Before sending in a donation to a group, you can now consider how well it will spend your money by referring to the AIP's Charity Rating Guide . You can also review the ratings of other charities in the same category to compare a particular group with those which do similar work. The Guide shows which groups are new or have received an updated evaluation . Donors may want to consider an organization's accountability to AIP when making giving decisions. Omission of charities from the Charity Rating Guide or this web site does not imply a negative evaluation or rating.
Some groups receive large amounts of donated goods and services.
These items can be difficult to value and distort the calculation of how efficiently a charity is spending your dollars. This is the portion of total expenses that is spent on charitable programs. The remaining percentage is spent on fundraising and general administration. When a range of numbers is given, the higher number, in most cases, reflects the charity's own decision on how much is spent on charitable program expenses. However many of these groups consider such mailings and phone calls to be largely educational and their costs to be primarily program expenses.