I don’t think I often meet people who, when faced with an equal path, one very difficult and one easy, deliberately take the difficult path. Almost everyone is looking for simple solutions. How to save time, how to save money. They are called “hacks”. A quick and sometimes inelegant “solution.”
Sometimes, with more complicated issues like ‘What is a good charity?’ or ‘Which charity could best use my funds if I am interested in the environment?’, there are unfortunately no simple answers. Okay, perhaps there are some simple answers, like if a charity is a total charity scam, you don’t want to support them!
Here is an interesting article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy With 200,000 Nonprofits Rated, the New Charity Navigator Aims High, Falls Short.
Probably the best paragraph is:
“Charity Navigator is trying its best to do what it can with the limited tools that are currently available,” says Berger, who led the organization from 2008 to 2015. But, he adds, it should be careful not to promise too much. “There needs to be a more sober, honest conversation as to what we are truly offering and what we can do with the tools that are currently available.”
The same problem exists in Canada. In Canada, it is probably even worse as our T3010 asks for so little information. On our CharityData.ca website, we provide information from charities T3010s that we receive from CRA. This is the information submitted by the charities. It could be accurate or inaccurate. We don’t try to fix it or to rate the charities.
Unfortunately, knowing whether a charity is good or not or a good “investment” for your charitable dollars will never be as simple as ‘they received an A’ from a rating agency. Due diligence is important and “buyer beware”! Some charities are not transparent, and unless you want to help them become transparent, it is probably best to just move to another charity.