Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

If you were one of the gracious ones out there who donated to a charity during the holiday season, there’s no doubt someone out there thanking their lucky stars for what you gave. Let’s just hope it’s the target you intended and not someone fronting as a charity to take advantage of your donations. Even well-recognized charities can have problems along the way and the list of what-ifs is really endless. So it’s a good idea to check up on the charities that receive your valuable donations and the process of doing so could be easier than you’d expect. A web site called Charity Navigator evaluates the standing of more than 5,000 U.S. charities by, among other things, reviewing the companies reported financials. In the end, the site gives out a rating from one to four stars. In addition to giving ratings, you’ll find a ton of other information like insider articles, recent news and the all-important charity search feature.

A great feature on the site is the ability to search for charities by area, and not just by name.   To do so, just type a city name into the search bar. When I typed in “Kansas City” there were 30 results, including large charities like City Union Mission, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Harvesters, Kansas City Symphony, YMCA of Kansas City and Nelson-Atkins Museum. But there were also others I hadn’t heard of that received high ratings, like The Family Conservancy and the PKD Foundation. You can also search for charities broken down by category.

One of the important aspects of any charity is the organization’s financial health. That’s why Charity Navigator makes this one of the determining factors when giving out ratings. Since the Salvation Army is defined as a church, the organization doesn’t have to disclose to the IRS the same financial information that other charities do. This prevents the site from being considered by Charity Navigator.  Here’s more information about the omission of the Salvation Army.  If you’d like to jump right to charities that deal with emergencies like natural disasters, be sure to check out the Hot Topics section. It also a good idea to check that your favorite charity is on the IRS list of qualified charitable organizations. Lastly, here’s the IRS requirements for taking charitable deductions come tax time.

Posted by Jason A. Brown