Charity Navigator
Your guide to intelligent giving
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Charity Navigator democratizes philanthropy and catalyzes transparency in the sector — it enables effective giving for donors of every income level with free tools and resources. Charity Navigator’s ratings shine a light on the most effective charities, and its alerts warn donors of charities accused of misconduct. Both tools help charities build and maintain trust with donors.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Charity Ratings
Charity Navigator’s rating system affords donors a holistic view of a charity’s effectiveness and reliability through an expansive, nuanced, and evolved method of evaluation. The framework illuminates the overall health and performance of an organization in four key areas: Leadership & Adaptability helps donors understand if a charity has clarity of purpose, Accountability & Finance explains if they are transparent and fiscally capable, Culture & Community shows who they are and how they engage with their constituents, and Impact & Results explains what they have accomplished.
Charity Alerts
When a charity is reported to engage or confirmed to have engaged in misconduct or questionable practices, we post an alert on the charity’s profile page to raise awareness and help inform your giving.
Curated Lists
Our expert analysts create lists of charities responding to current events and crises, organizations popular on Charity Navigator, and top-performing charities in their cause areas to help donors navigate giving.
Giving Basket
The Giving Basket empowers donors of all sizes to support multiple charities in one convenient checkout, while controlling how much of their personal information is shared with each organization.
Where we work
Awards
Founder Pat Dugan recognized as #38 on the list of 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics 2011
Ethisphere Magazine
A 2010 Best Money Web Site 2010
Money Magazine
25 Best Web Sites in 2007 2007
Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine
50 Coolest Web Sites 2006
Time Magazine
Philanthropy Hall of Fame 2007
Business Week
Best Charity Review Site - "The Best List 2011" 2011
Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine
Best Product, Innovation, or Service for Responsible Technology 2023
Anthem Awards
Best Nonprofit Website 2023
Webby Award Nominee
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsTotal number of site visits
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Children and youth, Families
Related Program
Charity Ratings
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Numbers provided are per fiscal year ending June 30.
Donations ($) made directly via CN website to other charities
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Charity Ratings
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Numbers provided are per fiscal year ending June 30.
Number of overall donors
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Numbers provided are per fiscal year ending June 30.
Number of websites and organizations (outside of our organization) that share our resources and information
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Charity Ratings
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Numbers provided are per fiscal year ending June 30.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Charity Navigator helps more people turn their values, passions, and beliefs into meaningful change and impact.
We provide the data, ratings and advice that cut through the noise, making it easy to make informed choices that turn intent into action. Across the giving space, we partner with nonprofits to define strategic objectives that matter to donors. Because whether it’s money, time, expertise, information or material goods, there are more ways not just to believe, but to act.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
REACH - Grow the number of unique individuals using CN’s guidance to inform their giving
RATINGS - Provide individual donors with more in-depth and intuitive guidance
TEAM - Support and develop CN team to achieve even greater results
PLATFORM - Improve technology to provide users with the best possible experience
REVENUE - Strengthen revenue engine with a multi-pronged approach
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Charity Navigator has more than 20 years of experience providing objective ratings of America’s charities, reviews tens of thousands of nonprofit tax returns every year, and continues to expand and improve its rating system. Charity Navigator collaborates with other nonprofit management experts to expand the breadth, depth, and reach of the information, tools, and ratings it provides.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We have made significant strides toward our 2026 strategic plan. Below is some of the areas already delivered on:
• Increase the number of unique individuals using CN’s guidance, whether on CN’s website or elsewhere, and measure the extent to which overall individual giving is influenced by it. (continuous strategy)
• Hire additional staff to expand competencies in areas such as business development, ratings, fundraising, design, and other guidance. (continuous strategy)
• Develop additional systems that enable CN’s board members to perform at their highest level in helping CN pursue its mission.
• Garner large capacity-building grants to take on major improvements (such as expanding filtering, building new API, creating Needs Based Discovery Tool). (continuous strategy)
Over the past year, we have been working on the following initiatives that will be completed within this fiscal year:
• Refresh the brand and website experience to attract larger audiences to CN, and develop tools to help these visitors serve as evangelists of CN’s work.
• Fully integrate the Encompass and Star Ratings systems.
• Expand and improve high-volume entry points to CN’s site such as the Advisory System, Hot Topics, and curated lists.
• Improve search and filtering technology so donors can more easily find nonprofits that match their interests, such as intersecting
demographic information or combining data-sets, (CDC regional need-based metrics)
• Modernize technology stack and use state of the art tools (CRM, CMS).
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Charity Navigator
Board of directorsas of 05/03/2023
Marie Wieck
Dan Weiss
Marie Wieck
Michael Dix
Intentional Futures
Cheryl Black
J.P. Morgan Private Bank
Jerry Webman
Dorothy Crenshaw
Crenshaw Communications
Michael Cooney
Nixon Peabody, LLP
Michael Thatcher
Charity Navigator
Hope Lyons
Operationalizing Mission, LLC
Shannon McCracken
The Nonprofit Alliance
Rhoden Monrose
CariClub
Beth Smith
Esther Dyson
Wellville
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/03/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.