All too often, a charity claims to have spent nothing on fundraising activities on their Form 990, but current laws in fact allow them to pad their numbers in a variety of ways. How do you determine which nonprofit is most worthy of your hard-earned money?

In deciding which charities to support, it might be useful to visit the following websites, which use different systems for evaluating nonprofits.

• CharityNavigator.org: Rates 5,100 charities, using only the Form 990
• CharityWatch.org: Rates more than 500 charities
• Give.org: Better Business Bureau reports on more than 900 nonprofits
• Guidestar.org: Provides access to the Form 990s of more than 700,000 nonprofits
• MinistryWatch.com: Rates more than 500 evangelical groups