Charity Navigator

Events, as I define them, are gatherings with a charitable element to them. And events are often used as effective tools to raise funds (and awareness) for non-profit organizations. But not all events or organizations are as efficient as others, in this regard*.

So, if you get invited to a lot of events and you find your budget for them under pressure these days, you want to be more discerning about what events you attend and which non-profits you support. To those ends, Charity Navigator is a great tool for you.

I realize that nobody is going to surf the thousands of non-profits listed and evaluated them to see where they want to send all that money they don't know what to do with. More likely, you'll be solicited for a donation from a friend, associate or organization and you'll use Charity Navigator to help you to make that decision. Or, you are somebody who is a serious supporter of an organization and you would like to keep tabs on how your donations are being spent. The savvy advocate or philanthropist will find the site quite useful, I think.

Their methodology is explained in detail HERE. Simplified, they rate charities on a Four Star Scale. Four Star Charities have the lowest overhead to programming ratios. Meaning, for example, a very, very highly rated charity will use $80 out of $100 for programs (what they DO like feed orphans, protect dolphins or build wells in poor nations) and operate their organization (administrative and fundraising efforts) on the other $20 dollars. A "inefficient" charity may spend 80% of their funds operating the organization and apply only 20% of their budget to programming. That would be something like a One Star Organization.

Whatever cause you support, I'm sure there is a "continuum of efficiency" among the organizations that bring efforts to bare for that cause. Clearly, not all organizations are created (or managed) equally so you may want to use the information you find about your favorite non-profit organization in any number of ways. Your findings might help you to sing its praises, motivate you to encourage a better effort out of its directors. Or you might discover that the charity you've been supporting for years had been grossly underperforming for years and begin to look for a different organization to support.

Like Wikipedia, Charity Navigator is supported by our donations. So, if you use it, you should donate HERE

* For attendees, events (even charity events) are still only one way to support an organization. And, there is much more value to an event than its efficiency as a fundraiser. Think about the fun you have, the people you meet, the things you learn and what you share with others. These are real reasons to attend events, even if it not the most efficient means by which to support an organization or a cause.