An online tool to size up charities.(Up front: news / trends / advice)

The holidays bring a flood of appeals from charities and nonprofit organizations. This year, it's easier than ever to size up those charities before you write a check.

The Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance recently launched a new online charity-reporting system that allows you to check out more than 500 national charities and nonprofit groups at no charge.

The site, at www.give.org, is the result of the 2001 merger of two well-known and experienced charity watchdogs, the National Charities Information Bureau, based in New York City, and the Philanthropic Advisory Service of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, based in Arlington, Va. The Wise Giving Alliance obtains its information from the charities themselves, through Internal Revenue Service forms, audited financial statements, and annual reports.

Give.org reports. To obtain a report, you click on the organization's name on the "National Charity Reports Index" page. The report provides the charity's address, other names under which it solicits donations, financial data, and its level of compliance with 20 voluntary standards. Those standards include governance, finances and fundraising practices, donor privacy and how well a charity addresses its stated mission. The evaluation also indicates ...