Vision
As Charity Navigator moves forward, we will continue to expand the number of charities we rate. While we already provide ratings on over 5,000 charities, far more than anyone else has ever done, we want to do more. We envision a day when every organization in America that solicits funding from the American public is evaluated by Charity Navigator.
Additionally, we plan to expand the way in which we evaluate charities. Today, we look only at the financial aspects of an organization. This is partly due to our insistence on only reviewing quantifiable and reliable data, and partly due to the fact that the 990 we utilize is the only piece of publicly-accessible information available. We do however believe that our efficiency measures are strongly correlated with efficacy. Furthermore, we trust our users to make decisions about a charity's program and purposes, but recognize that the area where they need assistance is in analysis of these charities' labyrinthine financial statements. With time, industry acceptance, and demand from the giving public, we do hope to also turn our magnifying glass on the output side of a charity. We will be able to determine not only how much of a charity's funding goes to program expenses, but how effective the charity is at maximizing what they do. Today, we can tell you how much of Teach For America's budget goes to placing teachers in classrooms. Tomorrow, we hope to tell you how effective those teachers have been.
But even that will not be enough. We hope to revolutionize the entire charitable marketplace. We think our country's largest non-profit organizations should be treated with the same level of accountability as publicly-traded for-profit companies. Although there will always be cases of abuse in the non-profit sector, just as there will always be Enrons in the for-profit sector, by bringing greater sophistication to our system for regulating charities, we can certainly ensure that the giving public gains confidence in charities.
Although it is our view that the vast majority of charities pursue their missions in fiscally responsible ways, we believe the current system for monitoring the activity of charities is insufficient. Improvements must be made in government regulation of charities, in the work of charity evaluators, and in the Form 990. In the increasingly competitive world of fundraising, the individual giver is dependent on the help of oversight agencies for accessing and understanding this information. We want to change the way the donor receives their information, so the mystery is removed. We want to find ways that allow public information about charities to become truly public. Right now, the information dispersal is 'public' only in theory. In practice, it is simply too confusing for the average donor.
We know that some in the charitable sector will resist some of our goals. It is easier to maintain the status quo. But how many for-profit companies would voluntarily supply the public with all of the information they submit to the SEC on a quarterly basis, if they were not required by law to do so? And yet the instantaneous availability of that information plays a central role in maintaining public confidence in our financial markets. If we want to ensure that the public maintains a similar level of confidence in our non-profit sector, we must enable the public to hold sophisticated, multi-million dollar organizations accountable. The charitable sector has simply become too large and complex to continue to cling to anachronistic accounting standards of a day long-gone. Charity Navigator is working, every day, to promote a philanthropic marketplace of the 21st century, where donors have the access to the data flow they need to make truly informed giving decisions.
We think that charities are the key to this country's future. Our government is getting smaller, our society more polarized and insular. No politician will ever get elected again by promoting a larger, more benevolent government. For this country to stay great, we will be dependent on charities to provide the services we need. And those charities will be dependent on the individual giver. And the giver deserves to be treated like his dollar is valued, and this marketplace is serious. When that is done, we all win.
