Check before you donate this holiday season. Is your go-to charity on the good list?

A list of “Scrooges and Angels” was released Wednesday by the South Carolina Secretary of State’s Office naming charitable organizations that spend either the majority of their budget or a very small portion on charitable services.

One of the Angels this year is Hilton Head Island-based Volunteers In Medicine, according to the release from Secretary of State Mark Hammond’s Office.

Volunteers in Medicine works to provide health care to those who live or work on Hilton Head. The organization was recognized in 2009 by the Secretary of State’s Office, and typically organizations only make the Angels list once, to give everyone a turn who deserves it. This year, Hammond started a “new tradition” of including a previous Angel organization as an Honorary Angel that has kept up the good work and devoted a high percentage of its spending on the charitable services.

Angels

This year’s Angels, all of which are based in South Carolina, and the percentage of their expenditures that go toward their services are:

▪  Christmas Is For Kids, Gaffney — 99.7 percent

▪  Meals on Wheels of Horry County Inc., Surfside Beach — 97.7 percent

▪  Help 4 Kids Florence, Florence — 97.4 percent

▪  Project Hope Foundation Inc., Greenville — 95.4 percent

▪  The Volunteers in Medicine Clinic, Hilton Head Island (Honorary Angel) — 93.4 percent

▪  Chapin We Care Center, Chapin — 93.4 percent

▪  Golden Corner Food Pantry, Seneca — 91.3 percent

▪  JumpStart South Carolina, Spartanburg — 91.0 percent

▪  Samaritan’s Purse, Boone — 87.8 percent

▪  Operation Sight, Mount Pleasant — 87.5 percent

▪  Friends of the Animal Shelter, Inc., Aiken — 83.9 percent

To make the list, Angels have to devote at least 80 percent of expenditures on charitable programs, have been in existence for at least three years, make good use of volunteers, receiving minimal grant funding and be in compliance with the South Carolina Solicitation of Charitable Funds Act.

Scrooges

Scrooges are charitable organizations and professional fundraisers that have not spent a high percentage on charitable programs or failed to gift a significant portion of their funds to the charities it supports.

The list includes eight charities and two professional fundraisers (denoted in the list with *) this year:

▪  Melanoma International Foundation, Glenmoore, Pa. — 33.9 percent

▪  Honor Bound Foundation Inc., Darien, Conn. — 29.7 percent

▪  Project Cure Inc., Bradenton, Fla. — 24.6 percent

▪  Childhood Leukemia Foundation Inc., Brick, N.J. — 19.6 percent

▪  American Association of State Troopers Inc., Tallahassee, Fla. — 15.5 percent

▪  American Veterans Foundation, Sarasota, Fla. — 8.3 percent

▪  Firefighters Support Foundation Inc., Greenfield, Mass. — 6.8 percent

▪  *Truck, Trailer & Equipment Sales Inc., Summerville, S.C. — 6.1 percent

▪  United Cancer Support Foundation, Knoxville, Tenn. — 3.7 percent

▪  *Hal. E. Erwin, Bingo Promoter doing business as Paradise Amusements, LLC, Chapin — 3.2 percent

“The Secretary of State’s Office is responsible for enforcing the Solicitation of Charitable Funds Act and has recognized Scrooges and Angels for the past 22 years,” Hammond said. “As the holidays approach, people are reminded to open their hearts and help those in need. Recognizing Scrooges and Angels not only promotes accountability and transparency to charitable donors but also acknowledges and extends gratitude to the charities that uplift our communities. I encourage all South Carolinians to continue to give generously but to always research charities and professional fundraisers before they give.”

For more information on charitable organizations, visit www.sos.sc.gov or call the Secretary of State’s Office Division of Public Charities at 1-888-CHARITI.

This story was originally published November 15, 2017 at 6:55 PM with the headline "Check before you donate this holiday season. Is your go-to charity on the good list?."