Finding the right charity to donate too — and by that I mean one that’s likely to use your money to actually help someone besides the administrator — can be tough. That’s why I found the recent article on best questions to ask a charity quite useful. It presented a great flowchart that you can use to determine whether or not the charity hitting you up might be worth donating to.

In brief, the following questions, which should all be met with a resounding yes, are quite important:

• Are you recognized as a charity by the government? (IRS, CCRA, HMRC, etc.)
• Have you been around for at least five years?
• Will at least 75% of my money to to charity?
• Do you have at least a year’s worth of working capital?
• Are you cutting services this year?

Basically, a good charity is:

• Recognized.
• Not a Fly-By-Night operation.
• Efficiently run.
• Financially sound.
• Committed to its goals.

Deserving of your support and a good use for the budget you have set aside for funding your CSR initiatives.