The biggest charitable giver in the United States is not Bill Gates or the Walton family or even Mark Zuckerberg.

It’s you.

Last year, individual Americans gave 72% of all charitable gifts. They gave $282 billion to churches, arts groups, programs to help the poor and a myriad of other causes, according to the Giving Institute, a Chicago-based philanthropic organization.

But how much good did those dollars really do? Do we even know? And what if more of that money was channeled to charities that had the evidence to back up their work?

Here are some guidelines from GiveWell and other organizations on how to evaluate a charitable group:

  • Be proactive. Take the time to kick the tires and understand what the charity does.
  • Ask organizations to make the case for why their programs work. Ask for evidence to prove they are having an impact.
  • Try to determine if the organization can handle more funding productively.
  • Check back regularly to see if the organization met its commitments.
  • Vet the charity on Charity Navigator, an online charity watchdog, and Guidestar, an online clearinghouse for information and data about nonprofits.

Read the full article by David D. Haynes about evaluating charity donations from USA TODAY