $5,000 or more
- Read the Form 990 (free on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer): revenue trend, top salaries, and program spending.
- Talk to the executive director. Ask what a gift of your size would fund, and how success will be measured.
- Consider a multi-year pledge. Predictable funding is worth more to a charity than a single larger check.
- Give assets, not cash. Appreciated stock, a donor-advised fund grant, or (if you are 70½ or older) a qualified charitable distribution from an IRA, up to $111,000 in 2026.
Where bee and pollinator conservation fits
Want to see how we hold up?
Run the legitimacy checks in this guide on The Bee Conservatory before you give. Our EIN, fee model, and gift policy are on our donation page.
Frequently asked questions
What charity should I donate to?
Start with the problem you care about most, not with a charity name. Use a specialist evaluator for that field (Giving Green for climate, GiveWell for global health, Charity Navigator for general accountability), pick two or three candidates, confirm each is registered with the IRS and its state, and give to the one that explains its results most clearly. If you have no favorite cause, the four-question cause finder on this page suggests two that fit your answers.
Which charity gives 100% of donations to the cause?
No well-run charity spends nothing on operations. Staff, insurance, and accounting are part of doing the work. “100% model” charities get other donors, usually foundations or board members, to pay their overhead, so your gift can be counted entirely toward programs. That is a funding arrangement, not a measure of efficiency. A separate, legitimate claim is that 100% of your gift reaches the charity, meaning no payment-processing fees are deducted. That depends on the payment platform.
What is the 80/20 rule for charities?
It is a variant of the overhead rule of thumb: roughly 80% of spending on programs and 20% on administration and fundraising. Like the 30/70 rule, it is fine for spotting outliers but a poor way to choose between well-run charities. Ask what each one accomplished instead.
Is it better to give to one charity or many?
For most budgets, one to three charities is better than many. Every gift pays a fixed processing fee and creates a donor record the charity must maintain, so ten small gifts cost charities more to process than one larger gift. Concentrating your giving also makes it easier to follow up on results.
Are donations to small or new charities tax-deductible?
Yes, if the organization is a 501(c)(3) public charity. New charities can take time to appear in IRS search tools, so ask for the IRS determination letter. If the charity applied within 27 months of forming and is approved, gifts are deductible back to its formation date. Gifts to groups that are not 501(c)(3) organizations, such as many associations and crowdfunding campaigns for individuals, are generally not deductible.
How do I know my donation will actually be used well?
Ask before you give and follow up afterward. A charity worth supporting can tell you what it accomplished last year in specific numbers and what your gift will help fund. It sends a receipt, and it reports back at least once a year. If none of that happens, give elsewhere next year.
Sources and methodology
Facts in this guide come from primary sources (the IRS, FTC, state regulators, federal agencies, and peer-reviewed research) wherever possible. Figures were checked on October 16, 2026. Spot an error? Email [email protected]. We correct the page and note the change.
- Giving USA 2026: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2025 · Giving USA Foundation
- How can you figure out which global problem is most pressing? · 80,000 Hours
- The Overhead Myth open letter (2013) · BBB Wise Giving Alliance, GuideStar, Charity Navigator
- Overhead: what donors should know · Charity Navigator
- Standards for Charity Accountability · BBB Wise Giving Alliance
- M+R Benchmarks 2026: Fundraising · M+R
- Donor retention benchmarks · Bloomerang
- Matching gift statistics · Double the Donation (software vendor)
- Topic no. 506, Charitable contributions · Internal Revenue Service
- Deductibility of contributions while an exemption application is pending · Internal Revenue Service
- Accredited land trusts · Land Trust Accreditation Commission
- At-risk bumble bees · Xerces Society