Charities of the year: Our annual picks of Canada’s most efficient and accountable charities – National Post
Our annual picks of the most accountable, transparent charities in the country — plus some that could use improvement.
An encouraging theme emerged this year while poring through financial statements, scrutinizing annual reports and analyzing tens of thousands of data lines about Canada’s charities: they are doing a noticeably better job of explaining their work to donors. They’re doing so well that the criteria for being named one of our charities of the year are more strict, with the minimum donor accountability grade changing to a B+ from a B-.
Greg Thomson, director of research at watchdog Charity Intelligence Canada, has also noticed this trend. He says the organization has seen donor accountability grades — a metric designed by Charity Intelligence to assess the quality of the information charities provide about the results they’ve achieved — increase by 15% over the past five years. Thomson says more charities are also posting their audited financial statements online, making it possible for donors to double-check the frequently error-ridden figures charities report to the Canada Revenue Agency. “Charities are reacting in the right way. They’re putting out better information so donors have better information to act upon,” Thomson says. “Increasing grades is a wonderful thing.”
