Searching For A Great Charity

At Charity Navigator we rate 1,000s of charities. In fact, we rate 5,500. That's a lot of charities! 

So, what's a donor to do when they come to our site and they want to look up a known charity or  find a new charity to support? Many of our users check out our A-Z listing. But a more powerful way to search is by our Advanced Search Tool. Using this tool you can search by:

• Keyword
• Charity Name
• EIN# (Employer Identification Number)
• Category / Cause
• Location

• State and/or City
• Zip Code and Radius
• Overall Rating
• Size 
• The CEO's level of pay
• If the charity has a Donor Privacy Policy
• Scope of Work (regional, national or international)
• CFC participation
• Whether or not it receives support from the government

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Spring Cleaning

Question: I've been doing some Spring cleaning. How I can put my used items to good use?


Many charities are equally grateful to receive gifts of cash as they are donated goods. We recommend that you use our site as a tool to find a well-run charity in your region. Then, contact that charity directly, using the information we provide, to determine if the organization is interested in receiving your goods. Alternatively, you can have a garage sale, turn your used items into cash and then donate those funds directly to a worthy charity.

Visit our site for more FrequentlyAsked Questions.

Celebrating 10 Years of Empowering Donors

May 1st Update

Photo by tr3gin via Shutterstock.com

Today, nearly 750 charities earned new ratings and more than 2 dozen charities have been added to our site.

Tell Everyone About a Great Nonprofit Supporting the Arts or Women’s Empowerment

Do you support a nonprofit that empowers women or promotes the arts?  The GreatNonprofits’ 2012 Top-Rated Awards gives you the chance to provide recognition for any group doing great work in these areas.

Organizations that receive ten positive reviews by May 31 will earn the title of “2012 Top-Rated Nonprofit.”
Any organization working to promote the arts or empower women is eligible, whether large or small, with a local, national, or international focus.

It takes just 3 minutes to write a review.  Learn more about how you can Write a Review here.         

Women’s Empowerment 2012 Awards:
Individuals: Make Reviews
Nonprofit Staff: Invite Reviews

Arts and Culture 2012 Awards:
Individuals: Make Reviews
Nonprofit Staff: Invite Reviews

Consumers, corporations come together to support causes this Mother’s Day

Guest post by Scott Garell, CEO of GoodSearch 


Whether it’s feeding the homeless, supporting an after school program or curing cancer, there is a growing trend of people incorporating philanthropic giving into their everyday lives. Millions of consumers are already helping more than 105,000 non-profits and schools when they search the internet, shop online or dine out.


Six years ago, brother/sister team Ken and JJ Ramberg wanted to figure out a way to turn everyday actions into a way to support the causes trying to make this world a better place.  They began with GoodSearch.com, a Yahoo-powered search engine which donates about a penny a search to your favorite cause. They followed that success with GoodShop.com, a shopping portal which donates a percentage of your purchase at more than 2,600 stores (including Amazon, Expedia, Staples, Williams Sonoma and others) to your favorite cause.  In November 2011, they partnered with Rewards Network to launch GoodDining, a program that allows diners to earn donations at over 10,000 restaurants nationwide. As a result, more than $8 million has been directed to the charities and schools designated by its users. 


4-star UNICEF has used the money earned from GoodSearch and GoodShop to provide clean drinking water to more than 200,000 children; the 3-star National Inclusion Project which helps children with disabilities has used the $16,000+ its supporters have raised to send nearly 250 children to summer camp; and supporters of the 3-star ASPCA have earned more than $40,000 to help animals in need.  And, with a recent site update, both users and organizations can track their earnings right on the GoodSearch website.  Users can also now review individual charity profile pages to select charities to support based on their descriptions, number of supporters and activity levels.


As Mother’s Day approaches and people begin ordering flowers and making dinner plans, consider making your purchases through GoodShop or make reservations at a GoodDining restaurant to ensure that every gift and every meal also results in a donation to mom's favorite cause.  To find out more about about GoodSearch and how you can participate, go here.

Do You Donate Online?

Every year, more donors are giving online. Just how much? To help answer that question, we took at look at three sources of data:  Network for Good's Online Giving Index, The Chronicle of Philanthropy and The Blackbaud Index of Online Giving. We've posted the highlights from each of those studies in a new article  on our site.


Photo: robertlamphoto via Shutterstock.com 

The Nonprofit Outcome Toolbox Wins An Award

Dr. Penna has just won an award for his book, The Nonprofit Outcomes Toolbox : A Complete Guide to Program Effectiveness, Performance Measurement, and Results, which includes a foreword by Charity Navigator’s President & CEO, Ken Berger.  As Dr. Penna explains, the book “is guide to the application of outcomes and results-based program planning and management, primarily for the nonprofit sector.  It is also a workbook, with exercises following every topic discussed so that readers can practice using the ideas that were covered in what they just read.”

The award, The Skystone Partners Prize for Research on Fundraising and Philanthropy, is given annually by the Association of Fundraising Professional Research Council to the author of a book that contributes substantially to the knowledge and understanding of fundraising or philanthropic behavior.  The AFP Research Council had this to say about Dr. Penna and his book:

This volume was selected with intentional recognition that fundraising takes place within the larger organizational context.  Success in fundraising serves, but is also served by, overall organizational effectiveness.  This book provides an accessible and comprehensive set of tools for promoting that effectiveness.  In keeping with the qualifications and criteria for this AFP research prize, Dr. Penna’s book is outstanding.

Please join the Charity Navigator in extending heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Penna for this well-deserved award!

Not only is Dr. Penna an accomplished writer and nonprofit professional, but he is also Charity Navigator’s International Coordinator .