Big Charitable Organizations - do you trust them?

[catbelly]

This year I volunteered some time to help run my company's United Way campaign. We were pretty successful, and beat our goal by about 20 grand.

I feel good about that because I do feel that the United Way is one of the good guys. I also feel sort of weird, though, that there is a board that decides where a big mother chunk of the donations is going. I wonder about the board's politics and their selection criteria and their research criteria and methods and how they decide who is the most in need of the money.

It's one of the selling points of the United Way, that they do a ton of research to see where the money is needed the most - but I wonder, would I agree with their conclusions?

I know, I need to find out. Meanwhile I just donate directly to the one charity I want my money to benefit.

Anyway... my question is, how do you feel about huge charity organizations like this? Do you trust them to make the right choice with your money, do you trust them not to spend too much of it on overhead costs? If you give to charity, do you give directly or to a big organization?