Wise Giving Wednesday: A Look Inside Our Charity Evaluation Process

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calendar icon May 14, 2025

Curious how charities get evaluated by BBB Wise Giving Alliance? This behind-the-scenes look at our collaborative, standards-based process reveals how we work with charitable organizations to build transparency and public trust.

How We Begin: Reaching Out to Charities

At BBB Wise Giving Alliance, we believe our relationships and communications with charities set us apart. Our process begins with a request letter from an analyst to a charity asking that they complete our online questionnaire form. This form asks charities to voluntarily submit information on their governance, financial, self-reporting, and fundraising practices. We reach out to charities we’ve previously evaluated to update their report once every two years, and request information from new charities based on public inquiry as they come up. Often charities come to us to be evaluated and we also give charities that have declined participation in the past a new opportunity to submit information each year. 

The Review Process: Dialogue, Drafts, and Transparency

Once the form has been submitted, the analyst completes an initial evaluation and reaches out with a draft report explaining which standards are met, which are not, or if we need additional information to make a determination. Analysts also provide a letter outlining unmet or findings we are unable to verify yet. Staff members will explain not only why a standard is not met but also what can be done to amend an initial finding. We frequently need clarification or specifics or need materials such as fundraising appeals.

Working With Charities to Demonstrate Their Trustworthiness

Each evaluative report usually takes a good deal of communication between BBB WGA and the charity. While this relationship and personal attention to each review can hopefully enable charities to meet all 20 Standards for Charity Accountability, more importantly we hope to help donors make wise giving choices and aid in developing charity accountability and trust. When a charity is found to meet the 20 Charity Standards, they are considered a BBB Accredited Charity. 

Why This Matters: Building Donor Trust Through Accountability

Our holistic, standards-based approach to evaluation covers many of the most crucial measures that are important to donors and we hope are just as important to charities. We look for truthfulness and clarity in solicitation materials, verify that financial statements are accurate and that fundraising and program expense ratios fall within our specified range, and examine the practices of the governing board. We also request and examine information on privacy, effectiveness, and charity website disclosures.

All Evaluations Are Free and Accessible to the Public at Give.org

All BBB WGA charity evaluations are completed free of charge and can be found at Give.org. Donors can browse our A-Z list of national charities, and search thousands of charity reports while filtering charities by state, cause area, and accreditation status. In addition, on Give.org donors can find valuable wise giving tips, in-depth explanations on charity cause areas and stay up to date on donor advice and news via weekly Wise Giving Wednesday posts. 
 

Recent Reports

We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors. Visit Give.org or local BBBs to check out any charity before giving. Our recently evaluated charities include:

Finally, remember to let us know by going to give.org/charity-inquiry if you are interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one.