Giving to charity is a good thing and Americans are good at it. We as a nation gave an approximate $335.17 billion to charity in 2013, according to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. 

Unfortunately, not all charitable organizations are created equal. It can be difficult to find organizations that use the donations efficiently.

These are five organizations consistently ranked high according to charitynavigator.org

5: Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston: Spends almost 90 percent of its revenue on program expenses — percent of the charity’s budget spent on the programs and services it delivers — while only 5.4 percent is spent on administrative expenses. GCA helps children, refugees and vulnerable adults.

4: Carnegie Mellon University: $971 million of Carnegie Mellon’s $1.18 billion budget goes directly to program expenses. You can count on your donation being used efficiently.

3: Energy Outreach Colorado: 95.5 percent of Energy Outreach Colorado’s budget goes toward helping low income families heat their homes in the winter.

2: Compassion International: Compassion International helps more than 1.4 million infants, children and students in 26 countries.

1: Carnegie Institute for Science: The Carnegie Institution works to devote resources to exceptional individuals so that they can explore the most intriguing scientific questions in an atmosphere of complete freedom.