For many, the holiday season is a time of giving, when people think a bit more about those with less, or those affected by war or other calamities. But those problems and the philanthropic urge to do something about them are far greater than something for Dickens' Scrooge to do on Christmas morning after a night of ghostly encounters.

Globally, private philanthropy is big and growing. Nonprofit foundation Giving Tuesday alone is now a worldwide phenomenon that raised more than three billion dollars last month. The impulse to give is global.

But how to know whether your charity is impactful? Whether the money you aim for refugees or cancer research or policy advocacy hits its mark? Much of the non-profit world is opaque on the best of days.

Cue Charity Navigator, a US NGO whose purpose is to bring transparency to philanthropy. Our guest today on New Thinking For A New World is Michael Michael Thatcher, President and CEO of Charity Navigator, which regularly examines and rates 200,000 American nonprofits, aiming to provide objective criteria to guide giving. Today, the US; tomorrow, the world.

What do you think?