With the recent Florida hurricanes and the upcoming holidays, we're reposting an article on researching charities. We also have an offer. If you make an online contribution to the Red Cross, we will give you a 1 Year web membership. Just use our Contact Us link and include the Order ID from your confirmation email. URL: https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp As I've gotten older, I've realized that I haven't been smart about my charitable giving. In times past, I would give money to causes without knowing too much about them. This was true when there were natural disasters in various parts of the world. Although giving to everyone may sound good, I may have done better by targeting whom I wanted to help rather than responding to solicitations. The next question that arises is how do you find information about charities. There are some good websites that can help you find information. Some sites provide a searchable database with many criteria. For example, you may want to fund charities that deal with children. Other times, you may want to focus on a charity that serves a community need. Although these databases aren't inclusive, they can help you refine your strategy. Another resource is the charity's website if they have one. Besides finding more about the organization, you may discover the charity has needs besides money. I've seen many sites that have pages requesting computer equipment, office supplies and volunteer time. We have one charity that we routinely send our used Palm OS PDAs to, as they don't have the funds to purchase new ones. Here are some sites we routinely use to research charities: http://www.charitynavigator.org/ (US based) http://www.guidestar.org/ (US based) http://www.give.org/ (US based) http://www.idealist.org/ (Intl) http://www.charitynet.org/ (Intl)