DEAR ABBY: I want to donate to organizations that do good work. My question is, where can I find out which charities put all of the donations toward their cause rather than to staff and fundraising? I read years ago that a well-known charity paid an exorbitant salary to the person in charge, who was already wealthy. -- GIVING IN NEW JERSEY
DEAR GIVING: Go online and search Charity Navigator. It's the largest evaluator of charities in the United States and provides reliable data on more than 1.8 million charities and nonprofits. Many people use it to gauge how their contributions will be spent before they donate, and sometimes that information is a real eye-opener.