History
Charity Navigator was founded in 2001 under the simple premise that people are amazingly generous and enjoy helping others but are not always sure how to go about it. We saw the government in this country cut back on the programs it was able to deliver and in response, charities and non-profits in this country stepped in to fill the void. As a result, nearly one million charities in this country were providing the services we needed to make this country great.
Because of charities, our wetlands were preserved, many of our homeless had shelter, hungry children were fed, diseases were being cured, and more animals were safe. Our country was a better place because of charities, but it was getting harder to determine which charities were which. We knew that America needed charities, and we also knew that most of them were well-intentioned and well-managed. But even as insiders in the charitable world, we had a difficult time determining which charities were the most effective and which deserved our support. The charitable marketplace had simply become too large to navigate without some help. We were concerned that people who were less knowledgeable about the sector than us would simply not give to organizations out of fear that they could not be positive those organizations were trustworthy.
We knew that even the most cynical of observers would admit that the number of genuinely dishonest charities in this country was infinitesimally small. But at the same time we understood that the misdoings of a few stained the entire industry, gathered disproportionate attention in the media, and scared away potential givers. The perception of wrongdoing in the charitable sector, while very different from the reality, gave people an excuse not to support any charities. We believed that by offering unbiased, trusted, analytical information about charities, more people would support non-profits or feel better about making a gift to an organization.
Such sources exist universally in every other sector in America where consumers make choices. Every college-bound teenager in America consults U.S. News and World Report's college rankings before choosing a university. Very few people buy a household appliance without checking Consumer Reports. Car-buyers turn to a variety of evaluative options. Investors have a plethora of information choices before entering the market. And yet, in the charitable sector, a field more complicated and complex than any other, no one had stepped up to provide unbiased, analytical data that charitable consumers could rely upon before making a donation.
In all honesty, we did find a few organizations purporting to analyze the sector, but none of them were truly trying to help the donor make informed choices. Some organizations rated charities but used highly subjective criteria, which was open to interpretation and bias. We were looking for a system that was completely objective. Some organizations utilized trusted financial ratios for evaluations, but only rated a few hundred organizations, leaving out many charities that solicit funds and are well-known to most potential givers. One organization used proven, objective financial ratios, and did this for a large number of charities, but charged the user a significant amount of money for this service. We felt our service, to be truly beneficial, had to be free of charge to the consumer., otherwise, it would only be used by the wealthy. Lastly, we found an organization that charged the charities it evaluated to be listed, which brought up huge concerns on our part concerning their objectivity.
Looking at the options available to givers, we were left with only one choice. If we thought that America's generous citizens deserved a service that would deliver unbiased ratings of a huge number of charities, and do it for free, we would have to become that organization. We had no other option. So we stepped up. We created Charity Navigator, the online source which would provide unbiased, trusted and analytical information on charities.
We ultimately created an objective data-driven organization, with no biases, that rates more charities than any other evaluator, thus ensuring that givers from every state in the nation, with every type of charitable interest, could find a well-rated charity to support. Today, the number of charities we evaluate has grown to over five thousand and, like yesterday, our service is free, not only for the charities involved, but for the user. We hope you find Charity Navigator's service useful. That is why we are here.
