The Best Charities for Your Money in Every State

Trying to find the best charities to donate to? Business.org compared and compiled a list of charitable organizations for every state.

By Trevor Wheelwright

Nov 18, 2019

2 min read

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As a team of small-business advocates, we recognize your business supports and impacts local communities. We know you want your donations to go to causes you believe in that use your money to its full potential.

Not sure which organization to support?

Our advice for choosing the right charity: pick a cause you want to support, look for local organizations, and learn how each organization spends its donations. Whether it’s you or your business, you want your money to go to the right places, and not all charitable organizations treat your hard-earned money the same.

No matter the size of the charity or how much it receives in donations, it pays for marketing, salaries, and other administrative costs. A charity might support a great cause but do a lousy job of keeping their administrative expenses low. Some end up being outright scams.

Our methodology

To ensure we found the organizations that use their money wisely, we analyzed data collected by Charity Navigator on organizations in every state. We compared financial information, transparency policies, and public reviews. We also looked at financial, accountability, transparency scores, and administrative-to-program cost ratios. We then assigned our top ratings to the best charities that do the most with their donations across the nation.

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Interesting findings

The top organizations averaged a rate of 94.9% for contributions that go directly back into the programs.
The types of causes championed by the most effective charities vary widely, but we found many animal rights, food distribution, social service, and environmental protection organizations.
Among the charities we examined, the lowest percentage of contributions being used for the program was 63.3%. That means a solid portion of donations were going to business expenses.
The least efficient charities—those that spend significant portions on fundraising and administrative costs—were also the least transparent and often had warning notices from watch groups like Charity Navigator.

What is the difference between a private foundation and a public charity?

A private foundation relies on either an individual or a business. A private source of investment generates future income and distributes it according to that source’s priorities. A public charity relies on community funding. Charities request donations periodically to generate steady and reliable revenue.

The best charity to donate to in each state

Location	Charitable organization	Category	Transparency score	Program expense score	Business.org score
Alabama	United Ability	Health	100.00	94.0%	92.17
Alaska	Food Bank of Alaska	Food distribution	96.0	94.7%	78.85
Arizona	Waste Not	Recycling services	100.00	96.4%	95.47
Arkansas	Humane Society of Pulaski County	Animals	100.00	88.7%	84.89
California	The Foodbank of Southern California	Food distribution	100.00	99.7%	100.00
Colorado	Weld Food Bank	Food distribution	100.00	98.1%	97.80
Connecticut	Foodshare	Food distribution	100.00	94.6%	92.99
DC	Beyond Pesticides	Environment	100.00	95.3%	93.96
Delaware	Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County	Community development	100.00	86.5%	81.87
Florida	Feeding South Florida	Food distribution	100.00	98.2%	97.94
Georgia	PATH Foundation	Environment	100.00	96.2%	95.19
Hawaii	Maui Food Bank	Food distribution	100.00	96.2%	95.19
Idaho	Idaho Foodbank	Food distribution	100.00	94.8%	93.27
Illinois	Midwest Food Bank	Food distribution	100.00	99.2%	99.31
Indiana	Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County	Community development	100.00	93.8%	91.90
Iowa	River Bend Foodbank	Food distribution	100.00	97.1%	96.43
Kansas	Kansas Food Bank	Food distribution	100.00	97.4%	96.84
Kentucky	Dare to Care Food Bank	Food distribution	100.00	94.9%	93.41
Louisiana	Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana	Food distribution	100.00	95.9%	94.78
Maine	Good Shepherd Food Bank of Maine	Food distribution	96.00	96.0%	80.63
Maryland	Metavivor	Health / breast cancer	100.00	94.6%	92.99
Massachusetts	All Hands and Hearts Smart Response	Natural disaster response	100.00	94.3%	92.58
Michigan	Feeding America West Michigan Food Bank	Food distribution	100.00	98.0%	97.66
Minnesota	North Country Food Bank, Inc.	Food distribution	100.00	96.0%	94.90
Mississippi	American Family Association	Human and civil rights	97.00	91.6%	78.16
Missouri	H.E.R.O.E.S. Care	Military family support	100.00	98.3%	98.08
Montana	Montana Food Bank Network	Food distribution	96.00	94.7%	78.85
Nebraska	CEDARS	Child services	100.00	89.1%	85.44
Nevada	Nevada Humane Society	Animals	100.00	90.7%	87.64
New Hampshire	The Granite YMCA	Youth program	100.00	93.4%	91.35
New Jersey	Table to Table	Food distribution	100.00	98.2%	97.94
New Mexico	Museum of New Mexico Foundation	Arts, culture, humanities	100.00	93.3%	91.21
New York	Delivering Good	Goods distribution	100.00	99.3%	99.45
North Carolina	Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina	Food distribution	100.00	97.5%	96.98
North Dakota	United Way of Cass-Clay	Community development	96.00	87.6%	69.09
Ohio	Second Harvest Foodbank of the Mahoning Valley	Food distribution	100.00	97.1%	96.43
Oklahoma	Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma	Food distribution	100.00	96.6%	95.74
Oregon	Food for Lane County	Food distribution	100.00	93.4%	91.35
Pennsylvania	Central Pennsylvania Food Bank	Food distribution	100.00	96.8%	96.02
Rhode Island	INSIGHT	Human services /	100.00	81.4%	74.86
South Carolina	Greenville Free Medical Clinic	Health	100.00	96.3%	95.33
South Dakota	Feeding South Dakota	Food distribution	100.00	95.7%	94.51
Tennessee	The Generosity Trust	Community development	100.00	98.0%	97.66
Texas	North Texas Community Foundation	Community development	100.00	96.3%	95.33
Utah	Utah Food Bank	Food distribution	100.00	95.7%	94.51
Vermont	Vermont Foodbank	Food distribution	100.00	91.5%	88.74
Virginia	The Conservation Fund	Environment	100.00	98.0%	97.66
Washington	Nourish Pierce County	Food distribution	100.00	96.9%	96.15
West Virginia	Facing Hunger Foodbank	Food distribution	100.00	95.3%	93.96
Wisconsin	The River Food Pantry	Food distribution	100.00	96.7%	95.88
Wyoming	Grand Teton Music Festival	Arts, culture, humanities	100.00	91.4%	88.60