There are only a few days left in 2014, and I know people like to make charity donations in the final week of the year. I’m making several donations this week. As a Marine Corps veteran, I’m partial to donations to military/veteran groups, and I imagine there are others out there that may like to do the same. However, I must advise caution when making donations to military/veteran charities. Sadly, there are scam artists out there exploiting our kindness to the brave people that serve or have served in our armed forces (a Google search revealed prosecutions for such scam groups).

Thanks to two excellent websites, I have researched military/veterans charities for about a decade to make sure my donations are going to those that really need it – Charity Navigator & Charity Watch. Before making a donation to ANY charity, I recommend investigating that charity group on these two…