Charity Navigator - A Powerful Way to See Beyond the Buzz and Evaluate Charities Objectively

Is your mailbox is flooded with charities trying to get you to make end-of-year donations? While most seem to represent worthy causes, many are inefficient  since they spend too much money on fundraising and overhead expenses. A few years ago, we discovered Charity Navigator, America's premier independent charity evaluator that works to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of the country's largest charities. Now we are able to make charitable contributions knowing that our money will go towards valuable programs rather than high salaries or excessive fund raising or administrative expenses.

Too many charities try to create buzz through marketing. However, with resources like Charity Navigator, a potential donor can see beyond the buzz and know whether a charity is worthy of a contribution. The most valuable long-term buzz that a charity can generate doesn't come through flashy fund raising efforts rather it's based on carrying out its mission as efficiently as possible over years.

Comments

[Elie]

I disagree that "with resources like Charity Navigator, a potential donor can see beyond the buzz and know whether a charity is worthy of a contribution."

Charity Navigator only looks at the % of an organization's expenses that go to "overhead" vs "programs" and Charity Navigator doesn't tell you anything about what the charity's programs actually are and how well they work. To assess a charity's effectiveness, donors have look at the people a charity is trying to help and how well the charity helps them.

No one measures a for-profit business according to its "overhead ratio" because it wouldn't make any sense. Businesses spend lots of money on "overhead" necessary to run successfully - i.e., talented people, technology infrastructure, and monitoring of their success.

[Patrick Galvin]

Elie,

Thanks for commenting on my post. You make some excellent points. I agree completely that it's important to take into consideration important factors like the quality of programs when deciding where to give money.

Since there are so many excellent non-profits and programs looking for funding, it makes the most sense to channel dollars into into well-run organizations with great programs. Charity Navigator provides a quick way for a busy person to assess where his or her dollars can make the biggest difference.

Best,
Patrick

[Elie]

Patrick,

I agree wholeheartedly with your statement that "Since there are so many excellent non-profits and programs looking for funding, it makes the most sense to channel dollars into into well-run organizations with great programs."

The problem is that Charity Navigator tells you *nothing* about how great the programs are. Charity Navigator tells you what % of money a charity *spends* on programs which is something significantly different, and I would argue largely irrelevant.

Because I don't think that looking at the "expense ratio" provides useful information, I don't agree with your statement that "Charity Navigator provides a quick way for a busy person to assess where his or her dollars can make the biggest difference." How can you use Charity Navigator to figure out which organizations are *helping the most people*?

[Joe]

Just should point out that Elie is hardly a disinterested commenter as a principal of Givewell. Givewell staff have been posting anti-Charity Navigator comments all over the internet to promote their own business, and engaging in other dishonest tactics. For example, creating two usernames in a forum, having one ask a question about a good charity web site, and another one giving the unexpected answer of Givewell!

Google for (givewell scam) for more information on these incidents.

This is pretty much the bad and the ugly of dishonest word-of-mouth advertising.