Charitably, a Good Time to Be Wary : Giving: Experts advise getting the facts before opening your heart and wallet. Some groups spend little of what they raise on the cause they supposedly champion.

Sleigh rides, festive parties and mistletoe. Those are some of the merrier images of the holiday season.

But the nation’s 1 million charitable groups and churches are hoping thoughts will also turn to the sick, poor and downtrodden in the weeks ahead.

“This is the season when people’s heartstrings are being pulled,” said Bennett M. Weiner, director of the philanthropic advisory service of the Council of Better Business Bureaus in Arlington, Va.

“There are dozens and dozens . . . sometimes hundreds . . . of groups with similar causes that will be competing for the donated dollar,” Weiner said. “People will be getting more solicitations in the mail and on the telephone.”

In fact, philanthropic experts say most charities get at least half their fund-raising dollars during the last two months of the year, when people are usually in a gift-giving mood and eager to obtain last-minute tax deductions.

Individual contributions historically make up the bulk of all donations, which have more than doubled in the last 10 years. Last year alone, individuals accounted for 82% of the $124.31 billion in total charitable contributions, or nearly $102 billion, said the American Assn. of Fund-Raising Counsel in New York, a trade group of fund-raising consultants.

By contrast, foundations accounted for nearly 7% in 1992 donations, or $8.33 billion; bequests, around 6.5%, or $8.15 billion; and corporations, nearly 5%, or $6 billion, the AAFC said.

A Gallup poll conducted in July found the mid-range of individual giving to charities is about $890 annually, not counting gifts to local churches or religious groups.

For most people, picking the right charity from all the emotional letters, dinner-hour phone calls and numerous appeals outside the home can be confusing, even risky at times.

To be sure, about half of the 1,000 adults questioned in the Gallup poll over the summer expressed concern about how charities spent their money.

Around two-thirds said they weren’t getting enough information from the groups and three-quarters called for more regulation to ensure charities fulfilled their promises to donors.

“There are so many sound-alikes and look-alikes out there,” said Daniel Langan, a spokesman for the National Charities Information Bureau, a New York-based watchdog group.

For children’s groups alone, you’ll find the Child Protection Program, ChildHelp U.S.A., Childreach, Children Inc., Children International, Children’s Aid International, Children’s Defense Fund, and the Christian Children’s Fund, to name a few.

Then there’s the American Institute for Cancer Research, the Cancer Research Institute and the National Foundation for Cancer Research--not to be confused with the Cancer Fund of America, which was accused in recent lawsuits of running deceptive fund-raising sweepstakes.

On the local front, there are numerous police and firefighter organizations soliciting money. But some of them may not even include representatives from local departments, and a few may not be tax-exempt.

Equally confusing are those coin-collection boxes found at dry cleaners, restaurants and other small businesses.

“You can’t assume all the money from those boxes is going to the charity,” said the BBB’s Weiner.

In some cases, independent operators will agree to turn over a small percentage of the take or a monthly set fee--sometimes as little as $1.50 per box, Weiner said--in exchange for the use of the charity’s name.

“You want to take time to see specifically how your money will be spent (but) . . . usually an appeal is the only information you’ll get from charities,” he said.

But sometimes, Weiner said, the boxes are maintained by the charity itself, in which case all the proceeds would go to the cause. He suggested checking with the charity to see.

Experts suggest individuals pick a charitable group in much the same way they would decide on a company in which to invest.

After aligning with a particular cause or philosophical belief, it’s crucial to regularly check a group’s financial statements to determine how much of its total income is spent on programs, versus fund-raising expenses and overhead, including salaries of top officers.

Most charitable groups, with the noted exception of churches, are required to file financial documents with the Internal Revenue Service and with many states to maintain their tax-exempt status.

Watchdog groups like the Better Business Bureau and the National Charities Information Bureau also keep an eye on how charities are run, setting strict guidelines for solicitations and regularly publishing a list of groups that meet their standards.

Among their requirements: The BBB says 50% of a charity’s total income should be spent on its programs.

The NCIB says 60% of every charity dollar spent should go to programs.

The vast majority of national charities do meet such standards, both groups report. But there also have been those newsworthy exceptions.

United Way of America, for instance, came under fire last year amid charges of mismanagement and lavish spending.

The chief executive officer was forced to resign after it was revealed that his annual salary and benefits totaled $435,000, far above the $50,000 to $150,000 average annual income for CEOs of charities.

Part of the problem, expert say, is that there’s little government regulation.

“People assume there’s one government agency out there to regulate charities. There isn’t,” said Weiner.

“Most individuals are not going to know about the finances of a charity unless they ask . . . and most people don’t.”