Formation | 1992 |
---|---|
Founder | Daniel Borochoff |
Type | Nonprofit corporation |
Legal status | Active |
Purpose | Charity Ratings |
Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Official language | English |
President | Laurie Styron |
Main organ | charitywatch.org |
Revenue | $605,768 |
Staff | 5 |
Website | www |
Formerly called | American Institute of Philanthropy (1992–2012) |
CharityWatch, known until 2012 as the American Institute of Philanthropy, [1] is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in Chicago, [2] created in the United States by Daniel Borochoff in 1992, [3] to provide information about charities' financial efficiency, accountability, governance, and fundraising.
CharityWatch's stated goals are "To research and evaluate the efficiency, accountability and governance of nonprofit organizations; to educate the public about the importance of wise giving; to inform the public of wasteful or unethical practices of nonprofits and provide recognition to highly effective and ethical charities; to advise CharityWatch members and conduct special investigations and evaluations of nonprofits; to expand and re-define our programs periodically to meet the continuing challenge of keeping the contributor informed." [4]
CharityWatch is a nonprofit charity watchdog and rating organization that works to uncover and report on wrongdoing in the nonprofit sector by conducting in-depth analyses of the audited financial statements, tax forms, fundraising contracts, and other reporting of nonprofit. They only review 600 charities out of 1.5 million in the US. [5] CharityWatch encourages donors to give to charities that will allocate most of their contributions to program services that benefit the people and causes that donors wish to support. CharityWatch also promotes charity accountability and transparency through its research on the rapidly changing nonprofit field [6] and through its work with investigative journalists uncovering wrongdoing within the nonprofit sector. [7] CharityWatch rates nonprofits on an A+ (best) to F (worst) scale and provides data on charity executive salaries, governance, public transparency, donor privacy, asset reserves, and other information uncovered by its analysts during their evaluation. [8] It publishes this information on its website [9] and in its biannual Charity Rating Guide & Watchdog Report. CharityWatch also publishes lists of Top-Rated Charities, [10] charities with high assets, [11] and a report of top compensation packages paid to charity executives. [12]
CharityWatch states that it is independently funded by small donations from the general public and that it receives over 95% of its support this way. [13] The majority of CharityWatch's content is free to the public, including its library of articles, giving tips, resources for donors and journalists, top charity compensation packages, and its full reports on all of its top-rated charities. Membership to access CharityWatch's full content is currently $50 per year. [14]
CharityWatch sets itself apart as a charity watchdog organization that performs individualized analyses of charities' financial reporting. It has been critical of other sources of charity information that produce automated ratings based solely or primarily on computer algorithms whose rating systems can easily be gamed by charities. [15] CharityWatch assigns low ratings to charities that have high fundraising costs and low program spending in cases where other charity raters have assigned the same charities perfect scores. [16] CharityWatch has also assigned high ratings to nonprofits with more complex accounting cases where the simplistic systems of other raters produced unfairly low scored for the same charity. [17]
CharityWatch also investigates ethical issues surrounding charity spending, including salaries and payouts, financial reporting, telemarketing and direct-mail solicitation campaigns, and governance. It shares the results of its research with the media and government agencies and works closely with these parties to educate the public about informed giving. CharityWatch founder Daniel Borochoff has testified before Congress about veterans charities, [18] [19] [20] the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, [21] and the philanthropic response to the 9/11 attacks. [22]
CharityWatch's ratings have received exposure from Congress and the media; including an appearance on the front page of The Washington Post. [23] [24] [19] [25]
CharityWatch founder, Daniel Borochoff, retired from his role as president in 2020, but remains on the charity's board of directors. Laurie Styron, a former CharityWatch analyst, was appointed executive director in his place in February 2020. [26] In 2019, CharityWatch spent $615,950, of which 83% ($510,140) was spent on programs. [27]
In 2005, prior to making all of its rating available on its website, the then-named American Institute of Philanthropy (AIP) was criticized in a study on rating nonprofits published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review for having a "gotcha" mentality and limited explanation for their ratings. The study criticized several nonprofit watchdog organizations for relying heavily on financial data that is not adequate for evaluating a nonprofit organization and may misguide the public, although the study noted that AIP "recognizes the limitations of the [IRS Form] 990 and thus develops its financial health ratios by analyzing a charity's audited financial statements" [28]
CharityWatch does not take charities' financial reporting at face value even when Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) allow charities to include in-kind goods of questionable value in their financial reporting, or allow charities to include telemarketing or direct mail costs in their reported program spending. [29] Many in the nonprofit space have taken issue with this approach. [30] [31] [32]
Compassion International is an American child sponsorship and Christian humanitarian aid organization headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that aims to positively influence the long-term development of children globally who live in poverty.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to "create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth". Adult volunteers are matched with children from age 5 to young adulthood. It was founded by Irvin Ferdinand Westheimer.
Tides Foundation is a left-leaning donor advised fund based in the United States. It was founded in San Francisco in 1976 by Drummond Pike. Tides distributes money from anonymous donors to other organizations, which are often politically progressive. An affiliated group, Tides Advocacy, is a "massive progressive incubator." Tides has received substantial funding from George Soros.
The BBB Wise Giving Alliance (WGA) is an American charity monitoring organization. Under previous names, it has been reporting on nationally soliciting charities since the 1920s. BBB's Give.org evaluates charities, at no charge, using the 20 BBB Standards for Charity Accountability to help donors verify the trustworthiness of soliciting organizations and to strengthen charity practices. Resulting reports are freely accessible to the public at Give.org. These standards were developed with the help of the charitable community.
Charity Navigator is a charity assessment organization that evaluates hundreds of thousands of charitable organizations based in the United States, operating as a free 501(c)(3) organization. It provides insights into a nonprofit's financial stability, adherence to best practices for both accountability and transparency, and results reporting. It is the largest and most-utilized evaluator of charities in the United States. It does not accept any advertising or donations from the organizations it evaluates.
Roger Chapin is an American businessman turned fundraiser living in San Diego, who calls himself a "nonprofit entrepreneur", according to Forbes magazine. He has launched more than 20 charities, and until 2009 was the president of Help Hospitalized Veterans, an American charity, whose stated purpose is, "Making time live for America's hospitalized veterans." The New York Times has labelled two of the organizations he founded, Help Hospitalized Veterans and Coalition to Salute America's Heroes as being " among a dozen military-related charities given a grade of F in a study last December by the American Institute of Philanthropy, a nonprofit watchdog group. These and other charities have collected hundreds of millions of dollars from kind-hearted Americans and squandered an unconscionable amount of it on overhead and expenses — 70 percent or 80 percent, or more."
The Clinton Foundation is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was established by former president of the United States Bill Clinton with the stated mission to "strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence." Its offices are located in New York City and Little Rock, Arkansas.
Central Asia Institute (CAI) is an international non-profit organization, co-founded by Greg Mortenson and Jean Hoerni in 1996. The organization is based in Bozeman, Montana and works to promote and support community-based education throughout Central Asia, primarily in Pakistan and Afghanistan, by building schools, supporting teacher-training programs, and funding school scholarships.
The National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) is a grassroots advocacy organization that combines the power of advocacy, education, policy, and research to unite around the goal of ending breast cancer.
ProLiteracy, also known as ProLiteracy Worldwide, is an international nonprofit organization that supports literacy programs that help adults learn to read and write. Based in Syracuse, New York, ProLiteracy has slightly less than 1,000 member programs in the U.S. and works with 21 partners in 35 developing countries.
Form 990 is a United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) form that provides the public with information about a nonprofit organization. It is also used by government agencies to prevent organizations from abusing their tax-exempt status. Some nonprofits, such as hospitals and other healthcare organizations, have more comprehensive reporting requirements.
Fistula Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization focused on treatment of obstetric fistula, funding more repair surgeries than any other organization, public or private. As of September 2022, they support hospitals and doctors in over 20 countries across Africa and Asia. The foundation is dedicated to treating obstetric fistula by covering the full cost of fistula repair surgery for poor women who would otherwise not be able to access treatment. They also provide fistula surgeon training, equipment and facility upgrades that make fistula treatment as safe as possible, post-surgery counseling and support for healed patients. The foundation has been recognized by several organizations for its transparency, effectiveness and efficiency, earning a top "A" rating from CharityWatch and a four star rating from Charity Navigator for 16 years in a row, placing it in the top 1% of charities reviewed on the site. In 2023, the foundation received a $15 million gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, announced alongside a new five-year strategic plan that will advance the foundation's In It to End It vision. The foundation has also been selected as one of 22 charities recommended by Princeton Professor Peter Singer's organization, The Life You Can Save. The organization's cost-effectiveness was also noted by GiveWell in 2019.
Mobile donating refers to donating using a mobile device. Mobile donating is primarily done through an SMS or a phone call.
Candid is an information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies. In 2016, its database provided information on 2.5 million organizations. It is the product of the February 2019 merger of GuideStar with Foundation Center.
The Clarion Project is an American nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that was founded in 2006. The organization has been involved in the production and distribution of the films Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, The Third Jihad: Radical Islam's Vision For America, Iranium, and Honor Diaries. These films have been criticized by some for allegedly falsifying information and described as anti-Muslim propaganda.
AIDS Research Alliance of America (ARAA) was a national community-based 501(c)(3) non-profit medical research institution that sought to develop a cure for HIV/AIDS, medical strategies to prevent new HIV infections and better treatments for people living with HIV/AIDS. From 1989 to 2015, ARAA conducted over 150 clinical and pre-clinical studies, ranging from alternative therapies that employed a complementary approach to HIV care to the first in-human HIV vaccine trial. AIDS Research Alliance was partly responsible for "fast-tracking" to market half of today's anti-HIV treatments.
The Disabled Veterans National Foundation (DVNF) is an American registered charity that provides service for disabled veterans. Founded in 2007, the organization is based in Lanham, Maryland.
United Breast Cancer Foundation (UBCF), founded in October 2000, is a national nonprofit organization headquartered in Huntington, New York.
Charity assessment is the process of analysis of the goodness of a non-profit organization in financial terms. Historically, charity evaluators have focused on the question of how much of contributed funds are used for the purpose(s) claimed by the charity, while more recently some evaluators have placed an emphasis on the cost effectiveness of charities.
Circle of Friends for American Veterans (COFAV), also known as "American Homeless Veterans," was a 501(c)(3) organization that supported veterans and related causes. It was founded in 1993 in Falls Church, Virginia by Brian Arthur Hampton. The charity has faced criticism for allocating only about 10% of its income to charitable causes, with the remainder being paid to fundraisers.
Formerly known as the American Institute of Philanthropy, it has just adopted a snazzier name, CharityWatch