Which Houston charities have been naughty or nice?
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- During the Christmas season, many Texans open up their checkbooks to give to a favorite charity and the Ted Oberg Investigates team wanted to share some investigative tools so the public can examine the charities they're thinking about giving to.
They include a website called Charity Navigator, Guidestar and a recent national report on some of the worst charities across the country when it comes to spending far more on fundraising than they do on giving.
Martha Macris, executive director of Memorial Assistance Ministries and a highly rated charity on Charity Navigator, said it's important for donors to know how their money is being spent.
"We're here for the common good and if we're not using our funding to be good for the community, that's a violation of the law, let alone the moral code," Macris said. "So for me it's very important that when a donor gives money to an organization like ours as much of that goes to our clients."
MAM's clients include the region's poor, homeless, those who need help with rent, or to get a GED or job skills.
Charity Navigator rates charities that have been around at least seven years and get a half a million dollars or more in donations. It uses a point system that rates how much the charity spends on the people it serves compared to administrative expenses. It gives points for having good policies in place and having financial statements available for donors.
We used Charity Navigator to look at some other groups who got top marks, like Girl Scouts of San Jacinto who said they were very proud of their rating and the charity Child Advocates whose spokeswoman told us, "Look for an organization you have a connection, passion with." She also said, "Always check on their website or even online non profit review sites for where the donation is going and how it will impact the organization's mission."
Other charities did not rate as well and some were flagged with Donor Advisories.
Check out the list of Houston charities featured by Charity Navigator here.
To drill down more deeply into a charity, use Guidestar. Anyone can look up and by providing an email address get access to every charity's tax form, called a 990.
Those documents contain the salaries of the charity's top officials, show how much the charity spent and on what.
The home page for Charity Navigator is linked here.
The Center for Public Integrity/Tampa Bay Times list of "worst" charities is here.
All are free.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
Ted Oberg
David Aguillard
Trent Seibert
