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In Case You Haven't Heard - CN 2.0 Is Here!

Charity Navigator 2.0 is Here! from Charity Navigator on Vimeo.

CN 2.0 Is Here

Today, Charity Navigator launched a new, two-dimensional rating system that measures each charity's Financial Health and Accountability & Transparency. As a result of the new scoring system (which we call CN 2.0):

• Half of the nearly 5,500 charities rated by Charity Navigator received new star ratings


• 30% of the charities’ star rating improved


• 19% of the charities’ star ratings decreased


• With the bar set higher, the total number of 4-star charities decreased by 20%.


• At the same time, charities with ratings of 3 stars (good) or better increased by 8%.

Some of the notable ratings changes include:

Charity	Old Rating	New Rating	Charity	Old Rating	New Rating
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International	1	3	Volunteers of America	4	3
Lutheran World Relief	3	4	Metropolitan Museum of Art	4	3
The Fresh Air Fund	1	3	William J. Clinton Foundation	4	3
Wounded Warrior Project	2	3	Operation Blessing International	4	3
American Red Cross	3	4	Dress for Success	4	3

For more information about today's launch, read our President & CEO's blog. And be sure to visit our site to see all the new ratings and read the details about our new rating system.

Newest Top 10 List

This month we published a new Top 10 List: 10 Highly Rated Animal Charities with the Most New Reviews. There are more than 20 other Top 10 Lists on our site for you to check out.

Image from URRRA/ Shutterstock

Plan To Limit Charitable Deductions For The Wealthy Is Back… Again

Time and time again, the President continues to put forth proposals to limit charitable deductions for the wealthy. The latest proposal is attached to the President’s jobs bill. If it passes, a wealthy donor who contributes $100,000 to a charity (starting in 2013) would only be able to deduct $28,000 of it; $7,000 less than the current amount allowed.

Many charity leaders are opposed to this proposal as they predict it would cause wealthy philanthropists to limit their giving. It has been estimated that, with no deduction for charitable gifts, annual giving would drop by 25 to 36 %, and the proposed cap could cost charities as much as $7 billion a year in contributions. Not only would that force charities to cut back on their charitable programs/ services, but it would also mean job losses which is just the opposite of what the President is trying to accomplish with this bill.

Image Shutterstock/ Mariusz S. Jurgielewicz

9/11 Products - Do They Benefit The Charities?

Have you recently come across 9/11 related products that claim to benefit a charity affiliated with the tragedy? The Philadelphia affiliate of ABC interviewed Charity Navigator’s President & CEO, Ken Berger, about these products and his tips for how you can be sure your purchases do the most good.

10 Years Since 9/11

Remembering 9/11- the terrible loss, the charitable response the patriotic feelings. For more on the 9/11 related charities, see our recent blogs here and here.

Image from patrimonio designs limited / Shutterstock

A Message From Our CEO

Visit our site to read a letter from our President & CEO, Ken Berger, about CN 2.0 and the big changes coming to our site later this month.

Back to School

With Labor Day behind us, America’s schools are in full swing. So now is the perfect time to think about helping out a Education related charity by making a donation, volunteering or by writing a review. On our site, you will find nearly 600 such charities. That includes charities that offer scholarship and financial aid services, those that promote school reform, those that offer experiential learning programs and others that offer programs supporting teachers, parents, students and schools.

Some of the more well-known and highly-rated charities in the Education category are

• Teach For America
• DonorsChoose
• Kids In Need Foundation
• Scholarship America
• Year Up

Check these out and more on our site. Then be sure to help other donors make smart choices about which Education charities to support by sharing your personal experience. The 10 highly-rated Education charities that get the most reviews during the month of September will be featured in a special Top 10 list on our site next month.

Image from paulojgon/ Shutterstock.

Labor Day Weekend

Enjoy the last long weekend of the summer.

~The Charity Navigator Staff

Image from Stacie Stauff Smith Photography/ Shutterstock

We Are Hard At Work

On the first of each month, we publish 100s of updated charity ratings. But just because we didn't do so this month, don't think we're all away on vacation. In fact, our team is hard at work making the final preparations to integrate the Accountability/ Transparency metrics into our star rating system. Implementation of our new rating system, which we call CN 2.0, will take place before the end of this month. We'll be sharing more information on that in the coming days.

Image from Dmitriy Shironosov/ Shutterstock