When you work for a nonprofit, one of the first questions you get asked by family members and strangers alike is, “How can I know that my donation is being used efficiently and effectively?”
Good answers to this question are sometimes hard to source and deliver in an eloquent response. At Charity Navigator, we have spent almost two decades providing unbiased evaluations of nonprofits based on financial health, accountability, and transparency. The primary source of this data has been the IRS Form 990. While this is important information to giving, there can and should be more that helps determine whether an organization will use the donation effectively.
We would love to think that philanthropists of all sizes want to spend the time and energy diving into the finances, governance practices, and performance data of each nonprofit they support; however, the majority of the 10 million visits to our site annually end with a quick glance at a star rating. With this in mind, we have started adopting a nibble, bite, meal mentality, where donors looking for a basic trust indicator would have multiple points of entry, depending on their appetite. But to make that nibble as comprehensive as possible, there needs to be more and better data available at scale.
"We have started adopting a nibble, bite, meal mentality, where donors looking for a basic trust indicator would have multiple points of entry, depending on their appetite."
100&Change offers a comprehensive evaluation, where each submission goes through multiple levels of review, including an evaluation by an external panel of judges referred to as the Wise Head Panel, and a technical review by specialists whose expertise was matched to the project. One of the members of the Wise Head Panel was Charity Navigator’s President and CEO Michael Thatcher.
It was refreshing to see the qualitative and quantitative data, digital storytelling, and passion that went into each of the Top 100 submissions, which are featured on the Bold Solutions Network. While the finalists are still being decided, donors and grantors are provided with a list of organizations with truly innovative approaches to the world’s most critical social problems. When reviewing the list, I was delighted to discover that 21 are highly-rated nonprofits on Charity Navigator. To help raise awareness and funds for these organizations, we published a 100&Change Hot Topic on Charity Navigator that encourages visitors to view the video submissions and support each nonprofit through our Giving Basket.