Category Archives: Charity Ratings

An Interview Approach to Charity Rating

In my last post on the Charting Impact project, which seeks to use nonprofits’ answers to five questions as a way to help donors decide who to support, I wrote: “I’ve come to the conclusion that with these types of questions, it is how the nonprofit answers them, not the specifics of the answers that […]

GuideStar’s New Strategy

This is a guest post by Bob Ottenhoff, CEO of GuideStar. GuideStar recently announced they have acquired innovative startups Social Actions and Philanthropedia. We asked Bob to share the strategic rationale behind these deals. By Bob Ottenhoff Over the years, GuideStar has taken on the monumental task of providing transparency into the nonprofit sector, with […]

Tax Protection for Social Results, Not Social Missions

Lucy Bernholz had another though provoking post last week in which she suggested there should be some sort of “consumer protection” oversight of nonprofits and social businesses. “From the donors’ perspective we need something more than metrics and annual reports that cements the organization’s commitment to social good. Nonprofits have typically relied on (been given […]

Charity Navigator 2.0

(Disclaimer: I’m a member of the advisory board to Charity Navigator on their effort to overhaul their rating system) Charity Navigator is the 800lb gorilla in the charity rating space. The website gets over 4 million annual visitors. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, the site is mentioned by the mainstream press multiple times a day. […]