How to Find Charity Reviews
There are a lot of nonprofits looking for donations--in fact, there are over 1,000,000 nonprofits in the United States. No wonder it's overwhelming to find the right charity to give hard earned money or volunteer time to. Fortunately, the Internet has resources to help you feel more certain about your choices. You can read "consumer reviews"--comments from clients, volunteers and other stakeholders; learn about a charity's effectiveness through expert opinion; or learn more about its financial status from Internal Revenue Service documents, at online sites. Plus, state government offices may have the information you need.
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Instructions
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How to Find Charity Reviews
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Read firsthand "consumer reviews" before you give or volunteer at GreatNonprofits.org. This site is sort of like a "Zagat's Guide" for nonprofits. Reviews and ratings are posted by people who have had direct experience with a nonprofit, including clients who receive services, volunteers, donors and board members. You can find reviews by charity name, or by keywords, such as "arts," "cancer" and poverty."
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Find a charity's Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 990--an informational tax return--at GuideStar.org, an organization that provides financial and administrative information about nonprofits for donors. Free registration is required to access data. The Form 990s posted at this site are images taken directly from the IRS's database, and GuideStar provides information on how to interpret the data. GreatNonprofits.org reviews are also syndicated to GuideStar.
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Check the BBB's (Better Business Bureau) Wise Giving Alliance website for charities that met or have not yet met all of its "Standards for Charity Accountability." The 20 standards address how an organization is governed, how it spends its money, the truthfulness of its representations and its willingness to disclose information to the public.
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Search at MyPhilanthropedia.org for expert opinion on nonprofits. This site gathers the uncompensated opinions of foundation professionals, academics, nonprofit employees, researchers, journalists, politicians and others on which nonprofits in four categories--education, climate change, Bay Area homelessness and microfinance--and ranks them accordingly. In their reviews, the experts can also say where the charity needs improvement.
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Call or check the website of your state charitable office, which is usually a part of the state attorney general's office or the department of state. Its website may provide a list of charities that are not legitimate or not registered to raise funds in your state. If you have questions about donating to a particular charity, this office may be able to provide guidance by phone.
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Tips & Warnings
*A nonprofit that has been recently established may not yet have been reviewed, may not yet have a formal IRS tax-exempt status and may have lots of its funding going to administrative, rather than program, expenses. These things are normal in a nonprofit start-up and should not necessarily rule out a donation.
