Comments on: Thank you, Guidestar, for hearing our concerns

By: Great Non-Profits Deserve a Great Rating System – Full Contact Philanthropy

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:32:22 +0000

[...] and Guidestar.org responded to Ms. Gifford’s criticism by dropping the top ten list all together. While these rating organizations certainly did the right thing by retracting their [...]

By: Gayle Gifford

Gayle Gifford — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:08:08 +0000

Thank you, Don. It has been very heartening to know that so many of my esteemed colleagues also have great reservations about these rating systems. I’ve been hearing from many of you this past week.
I do think that Ken Berger at CharityNavigator has heard the critique of their current configuration. His answer to that is to begin developing rankings based on transparency and effectiveness. The effectiveness part, as we all know, is extraordinarily complicated and carries even larger philosophical questions along with it. Those of us in the field who can speak for our own experiences in the sector need to make sure our voices are just as loud as the intermediaries.
If anything, it seems that what was just a lot of independent growling has the potential to turn into a strong roar. Stay tuned.

By: Donald Griesmann

Donald Griesmann — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:58:36 +0000

Gayle, congratulations and deep appreciation for taking the Guidestar listing head on. This rush to rate charities by national nonprofits is a travesty, a lie about those not listed and an insult to the giving public. They seem to be taking on some of the bad characteristics of Charity Navigator, not a good role model in my belief. Charity Navigator unfortunately has the ear of CNN when it comes to listing charities for donors to provide support. Guidestar is part of the elite group that believes it can develop standards to measure most if not all nonprofits. They should stay out of the ranking busines until they finish that project – if ever. You did a great job for the sector. Don.