Answer: Few organizations provide ratings of charities, and their coverage is very limited (especially when you consider that there are more than 1 million charities operating in the U.S.). The two most prominent are:
- CharityNavigator.org describes itself as “America’s Largest Charity Evaluator” and provides “star” ratings (0 to 4 stars) on roughly 5,400 larger charities. Roughly one-third of covered charities receive a 4-star (exceptional) rating, roughly one-third receive a 3-star (good) rating, and the remainder receive 0, 1 or 2 stars (exceptionally poor, poor and needs improvement, respectively).
- The American Institute of Philanthropy, through its charitywatch.org website, publishes a list of its top rated charities. Paid subscribers can obtain the full list of the 500 or so charities is has rated. 35% to 40% of covered charities receive A (includes A+ and A-) ratings.
Other organizations provide charity data. See our Charity Data & Ratings list in the right hand column.
It’s clear, from the published ratings, that some charities do solid work with the dollars entrusted to them; and others do not – just compare a 4-star charity to a 0-star charity at CharityNavigator.org.
What it boils down to is that
- donors need to distinguish strong from weak charities and,
- for the most part, donors need to be their own charity rating agencies.
To help you be your own charity rating agency, see the www.SeriousGivers.org website.