At this time of year, your inbox and mailbox get a lot of requests from charities and nonprofit organizations asking for funds.

You may see bell ringers outside your grocery store, get requests from your local public school, or see opportunities to give on social media.

This time of year is critical for nonprofit organizations, because it’s when they raise most of the money that will help sustain them and their mission throughout the next year.

Before you open your heart — and your wallet — there are a few things you should know!

Research the Organization

Unfortunately, there are some organizations that don’t exactly do what they say they do. They may inflate their accomplishments, or use most of the money for salaries and marketing, with very little actually going to the cause. Or, it may simply be a scam. Before you make any sort of a donation, do some research!

The website Charity Navigator is a good place to start. Charity Navigator evaluates nonprofit organizations on how effective they are and provides a lot of other useful information like financial statements and reviews.

There are a few other ways you can tell if a charity is a scam or not. If someone is trying to scam you, they may:

• Ask you to share personal information before you can make a donation.
• Pressure you into making a donation now.
• Give vague responses when asked how the money will be used.
• Only accept donations via a prepaid debit card, gift card or cash.

Don’t fall for those pressure tricks! Scammers are getting trickier every year — and sometimes it’s hard to identify scams! Protect yourself by watching the replay of our recent webinar, "Beware of Scams - Holiday Edition."

Donate Your Time or Expertise

If you don’t feel like you have a lot of money to give, you can give something else that’s valuable: Your time. With just a small donation of your time to a local nonprofit, shelter or charitable organization, you can help alleviate someone’s suffering. You can volunteer at a soup kitchen, help bring cheer to people in the hospital, or offer to babysit for a parent going through hard times. If you’re handy, there are a lot of ways to help through nonprofits that assist homeowners with household maintenance. Animal shelters may need people to walk dogs, too!

If you aren’t sure where to start, head over to volunteermatch.org, a website that matches people with good opportunities to help in their community.

Keep Track for Taxes!

If you do give financially or in another way, you may get tax benefits. Most people remember to deduct financial donations they’ve made to charities, but you may not realize that you can also write off expenses you incur while doing the good deeds. For example, the cost of ingredients you purchase for a meal you regularly cook for a soup kitchen can be deducted, as can the cost of gas for any miles you drove for charity. Make sure you request receipts and keep records from your donations so you can take advantage of tax breaks from the good things you do!