10 Super-Sized Charities 
This is Charity Navigator's Top 10 list containing some heavy hitters in the nonprofit sector. Each of these charities had total expenses greater than $500 million in its most recent fiscal year. Their combined total expenses are approximately $10 billion. I offer this list because we believe it is enlightening for donors to realize just how large many of America's charities are. A donation to most any of these pays for the enormous overhead with which they run. I personally look elsewhere.
| Rank | Charity | Total Expenses | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | American Red Cross | $5,480,992,916 | |
| 2 | AmeriCares | $1,000,774,781 | |
| 3 | World Vision | $946,370,000 | |
| 4 | Food For The Poor | $854,428,196 | |
| 5 | American Cancer Society | $836,582,000 | |
| 6 | Feed the Children | $828,567,221 | |
| 7 | Volunteers of America | $804,113,834 | |
| 8 | The Nature Conservancy | $671,580,417 | |
| 9 | CARE | $645,137,000 | |
| 10 | America's Second Harvest | $639,567,751 |
Administrative overhead and fund-raising activities are a charity's biggest problem, in most cases. Some spend huge amounts in fund-raising. Other, more established charities spend massive amounts on overhead they have created or inherited. A few exceed 75% in overhead!
There are excellent charities out there. Go to Charity Navigator and check them out. Check the ones out that you've been supporting, too. You will quickly learn whether they are doing right, or not.
Bobby Vassallo