>>I know that Americans are very charitable people and give a lot. But I always wonder where these money goes. Obviously one wants their charity to go to the "cause" and not to the expense or fund raising. But I realize that one cannot work without the other. Many years ago I had a CPA who was doing my tax and once we got to talk about what else he does (beside tax returns) he said that he runs a charity. I never asked him what charity he runs although would be interesting. I fired him later though (for a different reason).
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>FWIW, Marshal and I are the co-presidents of a non-profit here (www.hebrewfreeloanphila.org). Our group is entirely volunteer-operated and runs on about $3K a year (most of it for credit reports). While we're doing good work, we could actually help a lot more people if we had an employee. Our board handles day-to-day operations quite well, but with only volunteers, we don't manage to do the long-term things that would build the organization.
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>Tamar

The way you describe your charity is how I thought most charities work; small budgets of expenses and/or small pay to the principals. Of course I was mistaken as I see that the Charitiy Navigator CEO report that states that an average salary is about $148K. I will still continue to give though.

Speaking about Jewish (or Israel-specific) charities, I have given to a few. And since most (or maybe even none) of them are listed in the Charity Navigator, I have no idea where of their expense efficiency. With the exception of one that I know that money goes to good use as I see their names on TV and in print quite often.