FAQ for Charities

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Questions about my charity's rating

Questions about the information on a charity's ratings page

Questions about the information used to calculate ratings

Questions about the charities we rate

Questions about Charity Navigator's rating system

Questions about promoting my charity's rating

Questions about Charity Navigator users donating through Network for Good

Questions about my charity's rating

How do I know which years of Forms 990 are used to calculate my charity's rating?
We publish the fiscal year ending (shown as 'FYE' followed by a month and year) on each charity's rating page (next to the Income Statement and CEO Pay). You can determine the time period our rating covers by looking at the years listed along the horizontal axis of the revenue/expense trend graph.

If my charity experienced a spike in revenue several years ago (due to a capital campaign or a multi-year grant), does Charity Navigator take this into account when calculating growth?
When we determine that an organization has engaged in a non-recurring and unsustainable activity in the first of the four years over which we evaluate the organization, we will expand the data we evaluate to five years. If a fifth year is unavailable, we alternatively reduce the data we evaluate to three years.

Visit the Methodology section to read an in-depth explanation of how we calculate primary revenue growth and program expenses growth.

What did Charity Navigator include in calculating my charity's working capital ratio?
Using the information from your charity's most recently filed Form 990, we include in this calculation your organization's net available assets. This includes unrestricted and temporarily restricted net assets, and excludes permanently restricted net assets.

For evaluations based on fiscal years ending prior to 12/31/08, working capital includes only the following assets and liabilities: cash, savings, accounts receivable, grants receivable, pledges receivable, investments in securities, accounts payable, accrued expenses, and grants payable.

Visit the Methodology section to read an in-depth explanation of how we calculate working capital ratio.

How can I review prior ratings?
To review a charity's prior ratings, you will first need to become a registered user. Then simply click on the 'Historical Data' tab located towards the top of the charity's ratings page next to the 'Current Rating' tab.

Questions about the information on a charity's ratings page

How can I update our contact information, mission statement, tag line and/or privacy policy?
Please send us an email that includes the name of your organization and the information that you'd like us to update. The analyst responsible for evaluating your charity will review your request and respond. You can email us at info@charitynavigator.org.

The person listed as our CEO is no longer on staff. How do I input the new CEO's information?
At Charity Navigator we report the CEO for each organization according to what it provided in its most recently filed 990, even when that organization's CEO has changed in subsequent months. We only change the CEO information posted on our site when we obtain a new 990.

Why? We are trying to provide an objective resource that allows donors to compare charities, including CEO pay. Such comparisons are only possible when information is consistently reported and consistently identified as to from where it came. We report, for example, an organization's income statement according to its most recent 990, not according to current information. Similarly, we want the giver to know where the figure for the CEO's pay came from and for what period of time it covered. We believe there's an implicit connection between a CEO's compensation and the financial information provided in its income statement--that is to say, they are derived from the same financial circumstances. If we updated CEO information whenever an organization changed its CEO, the donor would no longer know for certain where the CEO pay figure came from or for what period of time it covered. Nor would the giver be shown the CEO pay that corresponds to the income statement we report on our site.

Where did you get the mission information for my charity?
We created your mission statement from the information your charity published on its website. In rare cases, when the information on a charity's site is incomplete or the charity does not have a website, then we will consult the Form 990 and the charity's marketing materials. Our analysts perform minimal editing to correct spelling and grammatical errors, and to ensure that we're presenting each charity's mission in a similar format. We make every effort to publish a mission statement that captures the essence of your charity's work.

Can I request to have my charity's CEO's compensation removed from your site?
No. We include CEO salary solely as part of our larger effort to bring transparency to the charitable sector and to help educate donors. It is a matter of public record. While we are not out to invade people's privacy, we do believe that by posting more information rather than less, we'll help the general public better appreciate the professionalism required to effectively run a charity. Our data demonstrates that the average CEO salary is roughly $161,000 --- a bargain when compared to executive pay in the private sector.

In recent years, CEO compensation practices at charities have come under increased scrutiny by government regulators. By publishing salaries on our site, we enable charities to benchmark their executives' compensation against that of their peers. This then allows charities to demonstrate their compliance with government regulations in setting a reasonable level of compensation for their top executive.

What salaries are reported in the expanded Leadership section of the charity rating page?
For most charities, you will find that we continue to report only the compensation of the person holding the highest titled management position of the charity, as our experience indicates that in most instances, this compensation level is representative of the importance placed on salary by the organization. When a charity leader receives a salary from the charity and from an affiliate entity (or entities), we will publish the amounts in separate columns, rather than presenting a single aggregate amount as we have done in the past. We do not include affiliate compensation when we report the compensation as a percentage of total functional expenses.

At the same time, we want to help donors understand how other charities compensate the decision makers and key personnel involved with the organization. Therefore, when appropriate, we disclose compensation paid to Board Directors; persons earning as much or more than the chief executive; persons sharing the chief executive title; former chief executives still on payroll; relatives of Board members, founders and officers; and persons holding honorary titles within the organization.

If a charity does not list any compensation for the leader of the organization, we will attempt to report the compensation paid to the person responsible for running the day-to-day operations of the organization. In addition to this executive, we will list other highly compensated employees who may assume functions traditionally performed by a chief executive.

Why has Charity Navigator changed the information on our charity's rating page regarding our Opt-out Donor Privacy Policy?
Many donors have contacted us about how we have traditionally grouped charities with less restrictive opt-out policies along with charities that enforce strict or opt-in policies, which offer the donor a greater level of privacy. In general, donors have told us they find opt-out policies confusing and are often disappointed that their personal information is not kept confidential.

In response, we have re-evaluated how we present donor privacy policy information on our site. When searching our site, donors will notice that we no longer group charities with opt-out policies together with charities that have stricter policies. If we determine that a charity has an opt-out policy, we are advising donors to contact the charity directly to find out how their personal information will be used.

Why doesn’t the efficiency score plus the capacity score add up to the overall score?
Every charity is rated using an actual value with additional decimal places. The scores listed on the ratings page have been truncated for display purposes.

Questions about the information used to calculate ratings

Where did you get the information used to evaluate my charity's financial health?
We base our evaluations on the financial information your charity provides annually in its informational tax returns, or IRS Forms 990.

We just completed a new Form 990. Can I send it directly to you?
Charity Navigator obtains copies of each charity's Form 990 directly from the IRS shortly after it is filed. We do this to (1) expedite our process of evaluating charities, (2) refrain from imposing burdensome reporting requirements on the charities we rate, and (3) to ensure each charity is updated in the order in which it files new data. Once we have a new Form 990 for your organization from the IRS, we will promptly update your charity's record and publish a new evaluation on the first of the following month.

We just filed our Form 990 with the IRS. How long before Charity Navigator updates our rating?
Typically, it takes the IRS two to three months to scan in your document and forward it to our office. We will update your charity's rating within a month of receiving the new Form 990 from the IRS.

Why do you use the Form 990?
We use the Form 990 exclusively because it is the only financial statement that charities are required by law to make publicly available. The instructions for filling it out are straight-forward and universal, ensuring that our data is uniform, comparable, and allows for standardized growth measurements.

Why don't the numbers from my charity's financial statements match what Charity Navigator published?
That's because we didn't use the data from your financial statements. We based our evaluations on the financial information your charity provides annually in its informational tax returns, or IRS Forms 990.

What immediate impact will the redesigned IRS Form 990 have on my charity’s next Charity Navigator evaluation?
The IRS is affording certain 501(c)(3) organizations the option of a transition period with regard to use of the redesigned Form 990 for Fiscal Years 2008, 2009 and 2010. Specifically, small and mid-sized charities may use the IRS Form 990-EZ while they become familiar with the more comprehensive Form (for more information, please see the IRS Instructions).

Charity Navigator is unable to use Forms 990-EZ in our analysis, as this Form requires significantly less financial reporting than the Form 990. If an organization chooses to file the Form 990-EZ during the phase-in period, we will be unable to continue to publish an evaluation, and thus the rating page for the charity will be removed from our website.

Which organizations have the option of filing the Form 990-EZ as an alternative to the new Form 990?
There are multiple criteria that must be met, and some organizations have the option of filing the 990-EZ until 2010. For more information, please see the IRS Instructions or consult with the accounting firm used by your organization.

My organization has chosen to file the Form 990-EZ for 2008. How will this impact my rating?
If you choose to file the 990-EZ for 2008, we will be unable to continue to evaluate your organization. The Form 990-EZ requires less financial reporting than the Form 990, and as such, we would lack important data needed in our analysis. Therefore, upon receipt of the Form 990-EZ from the IRS, the evaluation for your charity will be removed from our website.

My organization will file the new Form 990 for FY 2008. How will this impact my rating?
If your organization is required to file the new Form 990 for FYE 2008, Charity Navigator will be able to continue to publish a rating.

Questions about the charities we rate

How did my organization get on your website?
It is possible that a donor or a member of your organization made a request that we evaluate your charity's fiscal health and we elected to do so after confirming that your charity meets our criteria for inclusion. However, it is more likely than not, that through our own selection process of reviewing data obtained from the IRS we identified your charity as meeting our criteria. For a detailed description of that process and a synopsis of our criteria for selecting charities, please consult "What Kind of Charities Do We Evaluate?"

Why isn't my charity on your site?
It simply means that either your organization doesn't meet our criteria or our program team hasn't been able to analyze your charity yet. We evaluate, for free, ten times as many organizations than anyone else in America has ever attempted. But with approximately 1 million charities in this country, there are many that we have yet to rate.

Can I request to have my charity removed from the site?
No. Our primary goal at Charity Navigator is to provide donors with objective reviews of the financial health of charities soliciting their hard-earned money. Donors have come to rely on our service, in part, because we are able to evaluate charities with or without their participation. Obviously, our service would have little value to donors if we permitted poorly performing charities to opt-out of being rated.

What types of charities does Charity Navigator evaluate?
Because our goal is to help individual givers make informed giving decisions, we use the following guidelines to ensure that we are only evaluating charities that depend on support from individual givers:

Tax Status: We only evaluate organizations granted tax-exempt status under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code and file a Form 990. 501(c) (3) organizations are considered public charities and all donations to them are tax-exempt.

  • We don't evaluate 501(c) (4) organizations.
    501(c) (4) organizations, like the Disabled American Veterans or the National Rifle Association of America, are allowed to spend a substantial portion of their revenue on lobbying our government and not every donation to them is tax-deductible.
  • We don't evaluate charities that are exempt from filing the Form 990.
    Many religious organizations, like the Salvation Army, are exempt under Internal Revenue Code from filing the Form 990. As a result, we lack sufficient data to evaluate their financial health.
  • We don't evaluate private foundations.
    Private foundations, like the Avon Foundation, receive the majority of their money from only one individual, family or corporation. This differs from the public charities that Charity Navigator evaluates. Public charities have a broad-base of support from the general public as well as variety of other funding sources. The IRS requires that private foundations file a Form 990-PF which differs from the document public charities file. This makes it impossible for us to compare the financial performance of private foundations to public charities.

Sources of Revenue: We require public support to be more than $500,000 in the most recent fiscal year.
Because our goal is to help individual givers, we evaluate only those charities that depend on support from individual givers.

Length of Operations: We require 4 years of Forms 990 to complete an evaluation.

Location: We only evaluate charities based in the U.S. and registered with the IRS. However, the scope of a charity's work can be international.

Type of Programs: At this time we are not adding any hospitals, hospital foundations, universities, colleges, land trusts, community foundations, or PBS stations.

Why doesn’t Charity Navigator evaluate Land Trusts and Preserves anymore?
Due to the nature of their operations, land trusts and preserves have the potential to realize wild fluctuations in revenue from year to year due to inconsistencies associated with large land acquisitions and donations of valuable real property. To further complicate matters, within the sector there remains some disagreement as to how certain related expenses should be reported on the IRS Form 990. Inconsistent factors may yield inconsistent evaluations over time and so in keeping with our promise to provide reliable information and to evaluate all charities fairly, we have decided to no longer evaluate charities classified as Land Trusts and Preserves.

How can I request a review of my charity?
If you are a registered user of the site, then you can use our online form to request that we evaluate your charity. Not yet registered? You can register now. It's simple, free and gives you access to advanced benchmarking tools.

Once you've made a request you can follow its status by clicking on “My Charities” followed by ”My Requests.”

I requested that my charity be evaluated by Charity Navigator. When will it be on your site?
Charity Navigator currently evaluates more than 5,000 charitable organizations, making us America's largest charity evaluator many times over. Given the size of our database and the criteria we use to determine eligibility, we are confident that we presently report on the vast majority of charities which actively solicit and receive donations from generous Americans.

As a courtesy, we will continue to welcome your suggestions for charities to be added to our website. Please understand we have every intention of adding new charities in the future. But as we move forward, we do not anticipate adding charities at a rate comparable with prior years.

Does Charity Navigator charge for its evaluations?
No. Charity Navigator charges neither the user, for the data, nor the charity, to be listed. Our sole goal is to guide intelligent giving and serve as a resource for the educated giver.

Questions about Charity Navigator's rating system

How do you evaluate charities?
We rate charities by evaluating two broad areas of financial health, their organizational efficiency and their organizational capacity. We use a set of performance categories to rate each of these two areas, and we issue an overall rating that combines the charity's performance in both areas. Our ratings show givers how efficiently a charity will use their support today, and to what extent the charities are growing their programs and services over time.

Review our one-page synopsis of our Approach to Rating Charities or visit the Methodology section to read an in-depth explanation of our rating system.

How do I interpret your star system?

No. of Stars Qualitative Rating Description
Exceptional Exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its Cause.
Good Exceeds or meets industry standards and performs as well as or better than most charities in its Cause.
Needs Improvement Meets or nearly meets industry standards but underperforms most charities in its Cause.
Poor Fails to meet industry standards and performs well below most charities in its Cause.
NONE Exceptionally Poor Performs far below industry standards and below nearly all charities in its Cause.
For more information visit What Do Our Ratings Mean?

Does the CEO salary impact a charity's rating?
No. We include CEO salary solely as part of our larger effort to bring transparency to the charitable sector and to help educate donors. It is a matter of public record. In publishing this data we also enable charities to benchmark their executives' compensation against that of their peers.

When do you publish new and updated ratings?
The first day of every month, we publish new ratings, as well as update ratings for all currently evaluated charities for which we've received new Form 990s.

What is your ratings scale?
Charity Navigator scores charities on a scale of 0 to 4 stars.

Our Ratings Tables contains more detailed information about the scales we use.

Does the privacy policy information impact a charity's rating?
No. In reviewing each charity's privacy policy, our goal is to enable donors to quickly determine which charities will keep their personal information confidential. While it may be perfectly legal for charities to rent or sell their donors' personal information, we believe that failure to provide donors with a quick and easy way of avoiding such practices is simply a failure to respect the rights of donors. Charities that engage in such practices do a disservice to the entire sector as they cause many donors to stop contributing to charities all together. In fact, we founded Charity Navigator to help restore the loss in confidence many donors have in our philanthropic sector as a result of the misconduct of a few poorly managed charities. We hope that by including information about each charity's privacy policy, we'll encourage charities to adopt a strict policy in which they refrain from selling or sharing their donors' personal information with any other entity.

Why doesn't Charity Navigator evaluate program effectiveness?
At this time, evaluating the effectiveness of a charity's programs is out of our scope. We hope over time to expand the information we provide donors, and that includes developing a methodology for measuring an organization's output. For now we're still seeking a methodology that would allow us to apply a uniform standard to all charities and thus allow us to continue to provide donors unbiased, trustworthy ratings.

Questions about promoting my charity's rating

I see other charities have a 4-star logo on their website. How do I get one?
Each time a charity receives a 4-star rating we contact that organization to congratulate them and to inform them as to how they can obtain our logos. If that correspondence was misplaced at your charity, then please send us an email that includes the name of your organization and your request for a 4-star logo. You can email us at info@charitynavigator.org.

Can my organization get a three star CN logo?
We only provide specialized logos for charities that receive a 4-star rating. That said, we encourage you to use one of our other logos to link to your rating and inform your givers of your organization's financial health.

What are some examples of how charities have used their rating?
Many charities celebrate and promote their fiscal health by posting a logo on their website and linking to their rating, by issuing a press release and by highlighting their rating in appeal letters, newsletters and annual reports.

Questions about Charity Navigator users donating through Network for Good

Why is Charity Navigator now offering online giving?
Many of our users told us that they value our service for its ability to help them make informed giving decisions, but that they wished they could use the information we provided to make a subsequent gift to one of the charities featured on our site.

What is Network for Good?
Network for Good, a nonprofit organization, was founded by a consortium of leaders from the Internet and nonprofit sectors. It seeks to increase consumers' engagement by making it easier to get involved in their communities, by donating, volunteering, and getting involved with issues they care about. At the same time, Network for Good helps other nonprofits to enhance their effectiveness through increased reach, educational content, and tools.

Why did Charity Navigator choose to partner with Network for Good?
Network for Good is the industry leader for online charitable giving. Since its inception more than 400,000 donors have contributed more than $100 million using the Network for Good giving system.

How will my charity receive the donations that come through Network for Good?
There are two ways that your charity can receive donations made through Network for Good. If you have completed Network For Good’s Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Authorization Agreement, then Network for Good will electronically transmit the donation to your organization's bank account on the 15th of each month (for the previous month). If you have not sent Network for Good your EFT information, then Network for Good will mail a paper check to the address they have on file for your organization. Since the entire donation process is operated by Network for Good, you will need to consult their Frequently Asked Questions to learn more about how they distribute funds, including how you can sign up for EFT.

Will my charity have access to information about donors who contribute through Network for Good?
Network for Good is interested in strengthening the relationship between charities and donors, so Network for Good shares donor names with the charities involved, unless the donor asks to remain anonymous. Visit Network for Good’s Frequently Asked Questions to learn how you can access your Donation Tracking Report so that you can acknowledge your contributors.

Are there fees when a donation is made through Network for Good?
Yes. Network for Good charges a 4.75% tax-deductible fee for credit card transactions, which the user can add or deduct from the donation. This fee is used to pay banks, credit card companies and other administrative costs. Charity Navigator and Network for Good do not profit from the fees.

Network for Good charges a $10 fee for online check transactions containing one donation and a $5 fee per donation for transactions containing multiple donations. The online check fees cover check vendor, banking and administrative costs. Charity Navigator and Network for Good do not profit from these fees either.

What about the privacy of our donors?
Charity Navigator does not sell or otherwise disclose user information outside our organization. This policy has no exceptions. We do not sell or exchange user information with any other organization, public, private, or non-profit. Our Privacy page offers more details about our commitment to internet privacy.

Network for Good also respects and protects the privacy of its users. Network for Good will never sell, trade or rent personal information to other individuals or companies. The information that each of your donors provides is used only to complete the donation. With the donor’s permission, their name and contact information is provided to your charity. If the donor does not wish to share their name and contact information or the donor chooses to make a donation anonymously, Network for Good will not share the donor’s name or contact information with your charity.

Network for Good's website uses industry standard security measures to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under its control. All information is stored in a secure database.

Why are those donors who wish to take advantage of this new feature to support my charity asked if they also wish to contribute to Charity Navigator?
Charity Navigator, a nonprofit ourselves, depends on donations to fund our analysis of charities. We are committed to providing this information at no charge. But, if the donor believes that our in-depth, objective charity ratings were vital in guiding their decision to support your charity, then we ask that they please consider a gift to Charity Navigator.

 
 

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