There’s a new tool out there to help with evaluating charities: greatnonprofits.org
Here’s a bit of what it says about itself:
GreatNonprofits is a tool that allows you to find, review, and talk about great — and perhaps not yet great — nonprofits. You already know that reviews by other people who have gone to a restaurant or tried out a doctor are the best way to find out about the quality of those services. If you have direct experience with a nonprofit, GreatNonprofits makes it easier for you to share your knowledge so that other people can discover the great nonprofits that are out there.
We don’t review nonprofits ourselves. Much like Amazon book reviews or consumer reviews site (Epinions, Zagats, TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc.), the reviews and ratings are posted by people who have been touched by a nonprofit and want to share their story about it. You’ll see on our site stories of people who have volunteered for or donated to nonprofits and stories of people who have received services.
For now, I’ll take strong positive ratings with a cup of salt — given the likelihood of overly-positive ratings from those served (if they want to keep the nonprofit going). On the other hand, if a nonprofit gets bad ratings from many constituents, that probably tells me to stay away.
Take a look. I’d love to hear what you think.