Top 10 Charities That Should Raise a Red Flag for Donors

Teach for America, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation included in BBB WGA’s list

WASHINGTON—Today, BBB Wise Giving Alliance (BBB WGA) released a list of the 10 largest charities (ranked by Fiscal Year 2014 total contributions) that failed to disclose any of the requested information needed to verify the charity’s trustworthiness. The list includes recognizable charities, including Teach for America, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. A charity’s failure to disclose important information relevant to BBB WGA evaluation should be a red flag for donors, and the BBB WGA urges donors to avoid charities that dodge transparency. 

“Transparency is the mark of a well-run charity,” said H. Art Taylor, CEO and President of BBB WGA. “Failure to disclose important operations information demonstrates a complete disregard to the importance of trust.

"The majority of charities agree to an evaluation, and it’s concerning when charities refuse. Failure to disclose information isn’t just about snubbing the BBB WGA reporting process —these charities are snubbing the people and donors who are asking BBB WGA to verify the charity’s trustworthiness.

"We know that publicly-available financial information is simply not enough for BBB WGA to evaluate a charity’s trustworthiness, which is why we evaluate charities on 20 unique standards that also examine a charity’s governance, results reporting and fund-raising practices, among other issues.”

BBB WGA is releasing its list of top Transparency Dodgers to uncover some of the largest national charities that fail to disclose critical information and underscore the importance of donors researching before they give.

BBB WGA conducts rigorous, comprehensive evaluations on thousands of charities to help donors ensure that the money and time they donate is being spent wisely. To see if your favorite charity is transparent, visit Give.org to check out BBB WGA’s free charity reports.

Full List of BBB WGA's Top 10 Transparency Dodgers:

(ranked by FY 2014 total Contributions)

1. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
2. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
3. Teach For America
4. NeighborWorks America
5. John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
6. National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
7. City Year
8. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
9. Pact
10. Local Initiatives Support Corporation

ABOUT BBB WISE GIVING ALLIANCE (BBB WGA):

BBB Wise Giving Alliance (BBB WGA) is a standards-based charity evaluator that seeks to verify the trustworthiness of nationally-soliciting charities by completing rigorous evaluations based on 20 holistic standards that address charity governance, results reporting, finances, fundraising, appeal accuracy and other issues. National charity reports are produced by the BBB WGA and local charity reports are produced by local Better Business Bureaus - all reports are available at Give.org. Follow BBB WGA on Twitter at @bbb_give