How can I donate goods, such as books, cars and food, instead of cash?

Many charities are equally grateful to receive gifts of cash as they are donated goods. Since the needs of an individual charity change frequently, we are unable to provide you with a list of charities and the types of goods they'll accept. We recommend that you use our site as a tool to find a well-run charity in your region. Then, contact that charity directly, using the information we provide, to determine if the organization is interested in receiving your goods.
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Read this article for specific information about donating your car to charity and visit Giving and Taxes to learn how to optimize the benefits of your donations.

Should I use your ratings exclusively to determine if I should support a charity?

We believe our ratings will dramatically improve the quantity and especially the quality of information available to givers. Our ratings provide objective, and reliable assessments of the impact, accountability, financial health, leadership and culture of charities. Givers can be confident that in supporting those charities rated highly by Charity Navigator, they will be supporting organizations that are fiscally responsible and financially healthy.
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That said, we do not recommend using our ratings as the only factor in deciding whether to support a particular organization. Givers should also seek out additional information from charities directly and through other private and public sources to evaluate what a charity does and how well they do it. Intelligent giving depends on reliable information. Charity Navigator provides an important piece of this information, and we encourage givers to learn as much as they can about a charity before deciding to support it.

The CEO's salary of a charity seems high, should I not make a contribution

While there are certainly some charities that overpay their leaders, Charity Navigator's data shows that those organizations are the minority. Among many of the mid to large-sized charities we've evaluated, the typical CEO's annual compensation is in the low to mid six figures.
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Before you make any judgments about salaries higher or lower than that range, we encourage you to keep in mind that many of these charities are complex organizations, some with multi-million dollar budgets, hundreds of employees, and thousands of constituents. These leaders could inevitably make much more running similarly sized for-profit firms.
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Furthermore, when making your decision it is important to consider that it takes a certain level of professionalism to effectively run a charity and charities must offer a competitive salary if they want to attract and retain that level of leadership.

What else should I know before I donate to a charity?

Please visit our donor resources page for more tips for donors. You may also find this handy guide to evaluating charities not currently rated by Charity Navigator helpful while making your charitable decisions.