I live in a small community with a couple of non-profit Senior Centers nearby. They are both 501.c.3 organizations and I would like to donate to one of them. Is there a site where I can find their "efficiency" rating? That is, how much of their income goes toward programs and services?
meliotrope
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Dear Caper,
I used to work at nonprofits. I don't anymore. So I feel qualified to tell you what it's like on the INSIDE of nonprofits.
You know, you raise a very good point. What IS the criteria to measure effective nonprofits?
There are several charity rating sites, one is called Givewell.org, one is called CharityNavigator.com, and one is called Great Nonprofits.
I like Givewell better than CharityNavigator, and this blog post explains why.
http://www.wildwomanfundraising.com/givewell-talks-mistakes
Mainly, overhead is a terrible way to judge if a nonprofit is doing good work. It's much better to look at if they are hypocrites or not. What does that mean? It means that if a nonprofit says they want to help people and create a better world, but then there's tons of turnover and they pay everyone peanuts, then they are being hypocrites.
The best measure of how effective a nonprofit is, is how much turnover there is in the development role. If they have a new development person every 12-18 months, people in top leadership roles are not doing their jobs. Development/fundraising people tend to be blamed for organizational inefficiencies. I've written more about this here:
http://www.wildwomanfundraising.com/firing-development-director
This is a waste of money, to keep having to fill the position, especially when it takes 12-18 months to get up to speed in a new organization for the fundraising person.
So in order to figure out if the senior centers are effective charities, ie, if the money you give them will be effectively given mostly to seniors, you need to call the development person and ask about the rate of turnover. How long have they been in their position? How long was the previous person there? The person before that? They will probably know.
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Mazarine
Author, The Wild Woman's Guide to Fundraising
Author, Get the Job! Your Fundraising Career Empowerment Guide
Author, The Wild Woman's Guide to Social Media
http://wildwomanfundraising.com
Anonymous
Most nonprofits are required to publish their financial data publicly (Usually on their website). Or you can ask them for their latest financial statement or 990 information return. Once you have the data it is easy to analyze. You should be able to see how much money goes to each program and how much is spent on administrative. You will also see the source of their revenues. Mostly contributions? fees? Government grants? With these documents you should be able to make a good side-by-side comparison and determine their efficiency rating for yourself.
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charitynavigator.org
guidestar.org