How to be smart about charitable giving over the holidays

Charitable donations have reached new records for two years running, according to a Giving USA report published in June 2016, but with more than one million charities across America, knowing which cause to donate to can get tricky.
Many charities get up to half of all the donations they receive throughout the year in the five weeks between “Giving Tuesday” (also known as the Tuesday after Thanksgiving) and New Year’s Eve. One reason for the crush: the Dec. 31 IRS deadline for d