Quote:
Originally Posted by CFrance
For instance, 98.5% of AmeriCare's funds reach the intended recipients, has a 5-star rating (American Red Cross=3 star) and an overall score of 97.23 out of 100, as opposed to Red Cross 89.33.
.
|
According to
Charity Ratings | America's Most Independent, Assertive Charity Watchdog | CharityWatch Americares has an overhead of 36%, so only 64% of their funds go to their programs. And they spend $27 to get $100 of donations. They are given a C+ rating.
Charity Watch mentions that in general the accounting rules for a charity don't always give you the info you think they might. Charities often count gifts in kind, i.e. people donating goods instead of money, at a much higher value than than they are worth so that they can inflate the dollar percentage of their donations.
Charity Watch is a pay for service that digs into all of the IRS filings the charity make to analyze how much of dollar donations to the program are actually going to their programs.
In general it is very hard to tell how effective a charity really is.
BTW Charity Watch rates the American Red Cross as a B+.