Kristi King, wtop.com

WASHINGTON — Give money to charity and you might not want your donation paying for fancy lunches and walnut board room tables for administrators.

Charities do have bills to pay, though. So, how much should go to the cause versus the overhead?

America’s largest charity evaluator Charity Navigator believes great charities spend at least 75 percent of their budgets on programs and services related to their mission with 25 percent going to overhead and fundraising costs.

Charity Navigator has a list of “Highest and Lowest-Rated Charities” by category for various causes.

Some local organizations are on the list. Among the highest is the Fisher House Foundation in Rockville, the Arlington Free Clinic in Arlington and the Armed Services YMCA in Alexandria.

Local organizations among the lowest ranked include the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund in Arlington and the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington.

Charity Navigator has evaluations for more than 5,500 of the largest charities registered in the U.S.

Follow “>WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2011 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)