Jen: This is the PKF Texas Entrepreneur’s Playbook. I’m Jen Lemanski and I’m back once again with Annjeanette Yglesias, one of our tax managers and a member of our not for profit team. Annjeanette welcome back to the Playbook.

Annjeanette: Thanks Jen, it’s nice to be here.

Jen: So we’ve talked before about the Donor Bill of Rights and how it really wasn’t a legal thing for nonprofits to follow, but I know there’s organizations out there that are considered watchdogs. Can you tell us a little bit about some charity watchdogs?

Annjeanette: Charity watchdog organizations are out there and they’re basically on the internet and such and they’re out there to provide donors information. A lot of nonprofit organizations have tax filings and financial information that’s already made available to the public and these watchdog organizations basically make that information available in one spot for donors to look at.

Jen: So kind of like a search engine for charities?

Annjeanette: Basically yes.

Jen: What are the main charity watchdogs that people typically go to?

Annjeanette: There’s three that come to mind. So first of all there is Charity Navigator and Charity Navigator is pretty popular. They basically collect tax returns, copy of tax returns and financial information as well as annual reports that nonprofit organizations might have on their websites. And what they do is they take that information, analyze it and provide a star rating. So they have a star rating system and they have a formula that goes behind their star rating system.

And then there’s Charity Watch, Charity Watch is very similar. They get financial information, tax return information that’s already out there to the public collected and they have their own method of rating organizations and they provide a letter rating A through F.

And then there’s Guide Star; Guide Star doesn’t necessarily analyze a nonprofit organization’s performance. What they do is they’re just a repository for information; the tax returns, financial reports, annual reports, things like that. But what they do have is a seal of transparency rating that they provide each organization based on how much information the organization itself voluntarily provides to customers.

Jen: So you’ll want to kind of maybe look at all three but then also do your own due diligence as just part of when you’re making a decision whether or not to contribute to a not for profit.

Annjeanette: That’s correct. The important thing for nonprofit organizations to know is that these watchdog organizations are out there and so it’s important for the nonprofits to understand what they’re looking at, what the grading methodology is and what the donors are seeing from that aspect of it. That way when they field questions from potential donors, potential supporters, they’re aware of what’s out there and they can respond appropriately.

Jen: Well that’s good to know. Perfect, we’ll get you back to talk a little bit more.

Annjeanette: Sounds good.

Jen: To learn more about how PKF Texas can help your not for profit organization visit PKFTexas.com/notforprofit. This has been another Thought Leader production brought to you by PKF Texas The Entrepreneur’s Playbook. Tune in next week for another chapter.