President & CEO's Report for October
October 6, 2009
The last three months of the year are our busiest season here at Charity Navigator. Many of you begin to consider what, when and where your largest donations to charity are going to go. We hope you find the new tools we have developed this past year helpful in that endeavor.
The new tools include:
- For charities we do not currently evaluate you can:
a) Request a new charity evaluation, now you can keep track of the status of our review as a Registered User (see #2).
b) Use our guide to evaluating charities we do not rate and the 990 finder associated with it. - If you become a Registered User, you can create a My Request page of your own. Tracking those charities you have asked to add and the status of our review is one of many other benefits you can get and it’s all totally free!
- You can now view News Feed on many of the charities on our site (we plan to have this information on all of them within the coming months).
- You can search for charities by category much more easily as well as Employer Identification Number (EIN).
- We have created a Charity Navigator “widget” that you can embed on your web site for easy access to our database.
We will continue to find ways to make your experience on our web site as user friendly and informative as possible. As always, feel free to tell us your suggestions for other information that may be helpful.
Speaking of helpful information, last month I described our plans to move toward a three dimensional rating system and the Advisory Panel we have formed to assist us in this endeavor. The panel has added five members since that time and should begin its work soon. In addition, I was invited to the offices of the Chronicle of Philanthropy to be interviewed for a podcast describing our plans. While I was in DC for the interview, I also attended a “proof of concept” of one of the tools we are considering for the outcome (indicators of meaningful and sustainable results) dimension of the new rating system. It went quite well and I am very encouraged by the progress that is being made on all fronts to move forward on all of this.
Finally, I'd like to point out two of my media appearances. First, is an interview I did in September on Fox Business News. You can watch the video where I joined a panel to briefly discuss some of the ideas in the book Billions of Drops in Millions of Buckets with the author, Steve Goldberg. Steve is also a member of our new Advisory Panel. And on October 6th, I participated in a panel discussion on nonprofit executive compensation online with the Chronicle of Philanthropy. I hope you'll take a few moments to read the transcript.
Other than that, all is quiet here! : )
All the best,
Ken Berger
