Web Site Ranks Cities by Charity Efficiency

October 14, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute

Charity Navigator, a watchdog group in Mahwah, N.J., has added an interactive, online chart to its Web site that allows users to see how 25 major cities stack up in 16 measures of nonprofit performance.

Charity Navigator looked at financial data from 1,500 nonprofit groups, as reported on their informational tax returns, and analyzed the data in areas such as executive compensation, how much the charities spent on fund raising for every dollar they raised, and what percentage of a group’s overall spending went for program services rather than overhead.

Among the findings: Nonprofit groups in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Atlanta were rated most efficient overall, while organizations in Seattle and Dallas were rated the least efficient.

To get there: Go to http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/content.metro.htm.

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About the Author

NICOLE WALLACE

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.