Charity Navigator Panned
Writing as a guest on the Tactical Philanthropy blog this week, Michael Soper, formerly SVP of Development at PBS and WETA, has written the article I've just never gotten around to writing.
The title tells it all: Strong Marketing of a Weak Success Measure: Charity Navigator Vital Mission Hides Flawed Rankings.
Soper describes well how the grossly simplistic array of ratios used by Charity Navigator can be injurious at worst (harming the reputations of nonprofits wrongly “ranked”), and woefully incomplete at best.
As he puts it: “Charity Navigator, its ratings, and its top ten lists are nothing more than great merchandising of a weak underlying product.” He characterizes the lists as “the 'National Enquirer' approach to a topic that demands more substantive evaluation of nonprofits' effectiveness and efficiency.”
Amen!
Soper believes there's no real substitute for donors really getting engaged and taking the trouble to dig in and learn about the various organizations purporting to work in the donor's area of interest.
Amen again.
To the nonprofits who want to be evaluated on some basis other than simplistic fundraising ratios, I would offer these rules:
- Bend over backwards to be transparent and plain-speaking on all financial matters.
- Commit to serious, sustained efforts to measure the outcomes of your endeavors (and I mean outcomes, not “process” measures).
- Don't BS your prospects and stakeholders about your progress (donors, like all modern consumers, have evolved highly sensitive BS radars … and they now have the online tools to easily broadcast their negative readings far and wide).
Finally, if you're a really serious donor, you might check out the painstaking investigative and evaluative processes employed by the folks at the GiveWell Blog. Sometimes their empiricism is a little forced for my taste, but they certainly show us what it means to keep a strong focus on results when evaluating nonprofits.
Thanks for getting your misgivings on paper, Michael Soper … you deserve a raise.
Tom
Behavioral Science Q & A
Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]
Read Full Answer
I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]
Read Full Answer
Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]
Read Full Answer
Interesting question. I had a quick look at the testing done on this topic. On the positive side, in all cases, over half of donors decide to cover the fee. In some cases, it goes as high as 65%. Not a negligible percentage at all. Here’s another test from iRaiser showing consistent results (see point […]
Read Full Answer
There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]
Read Full Answer
I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
Read Full Answer