Last week I discussed high-yielding stocks that should have relatively safe dividends. Of course, to have confidence in the dividend you need confidence in the business fundamentals of a company. One starting point is companies that are raising their dividends in this ferocious environment.

There are countless research pieces on the attractiveness of companies that are consistent dividend growers, but long-term records do not interest me at the moment, since those records were built mostly during good times. I am seeking companies whose managements are so confident of their outlook they will commit more capital to the dividend even knowing how bad the recession is becoming.

I fired up handy Factset and screened down to only companies that paid a dividend in the last three months. Clearly, any company paying now is well aware of the economic stress they face.

I boiled the list down to companies that paid a higher dividend than the last one. Perhaps these managements are insane or simply clueless, but your research should uncover that. This list of 185 "dividend champs" is good for finding names whose fundamentals and dividend can hold up under the worst of conditions -- good genes to possess.

Dividend Raisers Factset