I thought it useful to share some tools I use to research & evaluate giving opportunities: charities, nonprofits, ministries and other philanthropic organizations. First and foremost, I obtain scores, reviews and analyses from the following watchdog/accountability sites:
- http://www.charitynavigator.org/
- http://www.charitywatch.org/
- http://www.guidestar.org/
- http://greatnonprofits.org/
- Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance (www.give.org)
- http://www.intelligentphilanthropy.com/
- http://www.ministrywatch.com/
- http://www.ecfa.org/HomePage.aspx
The last two in the list above focus on some Christian philanthropic organizations.
The second *important* step is to obtain the following information (usually from the target organization's website):
- About Us
- History
- Mission
- Vision
- Bios of Executives
- Bios of Boards of Directors, Trustees and Advisors
- Affiliations
- Independent financial audit information (if not available from sources listed in '1' above)
Owing to the technological advances over the last decade, an innovative new approach to sustainable peer-to-peer philanthropy (also, including crowdfunding) has arrived on the scene. The following list of links is a good starting point for further research and reading:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person-to-person_lending
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Peer-to-peer_charities
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_to_peer_banking
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Peer-to-peer_lending_companies
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Peer-to-peer_charities
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding
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