Strengths and Weaknesses of the System

Strengths

• The Charity Rater, LLC, help donors evaluate any aid organization anywhere in the world based on just their website or annual report.

• In addition to providing donors with charity scores, the Charity Rater, LLC, educates donors through the process of rating the organization.

• This system is based on industry best practices and transparency.

• The Charity Rater, LLC, has a flexible scoring system based on whether the organization operates nationally or internationally, the type of assistance it provides, and soon whether it is a newly formed or more established organization.

• The system is easy to modify allowing questions to change as conditions change or as aid organizations become more transparent.

Weaknesses

• The current lack of transparency on the part of most aid organizations may lead to a large number of organizations receiving low scores, thereby frustrating donors.

• The system is unable to determine the actual impact the organization has in the field. It instead uses the proxies of transparency, accountability, and best practices.

• Aid organizations can misrepresent their work on their website. Aid organization transparency and honesty is a problem faced by most rating systems as they must rely on information provided by the charity.

• Although every attempt has been made to keep bias out of the system, there may still be a bias for specific types or sizes of organizations. Adjustments will be made based on user feedback to make this system as accurate and unbiased as possible.

• The system does not provide quick and easy answers. It does require time and effort on the part of the user.