Redirecting your Gifts to Charity

More articles on the Wedding Gifts topic: Wedding Gift News

Couples all over the place are asking that in lieu of a gift, a donation be made to charity. It's even more popular with second or third weddings, when the couple already has the essentials to start a new home.

When selecting a charity, it is important to make a well thought out decision. Many charities don't give a significant amount of their funding to would be beneficiaries.

Even if you regularly donate to a charity, it is worth checking them out again. Just because a charity has a big name does not mean that it is run respectably - in fact, if you've heard a lot about them, they probably spend a good amount of money on marketing.

When talking about a wedding, you could be talking about several (even potentially tens of) thousands of dollars going to the charity. So how do you make the right choice?

You can glean a little bit of information from a lot of resources, but you shouldn't rely on just one. There are websites out there like CharityNavigator.org and The American Institute of Philanthropy - but it is possible that the charity you are interested in is either not rated by these sites or is not listed. A few quick steps can help ease your mind a bit. A quick phone call to the City or a visit to your secretary of state's web page can verify how long your charity has been in business. Obviously, the newer a charity, the more skeptical you should be. Ask the charity themselves what percentage of donations are actually spent on the cause (versus employee costs, marketing or other business expenses). If they can't give you an answer within a reasonable time frame, then be very skeptical. Another area to check is internet search engines. I recommend checking both Google and Google Groups for a good idea of what the internet community in general thinks of your charity. If you come up dry with both of those resources, All The Web might be able to help you out.

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