Top 4 Charity Research Tools: Pros and Cons

Max Wu | Published Jan. 29th, 2023

Charity Research Tools play a crucial role in informing both new and recurring donors regarding the effectiveness of their favorite charities. However, with so many options out there, it could be really overbearing and it will without a doubt be difficult to research the pros and cons of each one individually.

The best charity research tools report accurate data while boasting a flawless track record. However, with so many different options out there, which one is best for you? To save some of your time, we’ve compiled a list of the best charity research tools of 2023.

1. Clharity

If you’re looking for an all-in-one site where you can make insightful charity research and a hub for interaction with charities, Clharity is the best service on the web for that purpose. Clharity provides donation reports to all donors and provides information about where each donation went, as well as who/what it impacted. As a result, many donors have reported having a higher personal connection with the charity they donated to.

Additionally, donors can browse worry-free as all charities listed on the website are verified and non-fraudulent.

Pros:
- All-in-One website for browsing and donating
- Donation Reports for all donations
- Personalization
- Donor-Charity Connection
- All charities on site are verified

Cons:
- Limited Selection of Charity due to being a Startup
- Charges 1% Transaction Rate after Free Trial

2. Guidestar

Founded in 1994, Guidstar was one of the first publicly accessible databases for donors to research various charities. Guidestar provides its information mainly through IRS 990 forms and also provides helpful graphs and analytics regarding each charity. Additionally, its parent nonprofit, Candid, also provides various awards to charities ranging from Bronze to Platinum that rate the transparency of charities.

Pros:
- In-Depth analytics for most charities
- Access to Charity’s IRS 990 Forms
- Massive Database

Cons:
- Monthly cap on searches and profile views without Guidestar Pro Subscription ($2199 annual subscription)
- Limited analytics on smaller charities
- Relies solely on IRS 990 Forms which is potentially prone to accounting manipulation

3. Charity Navigator

Similar to GuideStar, CharityNavigator also provides a similar service in which curious donors can research their favorite charities. However, there are still a couple of differences between the two. The most significant difference is that CharityNavigator is completely free for everyone to access. However, similar to Guidestar, they both run into the same pitfall of relying too heavily on IRS 990 Forms, which have often been prone to manipulation in recent charity fraud cases.

Pros:
- Free Access to All
- 4-star charity ratings that simplify the charity research process
- In-Depth analytics regarding a wide range of categories

Cons:
- Limited database - Only rates 6% of the charities (> 1 Million in Revenue)
- Occasionally provides inaccurate rating regarding charities due to reliance on IRS 990 forms
- Charity Navigator encourages nonprofits to update information on website - could potentially lead to misinformation/exaggeration

4. CharityWatch

Instead of using automated processes to rate charities and nonprofits, CharityWatch instead hires analysts to conduct in-depth research. However, the drawback of manual research for all charities means that the number of charities scanned is very low (around 600 charities listed). Since these charities are all pretty large and already have decent credibility, it isn’t the best site to research smaller charities on. Overall, for research on larger charities, CharityWatch will most likely outperform Guidestar and Charity Navigator as those reports are automated.

Pros:
- Manually Generated Reports
- Free of Charge for all Users
- Rates some non-tax-deductible organizations as well (social welfare / religious organizations)
- Simple Rating System (A-F)

Cons:
- Extremely Limited database - Only rates 600 charities out of 1.5 million nonprofits in the USA.
- Occasionally provides inaccurate rating regarding charities due to reliance on IRS 990 formsNonprofits listed on CharityWatch are usually large and have credibility already - provides virtually no insight on smaller, less known charities.