Confirming charitable organizations

I think everyone gets those letters in the mail. A well assembled presentation, printed on decent paper stock, kindly asking you for a small tax-deductible donation to help their cause. I think one of the greatest things you can do as a human being is to give well to charity. But you also shouldn't walk blindly into anything.

A great tool I have found to help filter through charities is on the IRS' website.

The IRS has a publication specifically designed for listing and reviewing tax-deductible charities.

From the introduction of the publication...

"Publication 78, Cumulative List of Organizations described in Section 170(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, is a list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible charitable contributions. This online version is offered to help you conduct a more efficient search of these organizations."

This list from the IRS is constantly updated with all the legal and documented charities that registered with them. If you take a quick look at their website, you can search for charities by name, city, state or country. If you see the charity you searched for listed in the results field, you can be 100% certain it is a legitimate organization.

The direct link to the search field can be found by clicking here.

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