As we begin our 2017 evaluation process, we’re releasing a few updates to our criteria and evaluation methods. This year we have reworded and reordered our criteria, continued tweaking how we evaluate organizational factors that influence effectiveness through our last two criteria, added conversations with non-leadership employees to our plan for comprehensive evaluations, started offering participation grants, and updated the structure of the criterion which addresses the qualitative aspects of a charity’s programmatic impact.
Recommendations
How Should We Evaluate Organizational Factors That Affect Charity Performance?
ACE evaluates charities using multiple criteria, in an effort to identify the most cost-effective animal advocacy charities and programs for donors to support. Some of our criteria—such as cost-effectiveness calculations and room for additional funding—address factors that have a clear, direct influence on how effective we would expect additional donations to be. … Read more
Updates on Select Recommended Charities’ Room for More Funding
When we evaluate a charity comprehensively, we publish an estimate of the amount of additional funding we think the charity could use effectively the following year. Since we can’t predict exactly how any charity will respond upon receiving more funds than they have planned for, … Read more
How should major funding sources influence our charity recommendation decisions?
ACE’s charity recommendations occur in the context of thousands of other giving decisions. Some of these are fairly predictable. Individual donors acting independently will provide some funding to just about every animal charity out there, and some charities have their own development or fundraising plans which can help predict growth. … Read more
Comparing Top and Standout Charities
As we review more charities, we have chosen to allow our list of Standout Charities to grow indefinitely, showcasing a variety of charities that do excellent work. For those members of our audience who broadly share our values but are skeptical of some of our reasoning for recommending our Top Charities, … Read more