Giving well: how to pick a charity you can trust

Why transparency matters

• When you give to a registered U.S. charity, you can usually see what it reported: income, spending, what it pays its leaders. That public record is the deal charities make in exchange for their tax exemption.
• The church is not required to make that deal. In February 2023 the SEC found that from 1997 to 2019 Ensign Peak, the church's investment manager, avoided required stock-holding disclosures by filing through 13 LLCs. The order says this was done to keep the holdings out of public view, and that the church's First Presidency approved the approach. The church and Ensign Peak paid $5 million in total and settled without admitting or denying the findings. The church says it regrets the mistakes and the matter is closed.
• Transparency doesn't prove a charity is good. Without it, though, you are trusting a story you can't check, and you already know how that goes.

Sources: SEC order 34-96951; the church's statement, Feb 21, 2023.

What a Form 990 tells you, and why churches don't file one

• Form 990 is the yearly information return most tax-exempt groups file with the IRS. It is public, and you can read it free on ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer or Candid (GuideStar).
• Where to look: total revenue and expenses (front page), what the charity says it accomplished, pay for officers and top earners, and how spending splits between programs, management and fundraising.
• IRS rules exempt churches, conventions or associations of churches, and their "integrated auxiliaries" from filing a 990. Ensign Peak is organized as a supporting organization and integrated auxiliary of the church, so it doesn't file one either.
• What you can see is limited. Since 2019 Ensign Peak files quarterly 13F reports of its U.S. stock holdings under its own name on SEC EDGAR. Those cover listed U.S. stocks only, not real estate, bonds, private funds or cash. The church publishes a yearly "Caring for Those in Need" summary ($1.45 billion in 2024, across welfare, self-reliance, humanitarian aid and emergency relief combined). It does not publish a full financial statement.
• Even some believing tax experts, like law professor Sam Brunson, have argued that churches should file a 990 like everyone else.

Sources: IRS, who must file; 2024 Caring summary; Sam Brunson interview (2019).

The ratings sites, and what each one measures

Charity Navigator

Scores charities on impact, accountability and finance, leadership, and culture. A good first check. Small or new groups may simply be unrated.

GiveWell

A short list ranked by cost per life saved, with the research published. Global health only.

Candid (GuideStar)

No grades, just the facts and the filings. Best for confirming a group is real and reading its 990.

Giving What We Can

A curated list built on independent evaluators, plus an optional pledge to give a percentage of your income. Yes, it's basically tithing, except you choose where it goes and you can see what it did.

BBB Wise Giving Alliance (Give.org)

Checks charities against 20 standards for governance, finances, results reporting and honest fundraising. Best at catching misleading appeals.

IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search

Confirms a group is actually tax-exempt and hasn't lost its status.

All six are in the Charity section of Resources, with links.

Red flags

• They won't tell you what they spend or what they accomplished, and they get vague or offended when you ask.
• No 990, no audit, no annual report, and no legal reason to skip them.
• Pressure to give right now, or guilt and fear as the pitch ("blessings," "bad things will happen," "your family is counting on you").
• A name that sounds like a famous charity but isn't one. Check the exact legal name and EIN.
• Requests for cash, gift cards, wire transfers or crypto.
• You can't find any outside reporting on them, good or bad.
• Leaders paid far above similar charities. The 990 lists it.

The overhead myth

• A low overhead percentage does not mean a charity is good. In 2013 the heads of Charity Navigator, GuideStar and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance wrote together that overhead "is a poor measure of a charity's performance."
• Charities need staff, software, audits and good management to get results. A group that underpays everyone and skips evaluation can look efficient on paper and do very little.
• Ask better questions: What changed because of my money? How do you know? What do you do when a program doesn't work?
• An organization that reports its results, failures included, is usually more trustworthy than one that only tells you how blessed you will be.

Source: "The Overhead Myth", June 17, 2013.

Giving close to home

• Food banks, shelters, refugee resettlement offices, domestic violence shelters and school programs near you. Most are on Candid, so you can check them in minutes.
• Mutual aid networks: neighbors helping neighbors directly. Mutual Aid Hub maps some of them. Many aren't registered charities, so the gift usually isn't tax-deductible. Decide whether that matters to you.
• Giving circles: a group of friends pools money, picks a cause together, and gives as one. A ward council that actually votes and actually shows the budget.
• Time counts too. Plenty of people who leave keep the service habit and drop the attendance requirement.

How to stop tithing, without drama

• You can just stop. There's no form to file and no one you need to notify. Tithing is voluntary, legally and by the church's own description.
• Paper slips: stop filling them out. Online, through payroll, or through bank bill pay: cancel the recurring gift wherever you set it up.
• The year-end meeting has been a "tithing declaration," not a "tithing settlement," since 2022. It's an interview you can decline. "No thanks, I won't be scheduling one this year" is a complete sentence.
• If someone asks why, you don't owe them a financial audit. "I've decided to give elsewhere" is plenty, and happens to be more disclosure than the church gives you.
• Temple recommends require full tithing. If keeping one matters to you for a family event, decide on purpose, on your own timeline.
• Nobody here will judge you for stopping slowly, stopping all at once, or still paying for now. Your money, your call.

Source: the church's tithing declaration announcement (2022).

Keeping receipts for taxes

• To deduct any single gift of $250 or more, you need a written acknowledgment from the charity, and it's on you to get it before you file. That rule covers tithing too.
• For past tithing, the church can give you a donation statement: look in the donations part of your church account, or ask the ward clerk. Download past years before you resign your records, in case access changes.
• New charities: save the email or letter they send each year, and keep bank or card records for smaller gifts.
• Whether you can deduct anything depends on whether you itemize and on the current year's rules. Check IRS Publication 526 or ask a tax preparer. Rules change, and this guide is not tax advice.

Source: IRS, substantiating charitable contributions.

Want to dig into church finances?

• The SEC order (2023) is the primary source. Read it before anyone's summary, including ours.
• The Washington Post, December 2019: former Ensign Peak portfolio manager David Nielsen's whistleblower complaint alleged about $100 billion in reserves. These are allegations, and the IRS has never announced an outcome.
• The Widow's Mite Report publishes yearly estimates of church wealth, income and spending from public sources. The authors are anonymous, so treat the figures as estimates.
• The courts: in January 2025 the full Ninth Circuit ruled 11 to 0 for the church in James Huntsman's suit to recover his tithing, finding no fraud. The Gaddy class action was dismissed, and the Supreme Court declined to hear it in March 2026. A consolidated four-state class action was dismissed on time limits, and the Tenth Circuit ruled for the church on appeal in August 2026. So far, the courtroom has not been where this fight is won.

Every one of these is linked in the Charity section of Resources.