Vetting Non-profits

[lesliegildea]

Hi Everyone,

We'd love to learn more about what criteria and processes do you have in place to vet non-profits prior to donating.

We do not have Benevity or other budget for tools like Guidestar so I'm curious to understand how we can get scrappy around this. 

Thank you for any tips you can offer!

Leslie

[InesGarcia]

Hi Leslie, do you have a compass for the organisation?  else may be worth to do some purpose work that becomes your compass to help every decision, including the 1%

[Lindsey_P1]

Hi Leslie! We are all about the scrappy solutions. Here is a helpful article on how to find and vet the best nonprofit partners: https://community.pledge1percent.org/t5/Pledge-1-Resources/How-to-Pick-a-Nonprofit-or-a-Cause-to-Sup...

CharityWatch and Charity Navigator are  helpful for looking at specific nonprofits' effectiveness. 

[blair]

+1 to Lindsey's mention of Charity Navigator.

When I was in your shoes, my process for vetting US nonprofits was:

1. Search the nonprofit on Charity Navigator's database
   
   1. Org must score at least 85% and/or 3 stars to be considered
2. Search the nonprofit on Google News to ensure there are no controversial news stories out there (making sure company dollars don't go towards orgs that could put us in any PR risks)

I wasn't ever able to find a similar database for international orgs, but I would dive deeper into step #2.

It can also be helpful to set guardrails around what types of causes your company will support in general. (Consider checking out Slack for Good's nonprofit criteria as a starting point -- ex. no political organizations, churches, etc.) This part is totally up to you, but there are plenty of examples out there to ensure your company dollars are put to good use.

[lesliegildea]

Blair,

Thanks so much, that is super helpful! Sometimes it's hard to know how deep one needs to go this early in the process. 

Best,

Leslie