How much money?

How much of the donations really go to those in need, when giving to organizations or social charities. Has anyone looked up actual average percentages?

What are some other ideas to make a global difference. Please don't be vague, give us something we can use.
Global hunger, AID research, Clean Water For All.

In Yahoo Answers, if you have two or more questions, you should ask two or more questions.

You won't get good answers to your second question because people see the first line of your first question, then may try to answer that. People, who might be able to give a great answer to the second question, are highly unlikely to ever see it.

I answered your first question at the question asking for where to find a list of GOOD charities
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

That person had a slightly different interest than you, and some interests in common, so I answered there with different focus, including some of my interests that I think more people ought to be aware of.

Specifically for your question

Some charities efficiently get most of the donated funds to the needy recipients. Some of them pocket most of the money for administrative expenses. Find out where any given charity is on that spectrum.
http://www.charitynavigator.org/...
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/charities/cha...

Charities are supposed to file income tax returns, then that info goes into a data base that people can search
http://www.guidestar.org/

Research is important & there are good people doing it & money should be donated to the various places collecting money for research to find solutions to specific problems.

However, there is another side to the coin, which is more political than charitable ... there are people whose behavior patterns are rapidly making many problems worse, of which the solution is partly educational, and partly mandates through international treaty organizations when nations refuse to mend their ways.

If these problems cannot be solved, then it not much matter how good the cures from research, the world will get worse off.

e.g. There are people so blinded by homophobia and other hatreds that they are in denial how AIDS spreads, and this leads to nations either in an AIDS epidemic or on the brink of one.

e.g. There are people, for a variety of reasons, doing things to the environment where they live, that means their own nations are into much worse shape than ever before ... a Dust Bowl in Africa.

e.g. There are companies making great profits in a way that makes global warming & climate change disaster much more likely. They will retire rich and comfortable, then a few years after their death, the world will go to hell. They actively release bogus information to undermine the science about the dangers, because they do not want the public to be informed on the subject, because that might undermine their profits.

Most organizations keep their administrative costs at or below 25% of all expenditures. You can get an annual report from any non-profit organization breaking down their expenditures to see exactly what they spent their money on.

You can't forget that the administration, including fundraising, accounting, and management expenses, is essential to any organization helping the needy. These expenses both get resources out to the people in need and bring in more funds to continue these programs.

all those not for profits have to give is 20 percent. That is why people high up at the Maryland Food Bank drive Mecerades. and higher up people in religion drive Lexus.

The only NFP organization that my husband and I donate to is The Salvation Army. It is the only one that the director doesn't make an enormous amount of money and almost 95% of everything they collect goes back into helping people. And the person that said they keep their administrative costs to 25% hasn't really done enough research. The United Way is one of the worst at wasting money. And why are we trying to take care of GLOBAL hunger, there are thousands of starving people right here in the US, besides most of the food that is sent to third world countries sits on the docks and rots before it ever gets to the starving people. The governments of third world countries have complete control over everything that comes in and goes out of those countries. As far as AIDS research is concerned, there are so many other diseases that need to be addressed and AIDS is very easily controlled if people had a few more morals, try not sleeping with every person that you come into contact with before you know something about them, if your gay ALWAYS practice safe sex with a committed partner, clean water is a little tougher because we are not hard enough on big businesses that pollute our water sources. This could go on forever....