INDIANAPOLIS (Indiana News Service): There are more than one-and-a-half million charitable organizations in the U.S., so it can be tough to figure out which ones to choose for your end-of-year donations.

Attorney Beverly Salhanick has this advice: first, familiarize yourself with the group’s mission and find out exactly how it tackles the problem. Next look online for information from other sources about the charity, to see what others are saying about it. Then, she said it’s helpful to check out the sites that grade charities.

“Then you want to look at ‘charitynavigator.org‘ or at ‘give.org,'” she said. “Both of those rate the charities and act as watchdogs, to make sure that they’re doing what they say they’re going to do.”

These sites also will tell you what percentage of donation money actually goes toward the mission of the organization, versus how much is used for administration.

Salhanick added that the Better Business Bureau is another source of information, to see if the organization has any complaints lodged against it. And it’s smart to check whether the group is actually considered a charity.

“You can go to the Internal Revenue Service website and see if it’s a 501(c)(3) organization, or you can check at ‘guidestar.org,'” she added.

The average Hoosier who itemizes deductions reported giving about $4,100 to charity in one recent year, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics.