FAQ

Welcome: This web site is a tool for helping people decide which charitable organizations to donate money to.

How does it work?: People create scorecards, and use the scorecards to rate charities based on whatever criteria they find useful. Different people can use different scorecards for assessing things like organizational transparency or cost effectiveness. You can use the scorecards to help decide which organizations to donate to.

Who uses it?: Brian Skinner is using Charity Scorecard for deciding how to allocate the money in his Skinner Fund. He plans to rate organizations based on a set of scorecards and give money to the highest rated charities.

Questionnaires

What is a Questionnaire?: In the context of the Charity Scorecard site, a Questionnaire is a set of questions about a Non-profit Organization. We have different Questionnaires that focus on different issues.

Can I make new a Questionnaire?: Yes. Feel free to add new Questionnaires that focus on different aspects of Non-profit Organizations. (To-do: add link to info about creating a new Questionnaire.)

What is a Scorecard?: A Scorecard is a way of assigning scores to non-profit organizations based on information about the organizations. The information about the organizations is collected through a set of Questionnaires.

Can I make my own Scorecard?: Yes, you can make your own Scorecard based on the criteria you think are most important. You can use your Scorecard to assign scores to non-profit organizations, and you can use those scores to help you in deciding which organizations to give money to. (To-do: add link to info about creating a Scorecard.)

Do other people rate charities like this?: Yes, the notion of using scorecards and rating systems is not uncommon. For example, Charity Navigator is another web site that provides comparative evaluation info about non-profit organizations. Charity Navigator uses a set of quantitative metrics to assign ratings to organizations. More info available here: Our Ratings Tables, How Do We Rate Charities?, What Do Our Ratings Mean?

Why not just use the Charity Navigator ratings?: Charity Navigator provides up-to-date ratings about thousands of organizations, so if their rating system matches your needs, then Charity Navigator is an excellent resource. I set up the Charity Scorecard site because the Charity Navigator rating system didn't meet my needs. For example, the Charity Navigator ratings system gives higher ratings to organizations with larger endowments, whereas I would rather avoid giving money to organizations that already have a lot of money. I also wanted to rate charities based on things like how transparently they operate, whereas the Charity Navigator ratings are based mostly on financial information about the organizations.

What is a Scorecard Fund?: A Scorecard Fund is a pool of money that a donor is planning to distribute to non-profit organizations. It's called a Scorecard Fund because the donor uses a set of scorecards to decide which organizations to allocate the money to.

What Scorecard Funds have people started?

Right now we only have one Scorecard Fund: