THE GIVER’S GUIDE; Making Your Charity Dollars Count <i> By Phillip English Mackey (Catbird Press: $14.95)</i>

We are an extremely generous nation, according to Phillip Mackey. Last year we donated $114 billion to charity, and he thinks we should treat charity-giving like any other consumer expenditure. Evaluate the charity to be sure that it is doing what its name (or solicitation) advertises, and be sure that the money you give is going to the program you wish to support, and not to the effort of raising money and paying staff.

The first third of this worthwhile book tells the reader to whom he should give (with a section on evaluating charities), how to give (the methodology of leaving money to a charity in your will, as well as taking advantage of corporations’ matching funds), and what to give--some may choose property, some may donate time.

Perhaps the most useful material is on the methodology of fund-raising. Most of us have received phone calls from people claiming to represent disabled veterans or law-enforcement support groups. Mackey has simple advice about telephone solicitations: Don’t give. Instead, ask the person to mail you information about the charity (which should include how much of the money it raises goes to the program).

The last two-thirds of the book is a list of 300-plus national charities, organized by category (arts, crime prevention, environment, health, etc.). Each listing contains the charity’s purpose, amount expended, what percentage went to its program and what went to fund-raising, and the top staff salary (are the purported do-gooders feeding too deeply at the trough?).

Most meet the standards of the National Charity Information Bureau (NCIB). Among those that don’t, the most famous is Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which sends out multipurpose mailings that both raise funds and spread the anti-drinking message. The NCIB computes MADD’s program expenditures at a dismal 25.1%, with 61.5% going to fund-raising--but it isn’t as bad as it looks, given that the fund-raising mail carries information as well. Besides, the MADD top staff salary is a mere $60,000--so if there’s a charity convention, the MADD person should let the top Audubon staffer ($140,000 per) or the United Way’s head honcho ($230,000) pick up the bar tab.