The American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) is a charity watchdog and information service. At its charitywatch.org website, it publishes an ongoing list of its top-rated charities (those earning ratings of B+ or better). It also publishes a charity rating guide three times a year, where it provides its ratings for 500+ larger, national charities. The guide is available to members who donate $40 or more, and is quite helpful to those who want to dig deeper into the operations of charities they are considering supporting.
While some disagree with its approach, AIP takes a hard look at the information provided by charities in their IRS Form 990s and audited financial statements. It focuses on percent of spending on programs, cost to raise $100, asset reserve levels, charity compensation and other indicators. It adjusts information provided in charity reports to reflect its independent look at reported spending allocations.
I wish AIP had the resources to cover more charities — almost 500,000 public charities file Form 990 for 990-EZ, and it covers about 550 of them.
AIP’s charitywatch.org site. AIP’s membership page.