By Luke Powers
Americans donated an estimated $499 billion to charity in 2022. Our collective generosity supports many different causes each year, but donations are not keeping up with inflationary pressure. Charitable giving is actually down year over year after adjusting for inflation.
There are thousands of charities, which can make it hard to decide which ones to donate to. Taking that fact into account, along with the impact of high inflation, we did the legwork to find the best options for you in various categories. We compared nearly 300,000 charities based on our proprietary SmileHub rating, which includes five categories: financial health, management overhead, fundraising efficiency, program efficiency and transparency. We also identified the best organizations to donate to overall, by size, and for each of the most popular causes.
If you want to explore more charities than those listed below, check out our search tool to find more of the best charities for 2024.
Best Charities Overall
| Charity Name | SmileHub Rating | Coverage Area | Category |
| Optica | 94 | National | Research |
| Aga Khan Foundation | 91 | National | International Support |
| Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust | 91 | National | Economic Development |
| Nationwide Children’s Hospital | 91 | National | Health & Wellness |
| American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) | 91 | National | Research |
| The United States Olympic Endowment | 90 | National | Sports & Recreation |
| Research to Prevent Blindness | 89 | National | Research |
| Volunteers of America National Services | 88 | National | Community Support |
| Veterans United Foundation | 88 | National | Veterans |
| MAP International | 87 | National | International Support |
| ASTM International | 87 | National | Research |
| MedShare | 87 | National | International Support |
| EY Foundation | 87 | National | Education |
| WaterStone | 87 | National | Economic Development |
| Mather Foundation | 87 | National | Health & Wellness |
| Foundation Housing | 86 | National | Community Support |
| St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital | 86 | National | Health & Wellness |
| Rockefeller Family Fund | 86 | National | Economic Development |
| American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) | 85 | National | Sports & Recreation |
| Friends of the Children | 85 | National | Children |
READ FULL REPORT
