Charity Navigator

The Charity Navigator is an institution, a charitable non-profit organizations based in the United States reviewed and gives them Spendensiegel if they meet certain criteria. The part also internationally operating charity organizations must be tax-exempt and their finances for each disclose annually who requests it.

Assessment

To be evaluated by Charity Navigator, which partly also internationally operating charity organizations must be tax-exempt and their finances disclose within a " Form 990 " mentioned document annually for anyone who wishes to do so.

Not rated by the Charity Navigator are:

• Organizations (eg the "Disabled American Veterans " or the " National Rifle Association "), which may use a substantial portion of their revenues on government lobbying.
• Private foundations, as the nature of financial disclosure by public organizations is different ( Form 990 -PF ), which hardly allows for a comparison.
• Organization (eg, religious ) that are exempt from the issuance of the Form 990 document.

The main field of the evaluation of the Charity Navigator is the financial soundness of an NPO, so that potential donors can better judge how much of their donations actually flows into the auxiliary projects. In addition, for example, is specified, how to deal with personal data.

Financial analysis

The financial analysis is due to specific issues. First to seven criteria are examined and, by means of points ( from 0 to 10, 0 = lowest score, 10 = best ), evaluated ( see the following). As a result, the ratings for the organizational efficiency and organizational capacity to be created ( the next higher, more general level ) by the points of the individual criteria are added together and converted into stars. Finally, as the result will be an overall financial soundness of the organization in the form of stars: 0 star is the worst result; 4 stars for the best.

Organizational efficiency

The organizational efficiency is made up of four sub- criteria:

Project costs

Charitable organizations support projects. The intent of the donor is to ensure that as much of their donations flowing into these projects. For this purpose, the amount that flows into the projects is compared with the sum, which is the organization as a whole is available. An organization uses less than a third of the total for their projects, this will be assessed by Charity Navigator with 0 points.

Administrative costs

On average applies: If more than 60 percent of the total budget for administration spent, these are 0; up to 15 percent yield 10 points. However, the Charity Navigator differentiates even between the type of organization: for example, museums receive full credit when they spend 17.5 percent for administration, while hunger aids only up 3 percent administrative overhead.

Cost of fundraising

Organizations that collect donations, spend money to get money. For 10 points less than 10 percent should be used for this; campaigns are connected via radio and television are 15 percent for the full credit allowed. If more than 25 % (or 35%), there are 0.

Efficiency of fundraising

Efficient organizations use less money to get more. Charity Navigator measure this based on the costs incurred to acquire $ 1. On average up to $ 0.10 = 10 points; over $ 1 = 0. Here is differentiated between the type of organization and the advertising media used. Makes a charitable organization debts, so also decreases their evaluation. The average number of years is calculated and set in relation to the project costs, that is, the relative share of annual losses will be calculated and deducted from the project costs. After that, the project costs will be assessed.

Organizational capacity

Charity Navigator also takes into account the growth of a charitable organization for years and rated it positively. With growth are two aspects here meant: the increase of donations and the expansion of the projects. These two aspects constitute two of the three individual criteria for organizational capacity. The growth rate is calculated using the following formula: [( Yn/Y0 ) (1 / n)] -1; n = time interval of the monitored period, Y0 = first year of the relevant period, Yn = first year of the relevant period. Result is a percentage; than 6.3 = 10 points, below 3.7 = 0 in increasing of donations; in the expansion of projects: 10% = 10 points, 0 % = 0 points. The third criterion is the formation of reserves. It is rated on how long an organization can maintain their programs if all revenue break away. The points are again dependent on the type of organization. On average, submit a year for 10 points.