(MONEY Magazine) – Tis the season to help others -- and with the homeless crisis, Hurricane Hugo and the California earthquake fresh in their minds, Americans are expected to contribute a record $22.5 billion to charities in November and December, 25% of their total 1989 donations of $90 billion. ''Giving is the best natural high there is,'' says Caro Schneithorst, a community volunteer worker in St. Louis who used an inheritance to set up a trust that supports a dozen or more charities. Most Americans would agree, and there are more nonprofit charities than ever before -- roughly 447,500 -- eager to help them achieve that high. Many of these groups are probably bombarding your home with heart-gripping letters, phone calls and door-to-door appeals. Should you respond by digging into your pocket -- or by slamming the door? To help you decide, we list the 100 biggest charities in America on pages 142 and 143, ranked according to how much of the money they raise actually goes toward their charitable purposes. The list was prepared with the permission of the NonProfit Times, a monthly trade publication (P.O. Box 408, Hopewell, N.J. 08525). Below we give the top 10 charities in two major categories -- social service and health and medical groups -- that spend the highest percentage of your money on good works, as well as the 10 charities of all types that divert the smallest proportion of their income to administration and fund raising. Of course, your most difficult task is figuring out how to respond to appeals from organizations that are too small to make our list. As with the big groups, however, you can make a sensible decision if you follow the 10 commandments for intelligent giving that are listed below and described more fully in this article. Most charities are honest and make good use of the money they collect. Although monkey business by self-styled philanthropies is heavily publicized, less than 1% of the groups that call themselves charities are outright scams, according to Brian O'Connell, president of the Independent Sector, a Washington, D.C. coalition of 650 nonprofit and corporate groups. So rather than being stolen, your cash is more commonly lost to inefficiency. For example, some sloppy and bloated charities expend more than half of their money on fees to professional fund raisers, staff salaries and other management costs. A recent study in Connecticut showed that of nearly $9 million raised for charity by 191 telephone campaigns, only 26 cents of each dollar, on average, reached the intended groups. The remaining 74 cents was kept by the fund raisers. Enthusiasm for charitable giving has dampened a bit lately, as the annual growth rate of contributions has fallen from 14.5% in 1986 to 6.7% in 1988. One reason is tax reform, which made charitable deductions less valuable. Another seems to be donor fatigue, brought on by an overwhelming number of high-pressure charitable solicitations. Nearly 70% of the 300 MONEY subscribers interviewed recently by the Gallup Organization in our new monthly Americans and Their Money poll complained that they are badgered by charities; 39% of that group said they get 10 or more appeals in an average month. In some cities, anxious charitable solicitors now send couriers to pick up your check before you have time to research the groups or have second thoughts about giving to them. Callers don't always take rejection kindly. MONEY's Atlanta correspondent recently tried to turn away a telephone solicitor who claimed to represent a local firefighters' group. Seconds later, the fund raiser called back. ''You're a bitch,'' the man snarled. Still another reason for the slowing of the growth rate of giving is concern about the recent spread of charity frauds. The Federal Trade Commission received 110 complaints and inquiries regarding charities in 1988; there were only 49 in the four previous years combined. The pity is that charitable abuses deliver a double wallop, hurting both the donors and the needy. One of the most unforgivable examples: the League of St. Anthony of Padua, a Cleveland organization purporting to consist of Catholic friars engaged in public service. The group collected more than $270,000 through 1.2 million mail solicitations nationwide over 13 months before postal inspectors shut it down last year. The league actually consisted of a relatively unknown Cleveland rock singer and a bunch of his friends, who used most of the money to hire a production company to make a video. The singer's next gig: a three- year engagement in prison. Recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court have actually made scams easier by giving charities unlimited freedom to spend their money on fund raising. As a result, they can now squander 100 cents of every dollar they raise from you, and you may never know that instead of good works, they're doing no works. At the same time, however, state regulators have beefed up enforcement efforts and begun public information campaigns to warn citizens about rip-offs. For example, Colorado instituted criminal penalties for fraudulent soliciting, and Connecticut and Minnesota recently released reports to inform their residents about the gross and net revenues of professionally conducted telephone fund- raising campaigns in their states. News about charity abuses as well as the avalanche of solicitations may tempt you to keep your wallet snapped shut. Instead, you might follow the example of Robert and Jeanne Segal, a developer and psychologist who also head the Santa Monica, Calif. Homeless Task Force. The Segals give careful consideration before committing time or money to charities. Says Jeanne: ''Now before we contribute, we ask questions to determine if these are the best people and organizations to receive our money.'' In other words, caveat donator. To help you do your charity detective work, MONEY drew up these 10 commandments of giving after scores of interviews with officials of law- enforcement and charity watchdog agencies as well as fund raisers, donors and charity representatives:

1 Don't send money or give out your credit-card number to telephone solicitors for charities that are unknown to you. Consider the cautionary example of Neighborhood Outreach of Seattle, which sold $200,000 worth of garbage bags by phone, claiming that the money would fund a drug-abuse-education program. In reality, the organizers gave four talks to civic groups and allegedly kept the money. This fall, they signed a consent agreement with the state attorney general's office that prevents them from operating fraudulent charities in the future. ''Never, under any circumstances, promise money over the phone,'' warns Hershel Elkins, head of the consumer law section in the California attorney general's office. ''The solicitors who are calling often pocket 70% or more of the money raised.'' If you want to know more about a charity, ask the telephone solicitor to send you information about its finances, organization and programs. Any reputable charity will be glad to mail you an annual report that includes detailed financial statements, a list of the governing board and a statement of purpose. If after reading the material you decide the charity is on the up- and-up, you can then mail in your contribution.

2 Check with the two big private watchdog agencies to see whether the charity spends its money efficiently. About 20% of the groups analyzed by the National Charities Information Bureau (NCIB) and one-third of those evaluated by the Philanthropic Advisory Service (PAS) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus flunk the watchdogs' tests. Both the NCIB and the PAS periodically compile lists of charities that either meet their suggested guidelines or do not. The NCIB (19 Union Square West, New York, N.Y. 10003) publishes its list three times a year in a free pamphlet, the Wise Giving Guide. The PAS (Council of Better Business Bureaus, Dept. 023, Washington, D.C. 20042) publishes its list in a bimonthly booklet, Give but Give Wisely. You should obtain both; send $1 and a stamped, self-addressed business-size envelope to the PAS and mail only a written request to the NCIB. Both groups also issue free detailed reports on individual charities. If you write and ask, the NCIB will supply reports on as many as three charities at a time. The PAS supplies single reports on national organizations; local BBB offices handle inquiries from the public about not- for-profit groups in their areas. The criteria used by the two agencies are similar in spirit, though they differ slightly in detail. The NCIB wants to see at least 60% of annual expenses go to the programs for which the charity was established. The PAS prefers that at least 50% of total income is spent on a charity's stated programs, with fund-raising costs held to less than 35% of contributions. The table on pages 142 and 143 breaks down the expenses of the 100 biggest charities and reports whether they meet the NCIB and PAS standards. Among other things, the list shows the percentage of revenue each organization spends on its charitable programs -- one of the most reliable indicators of efficiency. On the whole, the big charities spend a respectable 60% to 90% of their income on programs. In some cases, the percentages are low because money collected last year was earmarked for programs for this year and beyond. (The United Way of America does not appear on the list because its national organization maintains a hands-off approach concerning how its 2,300 local offices raise and spend their money. But according to a 1988 survey of all of the local United Ways by the group's national office, 89.5% of income, on average, went to programs.) Numbers don't tell the whole story, however. If you are still interested in giving to a charity that seems to spend a low percentage of its income on programs or a lot on fund raising, call or write the philanthropy to find out why. There may be a legitimate reason. For example, an environmental charity might use donations to buy land for preservation purposes, an outlay that is not lumped into program expenses. Similarly, a medical group may be accumulating contributions to build a new hospital rather than spending on current programs. In addition, if a charity represents a cause that has limited appeal, it may have to spend a relatively high percentage of income on fund raising. For example, The Christian Appalachian Project, which works to improve economic conditions in 13 states, spent 22.7% of its 1988 income on fund raising nationwide. Another limitation of the watchdog ratings is that they evaluate only charities that generate the most inquiries from the public. This helps explain why 36 of the 100 groups in our table have no ratings from the October guides of either the NCIB or the PAS. In some instances, such as the Boys Clubs of America, the watchdogs rate a charity's national office but not its local affiliates.

3 Consult local public service agencies for information about charities in your area. Many of the 180 branches of the Better Business Bureau keep files on legitimate charities as well as those that have been the subject of state disciplinary actions. Large cities often have community foundations that offer help in evaluating charities. Says Dennis Dooley, a spokesman for the Cleveland Foundation, a $543 million endowment that disburses funds to local nonprofit agencies: ''Our funding of a group is a stamp of approval; people know we don't throw money away.''

4 Be skeptical of charity fund raisers such as sweepstakes, children's parties, circuses, variety shows and Las Vegas nights. These programs can wind up making their fund raisers rich without helping their causes much. Last May, investigators in Prince Georges County, Md., a Washington, D.C. suburb, shut down the casino nights sponsored by the Cottage City Volunteer Fire Company. The fire department brought in professional operators who took a $200,000 cut of the bets over seven months, leaving the firefighters with only $100,000. Lately, the FTC and state regulators have been getting a lot of inquiries and complaints about sweepstakes giveaway promotions. Many of the sweepstakes were created by Watson & Hughey, a direct-mail concern in Alexandria, Va. that in May signed a consent agreement with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, preventing it from leading people to believe that they won large cash prizes, when most of them were due checks for about 10 cents. More than a dozen state attorneys general have filed actions against Watson & Hughey or are investigating it.

5 Study the names of the officers and governing board of a charity. Ideally, the board should include academics, scientists or community leaders from the appropriate fields. Be alert to potential conflicts of interest or nepotism. While family-run charities can be perfectly reputable, they can also practice questionable business methods. For example, Mark Stolze is president of the two-year-old National Children's Cancer Society in Troy, Ill.; his wife Carol is a vice president, secretary and treasurer; and his father Alvin also serves as a vice president. In a lawsuit filed last June by the Illinois attorney general, the Stolzes were accused of paying ''excessive prices for publication costs, goods and services provided by businesses they themselves owned and operated.'' A lawyer for the Stolzes says: ''That charge is categorically denied. It's not true.''

6 When you get a suspicious-sounding charitable solicitation, write a letter with details of the pitch to your local Better Business Bureau and the appropriate enforcement agency. If you ask the BBB, it will tell you if other complaints have been filed against the charity. The office of your state attorney general or, in some cases, the secretary of state, will also provide its own complaint record and say whether the agency has taken any disciplinary actions against the group. Don't be surprised, however, if a regulator fails to act promptly, because such offices are notoriously shorthanded. ''Out of a staff of 18, I have only one person looking full time at charitable law violations,'' says Robert Hooks, director of enforcement in the Georgia Secretary of State's office.

7 Don't be fooled by lookalikes. A number of new charities have names and even addresses remarkably like those of older ones. The Cancer Fund of America, a Watson & Hughey client, has a mailing address on Atlanta's Peachtree Road, where the American Cancer Society is located. Some contributors have also confused the Walker Cancer Research Institute with the Walker Laboratory, which until recently was part of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. When they learned that there is no connection, ''a few donors were shocked and angry,'' says Mortimer Chute, Sloan-Kettering's vice president for development. ''Others were apologetic that they had sent the other group money intended for us.'' If you have any doubts about the authenticity of a charity, call or write to the organization and ask how long it has been around, who is on its board, and what programs the charity has supported lately.

8 Don't submit to emotional blackmail. Look on excessive pressure or emotional appeals that distort an organization's activities and the plight of its beneficiaries as warning signs. Solicitations with pictures of tortured animals may be suspect; so are ones with guilt-inducing spiels. Robert Nelson, 69, a retired economics professor in McLean, Va., recalls being put off by a solicitation from a group claiming to fight kidney disease. ''Their letter accused me, the reader, of dire neglect,'' he says angrily. ''I should send a check right now or roast in hell. When I called them for more information, it turned out only about 13% of donations went to research and the rest went to fund raising.''

9 Don't be taken in by name droppers. Letters sent in October to an estimated 30,000 people nationwide by the National Children's Cancer Society, dominated by the Stolze family, noted that the outfit has received donations from Digital Equipment and 14 other companies. You might assume that these corporations had investigated or even endorsed the charity. In fact, the firms that gave merely matched the contributions of their staffers who donated to the organization.

10 Seek out the causes you believe in. Most people passively let charities find them. Instead, seek out those that truly support causes that concern you -- the approach taken, for example, by Manny Smith, an economist at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C. ''I select a number of specific causes,'' he says. ''For instance, I might donate to a group supporting Soviet Jewry, rather than to all the causes included in the broader United Jewish Appeal, because my grandparents were Soviet emigres and I have a strong concern for religious freedom.'' If you have a particular charity in mind but don't know how to get in touch with it, check the table on pages 142 and 143 or call the NCIB or the PAS. While such digging may take time, the payoff lies in knowing your dollars are being spent on what you believe in most strongly.

BOX: THE 10 MOST COST-EFFECTIVE SOCIAL SERVICE CHARITIES

1 Jewish Guild for the Blind 2 Jewish Child Care Associationof New York 3 Metropolitan N.Y. Coordinating Council on Jewish Poverty 4 Catholic Relief Services 5 United Jewish Appeal 6 Legal Aid Society 7 National Council on the Aging 8 CARE 9 Hadassah 10 International Rescue Committee

THE 10 MOST COST-EFFECTIVE HEALTH AND MEDICAL CHARITIES

1 AmeriCares Foundation 2 New York Blood Center 3 MAP International 4 Project HOPE 5 Interchurch Medical Assistance 6 United Cerebral Palsy Associations 7 American Diabetes Association 8 City of Hope 9 National Easter Seal Society 10 Juvenile Diabetes Foundation

THE 10 CHARITIES THAT WATCH THEIR PENNIES BEST

1 Metropolitan N.Y. Coordinating Council on Jewish Poverty 2 Interchurch Medical Assistance 3 Shriners Hospitals for Crippled Children 4 AmeriCares Foundation 5 Lutheran World Relief 6 MAP International 7 Legal Aid Society 8 National Council on the Aging 9 United Jewish Appeal 10 Catholic Relief Services

10 COMMANDMENTS OF CONTRIBUTING

1 Never send money to phone solicitors from charities that are unknown to you. 2 Consult national watchdogs. 3 Ask local agencies about charities based near you. 4 Avoid events that benefit fund raisers, not charities. 5 Be sure a charity's officials include specialists in its field. 6 Report suspicious solicitations. 7 Don't be fooled by lookalikes. 8 Resist emotional blackmail. 9 Be wary of name droppers. 10 Seek out causes you believe in.

BOX: Americans and Their Money The results from a recent poll of MONEY subscribers by the Gallup Organization reflect how people like you size up charities. OF THE 94% WHO PLAN TO GIVE MONEY THIS YEAR, 38% WILL DONATE $500 OR MORE, BUT 13% WILL GIVE LESS THAN $100 TO CHARITY. ^ TALK ABOUT DONOR FATIGUE: 69% OF THOSE POLLED GRIPED ABOUT BEING SOLICITED TOO OFTEN BY CHARITIES. MORE THAN ONE IN 10 SAY THEY SEND IN WHATEVER AMOUNT A CHARITY REQUESTS. NEARLY 70% OF THE SUBSCRIBERS QUESTIONED HAVE TRIED TO EVALUATE THE WORTHINESS OF A CHARITY.

CHART: NOT AVAILABLE CREDIT: NO CREDIT CAPTION: 100 BIGGEST CHARITIES This table -- dubbed ''the NonProfit Times 100'' by the newsletter that helped to assemble it -- ranks the country's biggest charities according to the percentage of income they spend on programs. Note that we also report whether the charities are approved by two watchdog agencies, the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the National Charities Information Bureau. Figures exceed 100% when charities shell out more for expenses than they take in, incurring deficits. Ex pense statistics were unavailable for the 14 charities listed last.