CHARITY RATING SITES: Just read an article about three sites that monitor charities’ financial practices. The sites–Give.org, CharityWatch, and Charity Navigator–use different criteria. This is an interesting idea, so I’ll quote the relevant bits of the article (Boston Globe, Tuesday, p. C1), but the main thing to keep in mind is that financial info doesn’t tell you the most important facts about an organization: What are its goals? How many lives has it changed? I know it isn’t always possible, but you should try to be personally involved in charities you give to, so that sites like these are simply irrelevant to you–you know enough about the charity’s mission and accomplishments that you don’t need to check up on it online. However, these sites provide useful info for when that kind of personal closeness isn’t possible.

Now, the article: “Using information gleaned from federal tax forms, Charity Navigator (charitynavigator.org) lays out how a charity spends its money, how stable it is financially, and how it compares with similar groups.

“…In some cases, a rating seemed to raise a red flag. The Firefighters Charitable Foundation of Westerly, R.I., for example, raised nearly $5 million last year. But Charity Navigator’s analysis indicates very little of that money went for the charity’s stated purpose of aiding victims of fires and disasters. According to the Web site, nearly 87 percent of the $5 million went for fund-raising expenses. Only $555,000, or 11 percent, went for the foundation’s actual programs. The foundation received zero stars, a rating of ‘exceptionally poor, from Charity Navigator.

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