How can you find out what charities make good use of their donation money?

Yes most charities are scams and actors and by the time they make the commercial they could feed every staring child in the world. They take in enough money there should never be a child that is hungry. Evangelel minister olsteen takes in a million a week at the service and 3 or 4 million by mail. To date none of it goes for charity. Oprey Winfrey matches any donation and shows on her show she takes it to the poor and buys the clothes and gives it to them. It is called the Angel network and it was said to be about the only one who actually did any good with the money.

charity to the needy the best, i hope.

The Secretary of State usually keeps track of what percentage goes to "Overhead" and what goes directly to the cause.

Look it up in the better business bureau. They have a whole section for charities. This is a good non-partisan source of info. http://bbb.com/

The Better Business Bureau is a good place to start. Here's their charity arm: http://www.give.org/ Look for charities that give the greatest percentage of every dollar donated to help the causes they purport to help. Those with higher overhead and organizational costs (salaries, etc.) are often not the best places to give.