Big charities have advantages when it comes to responding to sudden disasters and providing aid in foreign countries, but local and start-up charities offer donors more of a direct opportunity to see how their money is being put to work.

Charities are as diverse and wide-ranging as for-profit businesses. There are the giant, Fortune 500 equivalents – United Way, The Y, American Red Cross (see our chart rating the biggest US charities of 2015). On the other end, there are local charities and those just getting off the ground.

Bad or poorly run nonprofits can lurk in each group. Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged a network of four major cancer charities with bilking well-meaning donors out of a combined $187 million between 2008 and 2012. But even a well-meaning charity can have mismanaged finances, or just offer ineffective support of the causes with which it is aligned.

Read the article “In Choosing A Charity, When Is Bigger Better?” on csmonitor.com.