08 May Top Verified Charities in Virginia to Support in 2026

Virginia saw over $8 billion in charitable giving last year. But here’s what most people don’t know: nearly 40% of donors never check if their chosen charity is actually legitimate. That’s a problem when you’ve got organisations spending 80 cents of every dollar on administrative costs while others are putting 95 cents directly into programmes. 

The charities below have something basic in common, and it is accountability that you can actually verify. Some focus on feeding people, and others work on mental health, necessary items, education, and healthcare access. What they share is transparency, and what matters is that they all have clean records and spend donations on actual work instead of fancy offices and executives. 

Here are the top five children’s charities in Virginia that you can support this year. 

RMHC Norfolk & CHKD

The hardest part for a family isn’t always the diagnosis when a child is seriously ill. It’s the logistics. Where do you sleep when the hospital is far away from your home? How do you afford bills, meals, and stays? Who feeds you when you haven’t left the building in three days? 

The Ronald McDonald House at 404 Colley Avenue in downtown Norfolk exists to answer those questions. It’s a short walk from the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, close enough that a parent can be back at their child’s bedside in minutes. 

More than 1,000 families come through every year, most of them in situations that don’t resolve in a weekend. 

Who is it for? 

Any family with a child under 21 in treatment at a local hospital can stay here. The range is wide: a single night after emergency surgery, or four months during a bone marrow transplant. 

Whatever the situation, the door at this children’s charity in Virginia is always open. Families get a private room steps from CHKD. There are washers and dryers, donated food, and meals cooked by volunteers. Instead of an hour-long round trip or $150 a night at a nearby hotel, parents can sleep down the street, do a load of laundry, and eat a real meal. If your child is at CHKD but you’re not staying overnight, you can still use the House during the day.

Good360

Every year, billions of dollars worth of perfectly good products get destroyed or thrown away. Not because no one needs them. But because getting them from a warehouse to the right hand or children’s charities in Virginia is complicated, most companies aren’t set up to do it. 

The Alexandria, Virginia-based nonprofit, Good360, has spent over 40 years solving a logistics problem that sounds simple but isn’t. 

What they actually do

Good360 is not a donation charity in Virginia that collects donations and writes checks. It moves stuff, partnering with over 400 corporate donors to source surplus goods, then routing them through a network of vetted nonprofits that distribute them directly to people in need.   

In 2025 alone, Good360 sourced and distributed more than $4 billion in urgently needed goods. 

ChildSavers

A child who has been through something hard doesn’t always cry about it. Sometimes they throw chairs. Sometimes they go completely quiet. Sometimes they’re the kid who can’t stop moving, can’t focus, and can’t let anyone get close, and nobody in the room knows why. Without the right help, that child gets a reputation instead of a diagnosis. A label instead of a therapist.

ChildSavers has been that therapist for Richmond’s kids since 1924. They work with children ages 2 to 18, from toddlers processing something they don’t have words for yet to teenagers carrying things they’ve never told anyone.

How they help

Therapy is available in-clinic, by video, and directly inside 22 schools across Central Virginia, which matters because most kids in crisis can’t wait for a parent to schedule an appointment, arrange a ride, and take time off work to get them there. 

When things get acute, an Immediate Response line connects families to a clinician the same day. Child Development Services works a step earlier, training daycare workers and preschool teachers who spend more waking hours with young children than most parents do. These are the people who notice first when something is off. ChildSavers makes sure they know what to do with that.

Children First Charity

In 1932, three young children in Washington walked up to the steps of a local asylum on Christmas morning and left their own gifts behind. They were kids; they just didn’t want other kids to go without. That gesture became a family tradition. 

The tradition became a party. The party grew to 1,500 people filling a hotel ballroom in 1954, each person carrying a gift for a child who wouldn’t otherwise have one on Christmas morning. The family eventually couldn’t manage it alone, so it paused. And in 1994, it came back. 

How they help

When a child is in the hospital over the holidays, the whole family is there with them. Parents aren’t home wrapping presents. Siblings are sitting in waiting rooms. Children First shows up at those families with gifts and a reminder that people outside those walls are there for them. In 2021 alone, the organisation raised over $50,000 to bring gifts directly to patients and their families.

The Arc, Virginia

When a parent finds out their child has a developmental disability, the first feeling is often not grief; it’s confusion. What does this mean for school? For adulthood? For housing, employment, finances, and independence? The systems are complicated, underfunded, and hard to navigate alone. 

The Arc of Virginia has spent over 70 years helping families make sense of all of it. Based in Richmond and operating through 21 local chapters across the Commonwealth, these children’s charities in Virginia serve people with developmental disabilities at every stage of life (from early childhood through ageing), and they do it through two distinct roles: direct support to families and policy advocacy at the state level. 

How they help

On the family side, they help people understand what services exist, what they’re entitled to, and how to access them. On the policy side, they show up in Richmond year after year. Alongside thousands of advocates, they recently won a nearly 25-year fight to fully fund Priority One of the DD Waiver waitlist. 

More than 15,000 Virginians with developmental disabilities are still on waiting lists for community-based support. The Arc is the organisation pushing to shrink that number.

Conclusion

The five organisations above aren’t the flashiest names in the room. Ronald McDonald House Norfolk doesn’t run Super Bowl ads. ChildSavers isn’t a household name. Children First Charity runs entirely on volunteers. But that’s part of the point: the money goes to the work, not the marketing.

What these children’s charities in Virginia share is straightforward: a real problem, a specific approach, and enough transparency that you can look them up yourself before you give. That’s the baseline. It shouldn’t be rare, but it is.

If you’ve been meaning to give and just haven’t found the right place, or you’ve given before and wondered where the money actually went, these are organisations worth your attention. 

Pick one that matches what you care about. Look them up. Then decide.

That’s all accountability asks of you.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. How do I verify a charity before donating?

Check Charity Navigator or CharityWatch. Both publish ratings, financial data, and IRS Form 990 filings for registered nonprofits so you can see exactly where the money goes before you give.

2. Are donations to these organisations tax-deductible?

Yes. All five are registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits, meaning your donation is tax-deductible. Save your confirmation email or receipt when filing taxes.

3. Can I donate something other than money?

Some of them, yes. Good360 is built around corporate product donations. Children First Charity accepts gifts for hospitalised children. Ronald McDonald House accepts food, supplies, and volunteer time. Check each organisation’s website for what they currently need.

4. How much of my donation actually reaches people in need?

RMHC Norfolk holds a 96% score on Charity Navigator. For any charity, if the program expense ratio isn’t published openly, that’s worth noticing.

5. Can I volunteer instead of donating?

For some, yes. Ronald McDonald House uses volunteers to cook meals and support families. The Arc of Virginia needs community turnout for advocacy events in Richmond.