Many people in the United States want to find a way to give back to their community. While there are a number of things people can do to support groups active in helping families in need or helping military families, many people are not sure how to donate to charity in a way that will have an actual impact. Forbes published information about how people can do just that.andnbsp;

According to their reporting, it can be challenging to donate in a way that does something real for people who are in need. That is one reason people may hesitate. When you think about how to donate to charity, things are not always as simple as they should be. This is changing as people who study the impact of making charitable donations are getting a better idea of what does and does not work.

Today, people who are looking into this are using approaches to the problem that are based more and more on the outcomes. Moreover, charities are becoming more and more transparent in how they use the donations they receive and what the difference they are making is. It has become a lot easier to measure the impact your donations have on both the charity to whom you give it and the community that they serve.

When it comes to how to donate to charity, there are more tools available now than ever before. There are some great sites online such as Kiva, Global Giving, and Givology that all allow people to search for the charity to whom they would like to make a donation.

The magazine lists several tips for making effective donations to charity:

1. Decide what your goals are. Look into the issue or cause that moves you. There are some places that offer information about different charities. If youandrsquo;re looking for a cause or an organization, you can get ideas at the websites for GiveWell, and Focusing Philanthropy. There are also good suggestions on the website for the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, which pays rigorous attention to what works. The authors of the piece, Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn also are known for putting information about charities on their Twitter and Facebook pages. Kristoff can be found on Twitter here and Facebook here. WuDunn can be found on Twitter hereand Facebook here. You can also check out the charity you like on Charity Navigator.andnbsp;
2. Be selective when making donations. This can be hard for many. There are a lot of causes out there and when people start thinking about how to donate to charity, they want to help all of the charity organizations they see. At the end of the day, you do more with your donations when you give faithfully to a few charities every year than sporadically to a larger number.
3. Make sure you can verify that donations to a charity have an impact. Look at the number of people who are helped by a charity. Make sure they use some metrics to see how much of an impact they are actually having. Organizations that let in outside experts are better than those who do not. There are organizations that really overvalue the work they are doing and the number of people they are helping so looking for charities that let outsides in to see the impact they are actually making is a good way to determine what charity deserves your donation.
4. Give your time. One way to really get to know the impact a charity is having is to go in and spend some time helping. Think about your skills and what you are passionate about doing. Talk to local charities about using those skills to help them with their work. Sites such as VolunteerMatch https://www.volunteermatch.org/, MovingWorlds https://movingworlds.org/, and Catchafire https://www.catchafire.org/can help you find charities in your area that need people to help out by volunteering.

When it comes to how to donate to charity, there are a lot of ways you can help others.