Finding the Best Child Charities?

Answer 1

Children today face a wide range of problems including poverty, disease, hunger and war. In response, many different charities have been established to address these issues. In addition to the old and well established charities , a number of newer charities have sprung up to address causes for children. How do you choose when there are so many worthy causes?

Guidelines for Choosing a Children’s Charity

Suppose your burning issue is child hunger. Decide whether you want to focus on a local charity, a national one or an international one. How do you compare the effectiveness of similar charities? Look at the track record of the charity. How successful have they been in fulfilling their mission? How many children have they fed in the past year? Do they provide support to families? Do they work with local organizations to solve the problems of hunger?

Compare the charities’ ratings by independent agencies who monitor the effectiveness of charities. These organizations look at a number of factors and give each charity a rating. The higher the rating, the better the charity makes use of your donation. An organization called Charity Navigator gives a rating, with four stars being the highest rating.

An important measure of the effectiveness of a charity is the amount of money spent on administration as compared to the amount spent on its mission or programs. Ten percent or less spent on administration is considered excellent. This means that 90% of donations were used for the mission ( feeding children for example). Less than one third spent on programs is considered poor. This means that 2/3 of donations were spent on salaries, fundraising and other administrative costs.

Another rating organization, American Institute of Philanthropy, uses letter grades from A+ to F in rating charities. Here are five children’s charities receiving an A+ or A rating:

ChildFund International

Save the Children

Juvenile Diabetes Research

Pearl S. Buck International

Big Brothers/Big Sisters of North America

If you are unsure of how your favorite children’s charity uses its funds, ask for a copy of its program expenditures. In this way, you can be sure that your dollar is gong directly to a cause you really believe in.