How we choose

Every charity we can recommend is on the Charity Commission's register for England and Wales. Our copy holds 185,114 charities that are currently registered, and we last refreshed it from the register in June 2026. We refresh it every few months.

From each charity's entry we use its name, its own description of what it does, where it's based and its latest income. We use the register under the Open Government Licence.

We don't keep a shortlist of partners. A charity with two volunteers has the same chance of appearing as one with a national advertising budget.

Only to find charities for you. We never ask for your name or any contact details, and you don't need an account.

When you describe something in your own words, an AI model reads it to understand what you meant. If you tell us that we can keep what you typed, we store an anonymised copy. If you've given us a postcode, we'll cut it down to the first half.

We also record which screens people see and which options they pick, without knowing who they are. That shows us which questions help and which ones get in the way.

We take what you told us you care about and search every charity's name and description of its work for it. A charity has to talk about something you care about to go any further.

If you gave us a place, we look near you first. When there aren't enough good matches close by, we widen the search a step at a time, out to your county and then the whole of England and Wales. A charity a few miles further away that fits you well will always beat one on your doorstep that doesn't.

We keep the 25 that fit best, and make sure they aren't all doing the same thing. If two charities fit equally well, the smaller one goes first, because it's harder to find on your own. If you tell us you'd rather support small or large charities, that counts for a little more.

An AI model reads each charity's description of its work and scores it out of 100 on five things. Here's how much each one counts:

40%

What they focus on. How closely the charity's work matches what you care about.

25%

What they do. Whether it does the kind of work you'd like to support, like support groups, research or practical help.

15%

The difference they make. Whether it's working towards the change you'd like to see.

10%

Who it helps. Whether it helps the people you told us about, like children, carers or older people.

10%

Where they work. Whether it works near you, if you told us a place.

To make your list, a charity has to score at least 70 out of 100 for what it focuses on, and at least 70 overall. We show you up to five. Each one comes with the reasons we picked it, taken from what the charity says about itself, and we check those reasons belong to the right charity before you see them.

If nothing scores well enough, we'll tell you, instead of showing you a weak match. Sometimes we'll show you a few starting points from the search instead, and we'll say so.

We go on what each charity says about its own work on the register. We don't yet check its accounts, judge how well it spends money, or visit it.

So a match means the charity's work fits what you told us. It isn't a rating of how good the charity is. Before you give, it's worth a look at the charity's own website and its page on the register.

whotogiveto is a passion project for now, and I've paid for all of it myself. In future I may offer charities subscriptions to extra tools to help cover the costs.

But no charity will ever be able to pay for a place on your list, and I'll never take a commission or ask you for a hidden tip, like some giving platforms do. When you choose a charity, you give on its own website.

Matt, founder