The following is a cross-post from the International Transparency Solutions Blog

Also, visit The Chronicle of Philanthropy for more great audio interviews!

Charity Navigator is a non-profit watchdog that ranks 5,000+ of the top US charities in order to give donors and investors the tools they need to decide where to invest their money. Transparency Solutions is in the process of building a similar system that operates on a global scale and targets non-profits in the developing world — adding a new layer of transparency and global credibility to help them unlock their investment potential.

We really like the Charity Navigator site, in fact we use it regularly to do research on US nonprofits that may be interested in our investment oversight services. They have gotten some criticism for the simplicity of their “four star” rating system, and we’re paying close attention so that we can learn from their experiences! Recently Ken Berger, President of Charity Navigator, shared his thoughts and announced changes the organization was going to be making in how it ranks charities. Here’s the podcast interview from The Chronicle of Philanthropy:

What Ken talks about really lines up with what we’ve talked about in the past regarding the importance of such a certification program and objective oversight. In the interview, Ken mentions how they currently base their ratings largely on financial indicators readily available in the IRS 990 form. But the system fails to account for measuring outcomes and program effectiveness as well as standards of transparency and accountability that I mentioned in my last post.

I can’t help but wonder what relationship Transparency Solutions and Charity Navigator can have in moving forward with creating a more thorough system for measuring charity effectiveness and encouraging responsible donations and investments.