I sometimes repeat myself, and occasionally I’ll say something I’ve said before, too. But even if you’ve read or heard about charity scams before, it never hurts to have a quick reminder. It’s already November, and charitable giving comes up a lot this time of year.

I’ll keep it short: decide in advance which charitable organizations you wish to support instead of waiting for others to approach you. If you’re looking for a new cause, research before you donate.

When you already know whom you’re giving to, it makes it much easier to turn down those who call or email out of the blue because you won’t feel pressured. You can explain to callers that you’ve already done your giving for the year (and you can just ignore emails—I would hesitate to trust an out-of-the-blue request via email).

If you’re checking out a new charity, the go-to resource is CharityNavigator.org. This website tells you how much a charity spends on marketing and how much money makes it into their programs, gives executive salaries and other financial information, as well as an overall rating of the organization. No mainstream charity manages to have 0% operating expenses, but if you see one that devotes 99.5% of its revenue to salaries and marketing, with only 0.5% going toward programs, you know it’s one to avoid.