Tampa Bay Times, The Center for Investigative Reporting launch Charity Checker

When it comes to choosing a charity, donors first should do their homework and turn to Charity Checker for help.

Charity Checker is an online tool that captures what the nation's top charity watchdogs have to say about more than 11,000 charities. It was built by the Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.), in partnership with The Center for Investigative Reporting, and is powered by GuideStar, Charity Navigator, BBB Wise Giving Alliance and GreatNonprofits.

"We've created an easy-to-use website that can help inform those with the generous instincts to give to charity," said Times Editor Neil Brown. "Charity Checker is unique in that it collects important rating information from a variety of good sources and pulls it together in one single place."

Added Mark Katches, the editorial director for The Center for Investigative Reporting: "The idea of this tool is to make things easier for consumers to begin their research into charities. There is no other resource out there quite like it."

The tool aggregates the ratings and reviews already offered by several of the nation's most prominent watchdog organizations. With a simple search, readers can see their results.

With tampabay.com/charitychecker, readers also can:

• Search specific charities.
• Search by category.
• Write their own review to share with GreatNonprofits.

Other newspapers can embed part of Charity Checker into their websites by using the Charity Checker widget, which is available at www.tampabay.com/charitychecker/widget.