Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsDo not decide from a polished website or a star rating alone. A sound decision combines mission fit, verified legal identity, several years of financial filings, governance and independence checks, evidence of policy impact, funding disclosures, and—if you may work there—specific questions about leadership and culture.
Use the process below for every organization, record the evidence and dates, and treat a missing answer as an information gap to investigate. A mission mismatch is a stop sign even when the finances look strong.
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1. Define what you want your money or time to accomplish
Write down the policy outcomes and constituencies you care about before reading an organization’s claims. Be specific: for example, privacy protections for consumers, accountable artificial-intelligence regulation, open government, competition policy, civil liberties, or technical standards that protect a particular community. State the geographic scope and the time horizon that matter to you.
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- Read the organization’s current strategy, issue pages, and recent annual or impact reports.
- List the policy positions it has taken recently, not only the broad mission statement written years ago.
- Check whether its recent testimony, litigation, regulatory comments, research, coalition work, or public campaigns address the outcomes you wrote down.
- Mark each priority as aligned, partly aligned, or not aligned. Record a concrete example and its date.
Do not average away a fundamental disagreement. A group can be transparent and financially healthy yet still be the wrong recipient if its policy choices conflict with your values.
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2. Verify the legal identity and tax status
Confirm exactly which legal entity would receive a donation, employ you, or enroll you as a member. A public-facing name can cover a nonprofit corporation, a related advocacy entity, a membership association, or a fiscal sponsor. Ask for the entity’s full legal name, employer-identification number, governing jurisdiction, and the name that will appear on your receipt or employment agreement.
Check charitable status before donating
- Search the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search by the organization’s legal name or EIN.
- Match the IRS listing to the entity named on the donation page and receipt.
- Confirm the organization’s exempt status and whether contributions to that entity are deductible for your situation. Do not assume that a similarly named affiliate has the same status.
- Save the search result and the receipt date in your records.
ProPublica’s nonprofit database is a useful second index for the IRS status and underlying Form 990 record. If the name, EIN, filing history, or status does not match, pause the gift and ask the organization to explain the discrepancy in writing.
Separate charitable, lobbying, and membership activities
Technology-policy organizations may operate more than one entity because tax rules treat charitable education, lobbying, political activity, and membership services differently. Ask which entity conducts the work you support and whether your payment is a tax-deductible donation, a membership fee, a purchase, or a grant to another organization. The answer affects both your tax records and your understanding of what the money can fund.
3. Find and read several years of Form 990 filings
A single filing is a snapshot. Read multiple Form 990s and, when available, audited financial statements so you can see trends, unusual transactions, and changes in strategy.
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How to locate the filings
- Start with the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search and download the latest electronically filed Form 990 and earlier years.
- Use ProPublica’s nonprofit records as a cross-check and to locate older filings that may be easier to search.
- Ask the organization for any audited statements, financial reviews, or filings not yet visible in public databases.
- Write down each fiscal year, filing date, form type, and whether the document is a standard Form 990 or another filing.
Timing matters. Charity Navigator’s 2026 rating documentation notes that a charity can have up to 135 days after its fiscal year ends to file Form 990; extensions can make a filing appear eight to ten months after year end. A missing latest filing may therefore reflect the normal timetable, but an unexplained pattern of late or absent filings deserves a question.
Read the financial story, not just one ratio
| What to examine | What to look for across years | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue mix | Changes in individual gifts, foundation grants, government support, membership income, and other sources | Is income diversified enough for the stated strategy, and are large changes explained? |
| Expenses | Program, management, and fundraising costs; abrupt shifts or persistent deficits | Can the organization explain how spending changes advance its policy work? |
| Liquidity and working capital | Cash and short-term resources relative to near-term obligations | Could it continue core work if a major grant ended? |
| Related-party transactions | Payments, leases, loans, or shared services involving insiders or related entities | Are the relationship, approval process, and terms disclosed? |
| Debt and loans | Borrowing, repayment, guarantees, and loans to or from insiders | What risk does the obligation create for programs and staff? |
| Audit oversight | Whether an independent audit committee or comparable oversight exists and changes over time | Who reviews the numbers and challenges management? |
Do not treat a low fundraising percentage as proof of effectiveness, or a high program percentage as proof of impact. Advocacy organizations may incur research, legal, communications, and coalition costs that do not fit a simple overhead judgment. Use the figures to generate precise questions about sustainability and resource use.
4. Examine governance and independence
Governance tells you who can challenge an executive director, protect the mission, and respond when a donor, funder, or senior employee has a conflict. Review the board roster, officer list, meeting and committee descriptions, and the organization’s conflict-of-interest, whistleblower, and records-retention policies.
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Board composition and oversight
- Identify directors’ professional, financial, and personal connections to major funders, vendors, government bodies, and related organizations.
- Check whether the board includes people with relevant policy, financial, legal, technical, and community experience rather than a single dominant viewpoint.
- Look for an independent audit or finance committee and evidence that it meets regularly.
- Compare board and senior-leadership turnover across annual reports. Frequent unexplained departures can indicate instability; planned rotation with documented succession can be healthy.
Policies versus practice
A posted policy is evidence of intent, not proof that it is enforced. Ask how conflicts are disclosed and recused, where whistleblower complaints go, how records are preserved, and whether the board reviews executive compensation and risk. Charity Navigator profiles for technology-policy nonprofits such as the Center for Democracy & Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation illustrate the kinds of Form 990-derived governance checks that can be reviewed; use the underlying filings rather than assuming a profile is complete.
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5. Test whether the organization can show impact
Policy work rarely produces a clean one-to-one causal result. A credible organization can still explain its theory of change, the activities it controls, the outcomes it seeks, and how it learns when an approach fails.
Evidence to collect
- A dated impact, annual, or strategy report with specific objectives.
- Policy outputs such as testimony, regulatory comments, model language, research, litigation results, standards work, or coalition actions, where relevant to the mission.
- External outcomes: a law or rule changed, a harmful provision removed, a public agency adopted a recommendation, or a court accepted an argument. The organization should distinguish its contribution from the work of partners and broader events.
- Measures of reach and quality, such as who used the research, which decision-makers engaged, or how affected communities evaluated the work.
- Evidence of learning, including changed tactics, discontinued projects, or goals revised after new information.
Read impact statements critically. A list of media appearances or downloads measures attention, not necessarily policy change. Ask what would have happened without the organization’s intervention and what evidence supports the claimed contribution.
Match evidence to your intended gift
If you want unrestricted support, ask which current priorities need flexible money. If you want to fund a particular issue, ask whether the organization accepts restricted gifts, how it defines that restriction, and what happens if the project ends. Request a feedback mechanism—such as a report, briefing, or public accounting—appropriate to the gift size without demanding promises the organization cannot responsibly make.
6. Map funders and possible conflicts
List major foundations, corporations, government relationships, and restricted grants disclosed in annual reports, Form 990 filings, and donor pages. Then compare those relationships with the organization’s positions and agenda.
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Questions for a funding map
- Which funders provide a material share of revenue, and is that concentration changing?
- Are grants restricted to a project, geography, or issue?
- Does the organization accept corporate or government money in areas where it advocates or litigates?
- Are related parties, sponsored projects, or pass-through grants clearly described?
- What safeguards prevent a funder from choosing research conclusions, testimony, litigation positions, or campaign targets?
A disclosed relationship is not automatically improper, and a missing disclosure is not automatic proof of wrongdoing. Treat incomplete information as a reason to ask for the policy, the relevant restriction, and the decision-making process. A trustworthy answer explains both the relationship and the boundary around it.
7. If you may join, investigate leadership and working conditions
Public filings cannot tell you what it feels like to disagree with a supervisor, receive credit for work, or raise a concern. Combine documents with conversations involving current and former employees, members, or collaborators.
Questions about the role
- What decisions will this role own, influence, or merely execute?
- Which outcomes define success in the first six and twelve months?
- What is the salary range, benefits package, location or remote expectation, travel load, and working-hours norm?
- How are priorities changed when a funder, coalition partner, court, or government agency changes direction?
- Who evaluates the role, how often, and what happens when goals are missed?
- What budget, staffing, data, legal support, and decision rights accompany the responsibilities?
Questions about culture and leadership
- How are disagreement and dissent handled in policy development?
- How are authorship, credit, promotions, and speaking opportunities assigned?
- What is the process for reporting harassment, retaliation, or conflicts of interest?
- Why did the last person leave, and how long do people typically stay?
- Which leadership or board changes occurred recently, and how was succession managed?
- Can you speak privately with someone outside the hiring chain about day-to-day work?
Compare answers from several people and ask for examples rather than assurances. A strong compensation philosophy and workplace policy matter, but so does whether managers apply them consistently. Charity Navigator’s framework treats Leadership & Planning and Culture & Compensation as distinct evaluation areas; use that distinction when assessing a job.
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8. Use ratings as evidence, not as a verdict
Charity Navigator says its system evaluates four areas called beacons: Accountability & Finance, Impact & Measurement, Leadership & Planning, and Culture & Compensation. Its 2026 documentation says the rating combines approximately 45–50 metrics into a 0–100 percent score translated into a 0–4 star rating.
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That score is a screening tool, not a judgment about ideological alignment, policy effectiveness, staff experience, or causal impact. Eligibility and freshness depend on filing history and self-reported information. Charity Navigator generally requires at least three electronically filed Form 990s within six years, with at least two of the four most recent filings being standard Form 990s. A newer or smaller organization may therefore have limited or no rating without being illegitimate.
How to read a profile responsibly
- Record the profile’s update date and the fiscal years it uses.
- Open the underlying filings and compare them with the profile’s claims.
- Note which beacons have data and which are unavailable.
- Investigate a sudden score change by locating the filing or policy change behind it.
- Keep your mission-fit and impact judgment separate from the numerical score.
9. Compare two organizations with the same worksheet
Use identical evidence requests and dates for each candidate. The worksheet prevents a compelling story from receiving a lighter standard than a less familiar organization.
| Axis | Evidence to collect | Decision question |
|---|---|---|
| Mission fit | Strategy, issue positions, recent work | Does this organization pursue the outcomes I value? |
| Impact | Dated reports, policy outputs, external outcomes | What changed, and how does the organization know? |
| Financial resilience | Several Form 990s, audited statements, liquidity information | Can it sustain the work and explain resource use? |
| Governance | Board, conflict rules, audit oversight, whistleblower and records policies | Who can challenge decisions and protect independence? |
| Funding | Major funders, restrictions, related parties | Could funding shape priorities or create conflicts? |
| Leadership and culture | Turnover, workplace policies, compensation, interviews | Would I trust this team with my money, membership, or work? |
| Role or gift fit | Job scope or gift purpose, restrictions, feedback loop | What will my contribution enable now? |
10. Investigate red flags without jumping to conclusions
One warning sign is a prompt for verification, not a verdict. Escalate your questions when several appear together or when the organization refuses basic documentation.
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- The donation recipient, employer, and legal entity have different names with no clear explanation.
- Tax status or deductibility is asserted but cannot be verified in IRS records.
- Only one year of financial information is available despite a long operating history.
- Large revenue swings, related-party payments, loans, or deficits are unexplained.
- The board roster is missing, heavily concentrated, or unchanged while senior staff turn over repeatedly.
- Impact claims rely on publicity counts but provide no dated policy outputs, outcomes, or learning.
- Major funders are undisclosed, restrictions are vague, or safeguards against agenda influence are absent.
- Job descriptions combine broad responsibilities with no authority, salary range, evaluation criteria, or reporting line.
- Employees describe retaliation, credit-taking, inconsistent pay practices, or pressure to conceal problems.
For each concern, request the relevant filing, policy, report, or interview. Set a deadline for your own decision; indefinite investigation can become an excuse not to choose.
11. Turn the evidence into a decision
Use a simple personal scorecard after collecting documents. Rate each non-mission category from 0 to 2: 0 means not established or materially concerning, 1 means mixed or incomplete, and 2 means well supported. Keep mission fit as a separate yes-or-no gate.
| Category | 0–2 rating prompt |
|---|---|
| Identity and tax status | Can I verify the recipient, entity, and status? |
| Financial resilience | Do several years of filings explain sustainability and resource use? |
| Governance | Are oversight, conflicts, and independence credible? |
| Impact evidence | Are outcomes and learning documented, not just activity? |
| Funding independence | Are funders, restrictions, and safeguards transparent? |
| Leadership and culture | Do documents and interviews support a healthy workplace or membership experience? |
| Gift or role fit | Is the use of my money or time specific and meaningful? |
Do not compensate for a failed identity check, unresolved conflict, or mission mismatch by adding points elsewhere. For a donation, choose unrestricted or restricted support only after confirming what each enables. For a job, require written scope, compensation, reporting lines, and evaluation expectations before accepting. Save your worksheet, sources, and decision date so you can reassess when a major leader, funder, or strategy changes.
12. A practical due-diligence schedule
First 30 minutes
- Write your desired outcomes and constituencies.
- Confirm the legal name, EIN, recipient entity, and IRS status.
- Read the latest strategy or impact report and note one recent policy action.
Next two hours
- Download several Form 990s and any audited statements.
- Record revenue, expenses, liquidity clues, related-party transactions, loans, and audit oversight.
- Review the board, conflict, whistleblower, records-retention, and compensation policies.
- Map major funders and restrictions.
- Check Charity Navigator data, its update date, and the underlying filings.
Before donating or accepting a role
- Ask the unresolved questions in writing.
- For a gift, confirm deductibility, restrictions, receipt language, and the feedback you will receive.
- For a job, interview people outside the hiring chain and obtain written terms.
- Compare the completed worksheet with at least one alternative organization.
Make the decision explicit
Donate, join, or apply when the legal identity is verified, the mission matches your priorities, financial and governance records withstand a multi-year review, impact claims are proportionate to the evidence, funding safeguards are understandable, and the specific gift or role has a clear purpose. If a material question remains unanswered, document it and either seek clarification or choose a different organization. That standard protects both your resources and the policy work you want to support.
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