Donors and volunteers can find many sources of information on nonprofit organizations. Two of the most well-known resources are GuideStar and Charity Navigator, both of which are 501(c)3 organizations. Since I have been with Dining for Women, many members have asked me about DFW’s status on GuideStar and Charity Navigator, and I want to give you an update.

We are so excited that, after two years of working on foundational aspects of Dining for Women, we have achieved Platinum Status at GuideStar!

GuideStar is the world’s largest source of information on nonprofit organizations. It provides information about a nonprofit’s mission, legitimacy, impact, reputation, finances, programs, transparency, governance, and so much more.

Platinum is the newest and highest level of recognition offered by GuideStar. Achieving Platinum Status means that DFW demonstrates that we are focused on measuring progress and results, shows results year over year, and provides a concrete alternative to donors evaluating DFW on our overhead ratio.

Go HERE to see our GuideStar profile.

Charity Navigator is the nation’s largest and most-utilized evaluator of nonprofits. Charity Navigator’s rating system examines two broad areas of a nonprofit’s performance: their financial health and their accountability and transparency.  It measures financial performance in seven key areas that assess an organization’s financial efficiency and financial capacity. To evaluate transparency and accountability, Charity Navigator scores an organization on seventeen metrics that assess whether it follows best practices of governance and ethics, and whether it makes it easy for donors to find critical information about the organization.

Charity Navigator does not evaluate every nonprofit. DFW is currently not rated by Charity Navigator, but we want to be! It is possible, however, to ASK to be evaluated and we would like you, our members, to help make this happen. Here’s how:

1. Go HERE to see our Charity Navigator profile.
2. Click on the upper right button that says “VOTE for this charity to be rated”.
3. You will then be asked to register in order to vote. Please register and make your vote count!

Another popular organization to review a nonprofit organization is Great Nonprofits.  This is a service that takes donor and volunteer reviews of an organization and posts them – just like Amazon!  Dining for Women has about 30 reviews, but we would welcome more!  Please go to Great Nonprofits and write what you love about Dining for Women!

This is an exciting time for us and I am so glad that you are a part of DFW at this point in our history!