In F2012, Charity Intelligence’s Research Department analyzed 179 charities, including 117 updates of previously-analyzed charities.  This compares with 214 charities analyzed in F2011 (including 79 updates) when we did the majority of our work on the Major 100 Charities, and 142 charities analyzed in F2010 (including 57 updates).
In November, 2011 we launched our online searchable database along with the capability for donors to request the analysis of specific charities. As of Feb. 2013, we have 246 charities listed in our database, compared to 145 at the end of F2012. Our goal is to reach 1,000 charities in our database by the end of 2014. By the end of F2012, we had received requests for 695 different charity analyses from 1,144 unique donors.
Our research team also released 2 major reports in F2012, our Top Picks 2011, highlighting 33 top-performing charities from our annual analysis, and our Major 100 Charities, providing overview information on the 100 Canadian charities receiving the most in donations from Canadians.  Plans for F2013 include reports on Social Results Reporting, Environmental Charities, and Charity Lotteries.

Website visitors to our site nearly doubled in F2012 to 65,224, up from 33,100 in F2011 and 21,033 in F2010. As well, visitors stayed on our site longer, viewing an average of 4.7 pages per visit in F2012, up from 3.0 in F2011 and 3.3 in F2010. Overall, this amounts to over 300k pageviews in F2012, up more than 3 times from just under 100k in F2011.
Public Education was achieved through significant media exposure throughout the year.  Ci staff and volunteers appeared on 8 major CBC radio and TV shows, in 2 prominent Globe & Mail articles, a series of Toronto Star articles, and a prominent Calgary Herald story, a Canada AM television interview, as well as interviews on 680 News, News Talk 1010, Zoomer Radio, and BNN.

While it is very difficult to assess the on-going impact of our work at Charity Intelligence, we started to measure a couple of new metrics in F2012.  One important impact of Ci’s work can be seen in transparency. Since the release of our Major 100 Charities, we have seen a dramatic improvement in the financial transparency of charities in Canada. When Charity Intelligence began scoring Canada’s major charities on financial transparency, 30% initially did not provide financial information to the public. In privately sharing these scores with each charity, 18 charities changed their disclosure practice within a matter of weeks. One charity responded, “All we have to do is put our financial statements on our website and we go from a one to a three?” Today, 82% of Canada’s major charities publicly disclose audited financial statements. With a simple score on transparency, Charity Intelligence helped change sector practices.
A second impact can be seen in donations to high-performing charities.  In the fall of 2012 we surveyed the charities that we picked as Top Pick Charities in 2011 and asked them what impact the Top Picks designation had had on their charity. We received responses from 82% of charities and 62% provided data on donations known to have come as a result of Ci’s Top Pick designation. Charities reported, on average, that donations directly caused by their Top Pick status amounted to 2.3% of total donations. This represents over $1.1m in donations influenced by Charity Intelligence.
Apart from attracting new donations, charities mentioned numerous benefits to being chosen as a Top Pick Charity.  From an open-ended question about the benefits, 67% of respondents mentioned an increased awareness and credibility in their community. The second most significant benefit was donor retention, specifically mentioned by 33% of respondents. Other benefits mentioned numerous times were the learning experience for their organization from participating in Ci’s Top Picks process, as well as volunteer acquisition and retention.
On the negative side, a couple of charities mentioned that they were disappointed that the designation did not attract more donations to their charity and one charity mentioned that some of their supporters questioned Ci’s metrics and what the designation actually means. Ci has followed up with these charities to help us better understand how we can improve our process and impact.
 

In the Muttart Foundation’s Talking About Charities 2013 survey, Canadians continue to give charities low ratings for the degree to which charities report how donations are used, fundraising costs and the impact of programs. Today’s donors want more information.  Transparency and accountability matter more than ever.
Donor accountability goes hand-in-hand with financial transparency. To objectively gauge donor accountability, Charity Intelligence grades a charity’s social results reporting. This social results reporting grade has the highest weighting in our charity star rating, accounting for 35%.
The goal of this work is to help promote and encourage better reporting by charities on their social results. With better reporting, Charity Intelligence believes donors will be better informed.
Charity Intelligence reviews a charity’s publicly-posted information in its annual report, website and current newsletters and scores each charity on 26 questions related to its mission, strategy, problem it is trying to solve, activities, outcomes and impact it achieves. Each charity receives, in confidence, the breakdown of grades over the 26 questions used for scoring.
 

images/Results_Reporting_Guide_with_examples.pdf” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer Download this guide. It contains examples of best practices so you can see what a 10/10 looks like for each of the 26 questions. 

Each and every charity that is reviewed and rated by Charity Intelligence receives Quick Tips on how to improve its results reporting grade. This includes a confidential breakdown of scores on each of the 26 Keystone questions. In addition, Charity Intelligence offers FREE one-on-one coaching.
It’s typically a 30-minute phone conversation to run through a charity’s individual grade, with specific details and sharing examples of where it can improve its results reporting.
To book a one-on-one coaching session for your charity, please schedule with us  mailto:info@charityintelligence.ca info@charityintelligence.ca (This is only for charities that have a report profile completed by Charity Intelligence).
This initiative is to improve results reporting. As a new initiative, there are only preliminary results. Nevertheless, these early results are promising. Between January – June 2020, Charity Intelligence coached 15 charities. Seven charities got back to us with changes and their results reporting score increased by 45 points on average. Grade improvements ranged from 14 points to 62 points. That’s 30 minutes that can raise a charity’s grade and star rating.
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To view the technical scorecard used by Ci to score results reporting grades:  images/2022/05/27/Results_Reporting_Guide_v80.pdf” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer Ci Social Results Coding Guide 
 
December 2020: In discussion with Matt Dubins on Results Reporting ( https://anchor.fm/donorscience/episodes/Ep-12—Discussing-Charity-Intelligence-with-Kate-Bahen–Managing-Director-eo7lfd listen to the podcast)
 
After 8 years, a 26% improvement in charity reporting.
Charity Intelligence is seeing improvements in charity reporting. In 2021, we measured a 26% improvement over 2013 in grades. We currently rate over 800 charities with donor reporting grades. In 2013, Charity Intelligence graded 453 charities on social results, covering a diverse range of sectors; from hospital foundations to food banks, from fundraising charities to homeless shelters. To see our 2013 results, title=”Results reporting 2013″ images/2013 srrs recap.pdf” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer click here.
 
Results reporting is a new area of charity analysis.
For those interested, here is https://vimeo.com/138175306″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer Kate Ruff’s discussion on charity analysis, with a brief history of financial accounting. Her work was also published in Stanford Social Innovation Review on why we need skilled analysts to improve social capital markets, https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_next_frontier_in_social_impact_measurement_isnt_measurement_at_all” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer “The Next Frontier in Social Impact Measurement Isn’t Measurement at All”
 
To read Charity Intelligence’s first report on social results, including how Canadian charities compare with British charities, please click below:

Charity Intelligence Top Picks 2012

To view a profile for one of our Top Picks, simply click on the name of the charity below: